Traditional software applications are slowly beginning to yield ground to SaaS applications, with 32% of SaaS adopters replacing an on-premise application, says the latest bulletin. 'Software-as-a-Service in India 2009/2010' from Springboard Research, a leading innovator in the IT Market Research industry. The bulletin also revealed that 22% of those already using an on-premise application have later chosen to adopt the SaaS version of the same application in another geography or department within the organization.
The Springboard bulletin disclosed that India is the fastest growing SaaS market in Asia Pacific, and is estimated to register a growth of 60% CAGR from 2008 to 2012. The India SaaS market, which was US$105 million in 2009, is estimated to be worth US$352 million by 2012. The growing appeal of SaaS in India is also evident from the fact that SaaS familiarity levels in India are much higher than in the Asia Pacific region as a whole, where only 60% of respondents reported being 'very familiar with SaaS', as compared to 74% in India.
'The SaaS market in India is poised for continued strong growth, with the availability of a plethora of SaaS applications and related services,' said Balaka Baruah Aggarwal, Senior Research Manager for Emerging Software at Springboard Research. 'Given the pent-up demand for SaaS applications among enterprises, the momentum generated by vendor activity, participation by telecom companies as partners, and the hype around Cloud Computing, SaaS will proliferate rapidly in the next 18-24 months, not only in top-tier towns and cities but even to secondary places,' added Aggarwal. According to Springboard Research, 'zero or low maintenance' is the leading reason for SaaS adoption in India, followed by 'ease of use'. Among SaaS vendors, Salesforce.com, Citrix Online and CiscoWebEx have a strong hold over the market, as they have been in the market relatively longer than most other players.
