The History of SaaS

By the late 90s, it was determined that not every company or organization could handle the requirements of all software needed to be most efficient.  Small firms needed to be able to compete with larger firms, but couldn’t afford the infrastructure investment required to solely purchase certain software.  With only a limited pool of people able to pay for products, software providers found their systems being under utilized – and therefore, under sold. Yet it was clear that there was a market for these enterprise tools. There was a definitive need for subscription pricing along with the hosted delivery and outsourced expertise features. However, the applications present during that time were not capable of operating in the limited bandwidth environment of the Internet.  There was a supply, a demand, but no way to deliver the product. 

Fortunately as bandwidth and competition increased, SaaS providers such as Digital Sabre began to be able to offer this type of software solution to all streams of businesses.  By the new millennium, the world’s internet access and ability had dramatically increased, allowing for SaaS providers and consumers to utilize any program and software they desired.

The availability of Saas has dovetailed into the severe backlash over the software licensing model as software vendors began to increase costs. Many customers believed that once they bought the license, the provider stopped caring about the customer’s problems. SaaS providers have often been perceived to be more responsive to customer needs after the initial sale, and have provided needed software at affordable prices making for a successful partnership of solution, provider and client.

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