Business Analytics Software as a Service

Business Analytics (BA) which includes such technologies as query, reporting, analysis, data mining and data warehousing is in the process of being packaged and presented as the latest Software as a Service (SaaS) marketplace.  Software as a Service is a software delivery model where the software developer creates a web-based application and hosts it and the data; customers do not buy the software, but rather pay for the use of it.

In KMWorld's January 2008 edition, the page 1 story provides many business reasons why this may be 2008's lead technology. For instance...from the article:

• Budget constraints and corporate capital expenditure policies faced by many departments make it time-consuming and costly to purchase large software purchases.
• IT department resources are constrained and may not have time to build or evaluate and buy specific solutions for every business problem.
• Mature software functionality built on newer technology platforms is suitable for SaaS delivery  because of years of functionality definition and development have established widely accepted best practices that can be configured, rather than customized.
• Budgetary constraints may prevent large acquisitions of traditional business analytics software.
• Companies will focus on core competencies and rely on service providers for more and more support for on-core operating processes.

The article indicates that the Business Analytics market in general is expected to grow, and so why not BA SaaS given the above arguments?  No good counter-reason, it makes sense. SaaS is a rapidly growing market for many types of applications, and BA apps seem a perfect fit.

Important note: traditional purchase of Business Analytics software is expected to remain the mainstay in the short term.