Hosted Business Model FAQ

Q: What is the Business Model?
A: The Business Model is an integrated electronic Model of your Business. It incorporates and interlinks the Process Diagrams describing your processes, Objectives / Action Plans / Key Performance Indicators / Responsibilities and optional Risks. Also existing Documents and Forms can be linked to the relevant Process or part of the Model.

The original Business Model is based on the relevant standard (i.e. ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO 27001 or industry specific ISO 13485, EN AS 9100 etc)

Q: What is the Hosted Solution or Hosted Business Model?
A: The Business Model is loaded onto our dedicated Server with security controls, virus checking and backups. Your employees have direct access to your Business Model using Internet Explorer or a Web Browser and can change key aspects of the Model.

Q: What is On-Demand or Hosted Solution or SaaS (Software as a Service)?
A: For a set monthly fee, SaaS provide easy, fast, low-cost access to expensive sophisticated tools and applications. The applications are on protected Servers and are accessed over the Internet rather than being on the Company’s central Server. Therefore the Company does not have to worry or pay for extra expensive IT software, hardware, networks and personnel.

Q: What are the Benefits of On-Demand or Hosted Solutions or SaaS’s (Software as a Service)?
A: The benefits of SaaS are far-reaching, from increased reliability, performance and user adoption to lower upfront costs, faster deployment and a remarkably tangible ROI. Citrix recently completed a Survey to identify the single greatest benefit of the SaaS model. Here are the results:

• Automatic Updates and Maintenance (15 percent)
• Lower IT Staff Requirements (14 percent)
• Lower Upfront Costs (14 percent)
• Greater ROI and Cost-Effectiveness (9 percent)
• Faster Deployment (8 percent)
• Increased Usability and User Adoption (6 percent)
• Improved Application Reliability and Performance (6 percent)

72% of the Respondents appreciated the many benefits but were divided as to the most important one.

Q: How popular is On-Demand or Hosted Solutions or SaaS’s (Software as a Service)?
A: Is it going to happen? – definitely since it already is very successfully. So much so that Microsoft is now preparing its own web-based version of the Microsoft Office products.

The experts all emphasise the very rapid growth. It is an approach that has gone through significant experimentation in the last 10 years. Now there are very successful applications like Salesforce.com for Customer Relationship Management (CRM).

The only real area of disagreement is the speed of growth. Some like Gartner estimate that 25% of all business software sales will be from SaaS services within 5 years. Others consider that this will be achieved within 2 years. It is definitely a boom time for SaaS.

Q: Why is On-Demand or Hosted Solutions or SaaS’s (Software as a Service) becoming so popular?
A: Traditionally reason for outsourcing IT systems was that an external provider could give cheaper, more reliable and better service than companies themselves by applying economies of scale. Whilst SaaS applications has significantly grown, it is only in the last 5 years that SaaS has been accepted and grown dramatically. The reasons for this acceptance is due a number of changes to our working practices, including:

• Computers are on most desks. Conventions are now accepted from navigation to web browsers. This has resulted in faster learning of new external software so less training and support from internal IT is required.
• Computers are now a commodity: Initially, mainframes computers were considered as strategic advantages. Later, the software was considered as strategic. Now, it is the business processes combined with data - customer and order records, workflows, and pricing information—that is important. Hardware and software costs are now considered as costs and therefore they are an opportunity for reducing costs and outsourcing.
• Applications have been standardised: Mostly workers are using standardised applications (e.g. Microsoft Office). An word processor, a customer contact page, a spreadsheet, or an diary system are all sufficiently common and understood that most users can change easily from one software package to a different one. This has been demonstrated by the number of web-based customer contact, diary, and e-mail systems that have been launched in the last 5 years.
• Traditionally the only way to change a process was to change the software code. But recently, applications—particularly web-based ones— can be created from internal software switches (rather than code changes). This allows businesses to make many different versions of business process based on a common software platform. Many SaaS providers allow a wide range of customisation within a basic set of functions.
• A specialised software developer can aim at a global market: But a hosted solution can immediately reach the worldwide market, making specialising in a particular segment not only possible, but advantageous. This means that SaaS providers often can supply a more relevant solution than traditional software sellers.
• Internet is now sufficiently reliable: In spite of occasional problems, most people are willing to use the Internet to receive business applications.
• Internet security is now acceptable: Now that SSL has been widely adopted, businesses can reaching their software without need to setup and manage VPN’s or end-user setups.
• WAN’s bandwidth has grown dramatically in line with the Moore's Law (more than doubling each 24 months). Now the improvements are extending to the slow local networks. Additionally with the improved quality of service of networks, people and businesses now consider and use remote access and applications.