Wilke Thornton : The ASP

Software-as-a-Service: A New Software Delivery Paradigm

Of all the changes the Internet has brought to commerce, the redefinition of software delivery may be the most significant. If your business depends on software, then this change is nothing short of revolutionary.

Companies now have an alternative to licensing the business applications they depend on - they can rent them! No more huge capital investment. No more lengthy maintenance agreements. Only pay for what you use. It's called software-as-a-service (SaaS), and it is changing our lives.

In the past, computers were expensive and timesharing was common. Today computers are inexpensive, but software and software maintenance are still sophisticated. CRS On-Demand, Wilke/Thornton's Web-based CRS subscription service, gives clients the benefits of CRS without requiring them to license it!

Similar to an Internet Service Provider (ISP) that provides access to the Internet, a SaaS vendor provides access to an application. The SaaS vendor usually owns the hardware, software, and networking, and its clients access the application through the Internet with Web browsers.

Primary benefits of this service model are no capital investment and no application support responsibility. Instead, clients pay a fixed amount per month or a price per transaction that enables them to pay for just what they use, like minutes of long-distance telephone calls.

No application support is needed because the SaaS vendor does backups, database and application maintenance. The user's requirement is only a PC with Web access, a standard commodity. There are no special software requirements at the PC desktop or file server level. If the SaaS vendor also happens to be the software author, as is the case with CRS On-Demand, then the solution comes bundled with the direct expert support of the author and access to the latest version of the application.

For Consumer Affairs, CRS On-Demand's capacity can increase and decrease almost immediately based on clients' seasonal contact volume or crisis management needs. With these powerful benefits, expect to see more applications provided as SaaS via the Web. Our primary mission is to enable our Consumer Affairs clients to maximize customer retention and satisfaction, and improve their revenues by providing them with the most effective technology and professional services.