Hi tech whitepaper_augmenting_value_saas_changing_business_eco-system_09_2010

Despite all the current challenges concerning the acceptance and
adoption of on-demand, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions, TCS
firmly believes that SaaS has the potential to be an increasingly viable
alternative to traditional, on-premise software applications. Rapid
changes in business dynamics and competitive landscape have
enabled the SaaS way of IT deployment with global prominence and
acceptance. Global players are steadily warming up to the paradigm
shift that SaaS has to offer in the way business applications are
developed,deliveredandconsumed.
Moreover, SaaS’s market adoption is only bound to increase as the
technology matures and the market broadens over time. Based on
thisperspective,TCSoffersastrongvaluepropositionthrougharange
of SaaS offerings to customers, including advisory services that help
customers identify opportunities SaaS implementation as part of
their application portfolio towards achieving economies of scale.
Customers the world over have realized that SaaS is a potent tool
towards reducing operational costs and improving sales and delivery
efficiency.
This paper outlines key business challenges and obstacles faced by
SaaS Providers as well as Consumers and will examine how TCS can
help overcome such challenges. It also emphasizes the different ways
in which TCS can assist businesses/clients of all sizes in enhancing
their SaaS capabilities to achieve lower TCO, quicker ROI, increased
agility and an optimal subscription-pricing model. Considering the
fact that a SaaS execution model poses significant business
challenges for SaaS customers and partners, this paper also
emphasizes key SaaS drivers/accelerators directed at addressing
thesechallenges.
This whitepaper is intended for all business domains irrespective of
applicationportfolios.
Augmenting the Value of
SaaS in a Changing
Business Eco-system

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Augmenting the Value of SaaS in a Changing Business Eco-system
AbouttheAuthor
JitendraMaan
Jitendra Maan is a versatile IT professional with over 14 years
of experience in the course of which he has successfully
delivered solutions for a globally distributed clientele
spanning various technologies. Jitendra, whose other
interests include SaaS and Cloud Computing, is currently
associated with theTCS HiTechTechnology Excellence Group,
and furthers the group’s continued focus on various niche
technologiessuchasmobileplatforms andRFIDtechnologies
throughtheNTDGCoE.
Jitendra holds a Masters degree in Management and Systems
awarded by the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, and is
certified in Project Management (CIPM) by the Project
ManagementAssociates(PMA),India.

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Table of Contents
1. Introduction 3
2. SaaS market penetration on the growth path 4
3. Key SaaS Challenges Faced by Customers and Vendors 5
4. Key Drivers for a Sustainable, Cost-Effective SaaS Model 7
5. Considerations for SaaS Partners or Vendors 9
6. Technical Considerations 12
7. Key Accelerators for SaaS Customers 12
8. How TCS SaaS Offerings Solve Customer Issues 13
9. Next Generation SaaS 15
10. Conclusion 16

Introduction
In the face of an economic meltdown, ensuring capital savings, realizing faster time to market and reacting to changes
in businesses (for example, the need for new offerings, threat from new competitors, and mergers) are the key
challengesthatmostcompaniesseektoaddresstosustainandremaincompetitive.
Fundamentally, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) constitutes software delivered and consumed as a hosted service,
accessed over the internet and managed by a SaaS solution partner. It offers an entirely new means of service delivery
thatcaninitiateandsustainaparadigmshiftinthewaybusinessapplications(“Services”)aredeveloped,delivered,and
consumed.
Adoption of SaaS is on the rise across businesses of all sizes with both small and mid-sized businesses and large
enterprises embracing the SaaS model. It is also gaining traction in new enterprise areas such as compliance
management,securitymanagement,servicemanagement,governance,inadditiontocoreenterprise markets suchas
Human Capital Management (for example, performance management), CRM (for example CRM-on-Demand), HR,
Collaboration, Enterprise Integration (for example, Integration-as-a-Service) and others. The organizational role and
significance of SaaS is constantly changing — many businesses now depend on IT to integrate their various SaaS
solutionswithin-houseapplications.
The true winners in the SaaS market will be those Vendors who deliver cost-effective solutions, spanning a hybrid
environment involving both on-premise and on-demand applications/servicesthat can not only accelerate their time-
to-marketbutminimizetheirtotalcostofownership(TCO).
An interesting trend being observed currently is that established large enterprises have started to replace on-premise
applicationswithon-demandapplicationsthatarebasedonSaaSprinciples.CIOswithavisionforthefutureviewSaaS
as an enabler in the organization. Today, companies continue to increase their usage of SaaS across multiple
applications,largeruserbasesandmission-criticalapplications.
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SaaSMarketPenetrationontheRise
Asa competitive and agilebusiness environment continues toforceorganizations tooptimizetheir IT investments and
address the challenge of achieving more with less capital, the demand for SaaS is only likely to increase. SaaS, which
primarily is an on-demand software delivery model, is a marked departure from the erstwhile industry standard: the
time-sharingmodel.
Generally, an organization’s IT department is under tremendous pressure to reduce costs to remain competitive.
Acceleratedglobalizationinalmosteveryindustrysector—whichonlyservedtoincreasethispressure—furtherpoints
totheneedfortransitioningallnon-mission-criticalapplicationstoSaaS-deliveredlow-costplatforms.
ListedbelowaresomeofthebenefitsthatorganizationscanrealizeusingtheSaaSmodel.
lReduceinitialcosts,inadditiontoongoingmanagementcoststhroughSaaS’ssubscription-feemodel.
lLowertotalcostofownership(TCO).
lRealizeshorterdeploymentcycles.
lLowertheimpactonITresources.
lReduceITcomplexityandoverallrisktobusiness.
lRealize faster return-on-investment (ROI) through the adoption of industry-best practices enabled by a guided
choiceofthebestSaaSsoftware,SaaSpartners/enablers,and/oracombinationofboth.
lAchieve business agility through a flexible, scalable, multi-tenant architecture based on Service-Oriented
Architecture(SOA)principles.
lEnablequickerandeasieraccesstonewproductfeaturesandupdates.
TCSbelievesthatthesuccessofSaaSofferingsdependsonhowearlysoftwarecompanieswouldchangetheirstanceon
development and, by extension, their delivery platform. Cost being a key business driver, it is not surprising that
companies, especially those operating in the Hi-Tech industry, have started offering a combination of full-service
offeringsandmodular,small-scaleofferings
Organizations, both large and small, are increasingly turning to the SaaS model for their business applications, since it
offers time-to-value and platform independence; the latter feature of SaaS offerings are especially attractive to those
customersthatplacegreateremphasisonsecurity,customization,andminimalintegrationchallenges.
For SaaS, customer success is of paramount importance, since the popularity and proliferation of SaaS primarily
depends on the degree of its adaptability to business needs.The means and ways to ensure customer success must be
wovenintotheveryfabricofSaaS.
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KeySaaSChallengesFacedbyCustomersandVendors
The new, emerging SaaS market is an exciting opportunity for entrepreneurs and established software vendors. At the
sametime,theSaaSmodelalsoposessignificantbusinesschallenges.
lIncase of the SaaS subscription model, major challenge in the customer camp lies with revenue recognition. It is
necessary tounderstand the matricesaround annual recurring revenue so that the true annual contract value may
berealizedformulti-yearcontracts.
lThe ability of IT departments to support business needs has become more challenging while the complexity of
business application and the underlying infrastructure at each layer has increased exponentially. The real
bottleneck lies in the fact that the current infrastructure supported at the customer’s end is not designed to scale
welltosupportSaaSapplications.
lDespite all the benefits of SaaS, integration seems to pose a major challenge to companies that plan to integrate
SaaS applications with their in-house applications. It may not be much of a concern when choosing standalone
SaaS applications, as they do not interact with other applications or back-end databases of the company. For
example, a standalone on-demand CRM application will enable sales personnel to view and manage their day-to-
day activities, but the major challenge lies in enabling the Sales Manager to establish a relationship between the
sales staff data and orders/invoices entered in the core ERP applications. Integration is the source of most of the
value when SaaS application is transformed into a company’s strategic asset. SaaS is not a permanent replacement
to on-premise departmental applications but acts as a bridge to on-premise deployments for other applications,
suchasHRsystems,legacycallcenterapplicationsorsupplychainmanagementsystems.However,insomelegacy
environments, integration demands customization to the very core applications that can act as a disincentive to a
customer. A more viable solution is to move such applications to SaaS and then integrate them with other on-
premise applications. Recognizing integration as a major barrier to SaaS adoption, companies must consider
alternatives by exploring products and solution accelerators currently available in the market that are tailored
specifically to SaaS and legacy integration and are closely aligned to the SaaS business model. SOA based
integrationsolutionsalsoaddresschallengesofthisnature.
lIt is not an easy task to manage phases of the customer life cycle through an on-demand deployment. Traditional
on-premise enterprise applications are likely to be hosted in their native customer environments. The overall
customer life cycle is governed by services running outside their core applications (for example, CRM, ERP, SCM or
SAP).InthecaseofSaaS,thereexistchallengesinhandlingsuchservicesaspartofenterprise businessapplications
while each such service becomes an important touch point in the customer life cycle.Therefore, it is necessary that
theenterpriseapplicationstrategyisdesignedtotargettheusagephaseofthecustomerlifecycle.
lAnother major challenge toSaaS adoption is scalability of applications. Manysoftwareservicesare being designed
as quick-turn projects, without sufficient to long-term maintenance and these services scale to handle a large
number of customers and support more complex feature sets in the long run. Such problems have been
experienced by various SaaS organizations in terms of data losses, unpredictable outages that are fundamentally
not acceptable to business end users. Simply, scaling the application means maximizing concurrency and using
application resources more efficiently. The most important challenge that an architect needs to deal with is the
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need to offer flexibility in application architecture to meet SaaS business user needs. Sometimes, it is customary to
scale the applications or products to improve overall availability and performance.The need of the hour is to offer
anenterpriseprovensystemthatissufficientlyscalableandsecureformostmission-criticalbusinesstasks.
lEach enterprise market that has adopted SaaS may have variations in their functionalities. Simultaneously, each
company has variations in their requirements due to the nature of their businesses. In such scenarios, a one-size-
fits-allapproachmaynotbeapplicable.Hence,managingvariationswhilehostingmultipleclients(Akatenants)on
a single instance becomes challenging for SaaS partners/enablers. It is necessary to assess the degree of
configurability andtheadequatelevelofcustomizationthatusuallybecomesabottleneckifnotaddressedintime.
Forexample,severalsuchvariationsarelistedbelow.
- Differentlookandfeel
- Differentworkflows
- Differentauthorizationschemes
- Differentdataformatsanddatastructures
- Differentdatasourcesandunderlyingdatabases
lLack of meaningful, relevant service levels that are enforceable and measurable. There are scenarios where IT
business processes are managed by multiple service partners, so it becomes even more challenging to define and
measure the health of business processes using service levels. Sometimes, customers do not have stable business
processes.Aslightchangeinthebusinessprocesswillhaveanenormousimpact.
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KeyDriversforaSustainable,Cost-EffectiveSaaSModel
UndertheSaaSumbrella,thereisafundamentalchangeinsoftwarebusinessparadigm,spanningcustomerrelationsto
revenue recognition to rollouts. SaaS customers and service partners need to understand the new set of fundamentals
inordertobesuccessfulindrivingacost-effectiveSaaSModel.
DescribedbelowareafewguidelinesforcustomerstoensureasuccessfulSaaSstrategy:
ChoosingtherightpartnerforSaaSenablement
For seamless and smooth SaaS enablement, companies should recognize a partner, not a vendor, with the right set of
skills and domain expertise. Moreover, the partner must be willing to understand the customer’s business dynamics so
as to offer the right mix of functionality and features through SaaS offerings, and then build additional value around it
with complementary features or components. Often, SaaS partners can achieve this through synergistic partnerships
with other SaaS companies to deliver on complex integration (for example, multi-enterprise integration), data
migration and on-demand infrastructure requirements (“cloud computing”) of the customer. Most often, complex
services are not always an area of expertise for traditional software vendors. For instance, traditional software vendors
may not adept at offering SaaS-powered hosting capabilities, large-scale data center economics, SLA enforcement, on-
going application administration and monitoring, service desks, backups, and disaster recovery and data protection
capabilities.
TCSbelievesthatitisnecessaryforenterprises tounderstandtheSaaSarchitecturalmodels(on-premise,pure&hybrid)
thatofferaright-fitsolutiontotheirbusinessneeds.
Enforcingasubscriptionmodelbasedonusage:TruevaluepropositiontoBusiness
SaaS service delivery employs a subscription/utility pricing model rather than term licensing. It offers immediate value
to customers through“value first pay later”or“pay as you go”pricing models.The subscription pricing model should be
designed in such a manner that it creates a win-win proposition to both the customer and the SaaS partner, since the
customer pays on a per-use basis or for subscription-based usage metrics rather than access.This dramatically reduces
the cost per user.They may disengage with SaaS services if they are not satisfied. Consequently, customers can ensure
thattheyarenotstuckwith“shelf-ware.”Thisclearlymeansthatnewcustomersarenotrequiredtomakeahugefinancial
commitmentupfront.
On-premise application deployments typically require greater upfront costs, especially when comparing license fees
with subscription fees. On-premise deployments typically also require hardware maintenance, upgrades, and support
costsontopoflicensefees,whilemostSaaSdeploymentsbundlealloftheseintothesubscriptionfees.
Negotiatingcontractualtermstoavoidunexpectedcosts
It is not an easy task to build a contract for the SaaS delivery model. In SaaS deals, contractual terms are different from
traditional on-premise perpetual licensing. Various hidden costs must be understood to negotiate deals with
predictable costing terms. One key to success in this regard is to establish the right contractual terms with the SaaS
partnerfocusingonthekeycontractualelementslistedbelow.
ConsiderationsforCustomers

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lSecurity,dataprotectionprovisions,andregulatorycompliance
lPerformance,availability,anduptimeservice-levelsagreements(SLAs)
lBusinessviability
lIntegrationwithlegacybusinessapplications
lDisasterrecoveryprovisions
lExitclauses
For example, emerging SaaS vendors such as Salesforce.com, Right Now Technologies, Oracle (Siebel’s CRM
OnDemand) and NetSuite have relatively similar subscription fees for their CRM SaaS offerings, but widely different
termsandcostsforuptimeguarantees,sandboxing,administration,andmaintenance.
In a nutshell, a due-diligence study on key contract terms (as described above) should be carried out upfront to avoid
anyadditionalunexpectedcosts.
Evaluatingdifferentbusinessmodels:Anopportunityforrecurringrevenue
In some cases, it is possible that a combination of the two models, that is, subscription-based services and a one-time
license fee offers the best model for businesses.This can be an easy change to make, without significant impact to the
software business plan unless vendors have committed to provide a certain level of value addition to the customer in
termsofadditionalcontinuedsupport,ongoingconsultingorcustomization,frequentcomponentupdates,andsoon.
Another approach is to restrict services to a license-fee model in addition to offering a menu of smaller offerings where
components are individually priced and licensed. If the menu of options is sufficiently large, with frequent changes or
updates, this can provide vendors with recurring revenues without any substantial changes in the software
developmentbusinessplan,customerbase,orsalesstrategy.
Ensuringsecurityanddataprivacy
Adequate security safeguards are of paramount importance to customers when applications and underlying data are
hosted by SaaS partners. In this regard, due-diligence by customers is necessary to ensure that the requisite security
and privacy policies are being enforced by the SaaS partner. Customers need to ensure that critical data is protected
from unauthorized access/use and that third-party data hosting centers provision world-class security at every level –
physical, personnel, network, application, and data security (including authentication, encryption, firewall, and
passwordtechnologies).Inshort,customersmayaddaprovisioninthecontract tocertifythesecuritycomplianceorto
audit the SaaS partner for security compliance and data protection laws incase data is hosted in multiple geographic
locations.
LeveragingtherelationshipwithSaaSpartners
Duringbusinessuncertainties,itisimportanttobuildandleveragetherelationshipwithexistingSaaSpartnerswhocan
alsobeengagedinstrategydiscussionsandplanning.
Ensuringlowertotalcostofownership(TCO)
TCS believes that a typical SaaS solution should be flexible to accommodate the dynamic nature of business
requirements and reduce recurring cost to clearly demonstrate SaaS’ advantage in terms of lower total cost of
ownership(TCO).Accordingly,SaaSvendorswillneedtoensurecost-effectivenessoftheirsolutions.

ConsiderationsforSaaSPartnersorVendors
SomekeyconsiderationsforSaaSpartners/vendorsdescribedbelow.
Deliveringauniqueuserexperience:Barometertohighcustomersatisfaction
A rich and unique user experience demands a distinct look and feel that is consistent with the branding needs of the
organization. Availability of business applications and underlying systems play a vital role in delivering unique user
experience. In the event that applications are unavailable to business users, their Business-as-Usual (BAU) is impacted,
which in turn impacts their SLAs. Such a scenario can be a loss-loss situation for everyone involved. On-demand SaaS
enablesthehighestlevelsofservice.
Howtoensurehighcustomersatisfaction?
There are various factors that contribute to achieving a high level of customer satisfaction in a SaaS project. Some of
themarelistedbelow:
lDeliverrichend-userexperience(understandend-usermetrics)
lSetupacost-effective,responsivetiered24/7support
lDeployskilledvendorsupportstaffwithdomain-levelexpertiseandproblem-resolutionskills
lEnsureservicedeliverythroughbrandedvendor
lEnsuresecureaccessanddataprivacy
lAddressavailabilityandmanageabilityrequirements
lRealizetherightbalanceofcustomizationv/sconfigurationprovisions
lOptimizeperformanceandmanagescale
Given the expansion of SaaS, TCS perceives that it would necessitate a radical change in current business model to
deliverauniqueuserexperiencethatallowsbusinessuserstohavebettercontroloverIT.
Settherightexpectations
SaaS vendor partners need to set the right expectations at the very onset of the engagement. This can be easily
achieved if the SaaS partner has a good understanding of the application portfolio. Sometimes, it is not possible to
address complex value propositions over the web.Transparency, in such matters, builds the level of trust between the
customerandSaaSvendorpartner.
Stayfocusedoncoredeliverysolutions
SaaS partners should primarily focus on core delivery solutions by recognizing the fact that SaaS is only a delivery
mechanismthatservesasameanstotheend.Coreproductsorservicesshouldbesufficientlyfunctionalsoastoobtain
repeat business or sustain existing contracts. It should be noted that standalone features and functionalities may not
always be sufficient to ensure customer satisfaction and that it is the right mix of features and functionalities that the
customerexpectsfromtheSaaSpartner.
Managescaleandoptimizeperformance
Scale and optimization depends on the nature of transactions/interactions. In the event that the SaaS partner faces a
lack of skill sets pertaining to these requirements, it is feasible for the partner to outsource scaling and optimization
needs to another partner/vendor. Moreover, the data center should be architected for maximum flexibility and
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segregation to provide secure scalability on demand. SaaS partners can come under enormous pressure to ensure that
applications scale to handle increased customer demand and ensure customer satisfaction. With this perspective,TCS
hasaggressivelyrevampeditsSaaSofferingswiththreekeycharacteristics-performance,availability,andscalability.
Onaccountoftheradicaltransformationofproductsandservicesfrombeinghostedonon-premiseplatforms tobeing
offeredthroughhosteddeliveryservices,serviceproviderswillhavetoassumetheadditionalresponsibilityofensuring
adequateperformanceandavailabilityoftheseapplications.
Ensurethedesiredlevelsofcustomizationandconfigurability
Withtheincreasingability ofSaaStosupportapplicationcustomizationandintegrationinSBMbusiness,itisimportant
tocarefullyidentifyandassessthescopeofcustomization(howmuchandwhen)inconjunctionwithtimeandresource
constraints.
Offerflexiblepricingmodels
SincecustomerscanchoosefrommultiplevendorstowardsadoptingSaaSofferings,vendorswillneedtoofferflexible,
multiplepricingmodelstoensurethatthecustomerisretained.
Enforcesecurityanddataprivacy
The SaaS partner/vendor should explore all possible on-demand security solutions to safeguard each customer’s vital
data and information. The SaaS partner or vendor should ensure that customer data is separated and secured. In the
SaaS framework, there are different perspectives on security in the enterprise. Each of these perspectives is described
below:
lControl application access (who can access the tenant and where is the end user information stored and
maintained,andsoon)
lControlrole-basedaccess(whocanaccesswhichfeatureswithinanapplication)
Fromthecustomer’sstandpoint,anon-demandSaaSdeliverymodelshouldideallyofferthefollowing:
lScalable and robust multi-tenant architecture based on SOA principles (key decision point on designing enterprise
businessapplications)
lStandards-basedsolutionswithintegrationflexibilityorprovisions
lAbility to support degrees of configurability and an adequate level of customization - collect, collate and configure
meta-dataateachlevel
lDatasecurity–fine-grainedrole-basedaccess
lUniqueuserexperiencethroughrichUIandpersonalizedlookandfeel
lTenantprovisioningthroughvirtualportalinstance
lDataisolation-Keepingcustomer/vendordataseparatedandsecured
lAdherencetoregulatorcompliance,securitystandards

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Given that the current market is highly competitive and turbulent, the time to market and reliability are critical
differentiators.There are numerous vendors in the SaaS offering space that claim to offer approaches/techniques that
can employed at various stages of a typical SaaS maturity model to help organizations achieve faster time to market
whileensuringhighquality.
TCS,inparticular,hasforgedstrategicallianceswithindustryleadingSaaSproductvendorsandoffersSaaSsolutionsas
aconsultingtoolkitwiththefollowingobjectives.
lUnderstandandarticulatethekeyvalueofSaaSenablementinbusinessprocessesandsubprocesses
lPerformduediligencetoevaluatetheneedforSaaSadoptioninbusinesses
lAssessdifferentproductsandfeaturefitmentforSaaSenablement
lRecommendthestrategyandoverallSaaSenablementroadmapfulfillingconsultingneeds
- Lower Total Cost of Ownership
by shifting ownership
- Lower Capital & Operating cost
- Reduce Time-to-market cycle
and better ROI (Return On
Investment)
- Development-as-a-Service
- Centralized authentication
system
- Reduced business risk
- Reduce IT complexity
- Pricing based on usage
- Uptime as a key factor
- Multi-tenancy based
architecture
- Democratized configuration
- Integrated Service delivery
Model and quick rollouts
- Rapid Deployment cycles
- Greater Flexibility & Ease of
use
SaaS
Delivery
Model

TechnicalConsiderations
KeyAcceleratorsforSaaSCustomers
Multi-tenancyefficientarchitectureisanimportantrequirementforweb-deliveredSaaSsolutionsaswellasenterprise-
proven on-demand applications for customers/employees/ partners. However, building multi-tenant solutions
requires that several technical challenges be addressed following which service providers can build and deploy
scalable,customizable,manageable,andcost-effectivemulti-tenantsolutions.
Multi-tenancyisultimatelyameansofachievingcostefficiency,giventhatitisprimarilyintendedtoreducethenumber
ofdeployedinstancesandtoalignthenecessaryschema.Multi-tenancyensuresthatitischeaperandeasiertomanage
a deployed instance and also minimizes the number of administrators required for the deployment. Consequently,
differentlevelsofmulti-tenancycanbeviewedasarealizationofdifferenttrade-offpointsonthecostcurve.
Aneffectivemulti-tenantarchitectureisdrivenbythefollowingfactors:
lThetypeofcustomers
lVolumeofdatapertenant
lProjectedvolumeoftransactionspertenant
lTypesoftransactionsthatthetenantswillgenerate(%Readvs.%Write)
lCustomer-specificsecurityrequirements(dataisolation)
lBIandreportingmodel
lTenant-pricingmodelanduptimeSLAs
Although the SaaS market is at its fledgling stage, it is nevertheless experiencing rapid changes. Considering the
alienationoftechnologycompaniestowardsSaaSsolutions,suchsolutionsshouldbebasedonthefoundationofnext-
generation web services and SOA to better address mass-customizable requirements from the customer. It facilitates
businessagilityandbringsuniquenessataveryeconomiccost.
There is a paradigm shift in the way software products or services are sold in the market; the entire focus has shifted
from the sale of product/service to continuous delivery and deployment model. Since the internet is the underlying
medium for delivery of mission-critical services, there are a number of important considerations that technology
companies, especially those in the Hi-Tech industry space, will need to envisage before proceeding with enterprise-
wideSaaSimplementation.
lMeaningfulSLAstomeasurequalityofservicewithun-interruptedusage
lSecurityandcompliancetoregulatoryandnon-regulatoryrequirements
lAssessmentonwhetherend-userneedsarefulfilledonserviceusage/consumptionbarometer
lRAS(Reliability,AvailabilityandServiceability)requirementsareaddressedupfront
lAbility to support business needs by simplifying processes/tasks/functions at each layer of the infrastructure and
businessapplications.
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HowTCSSaaSOfferingsSolveCustomerIssues
TCS believes that it is uniquely positioned to play a major role in SaaS Consultative Services and ensure that customers
are ahead of the curve through its Cloud Computing focus and Co-innovation Network (COINTM).TCS COINTM is built
on a strong foundation of TCS Innovation Labs, Technology Excellence Groups, anchor clients and strong strategic
alliances.
AtTCS,SaaSisoneofthefoundationalabstractionlayersoftheoverallCloudComputingTaxonomy.
One of TCS’ Centers of Excellence has developed a comprehensive SaaS offering consulting toolkit that provides
techniques/approachesapplicabletovariousstagesofatypical SaaSmaturity modelthatcanhelporganizationsbring
applications to market faster while retaining high quality. This, along with our reusable components, helps accelerate
thedeliveryprocess.
TCS’ValueProposition
TCS unique valueproposition lies with its SaaS consultingservicethatanalyzesthe“as-is”state of business applications,
integration needs and underlying infrastructure with the objective to understand, analyze and articulate the key value
of SaaS enablement in businesses and carry out a due diligence study to evaluate the need for SaaS adoption in
businesses.
TCS provides a variety of SaaS Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solutions based on flexible technology
architecture, industry-best practices and business metrics. TCS onDemand CRM Solutions range from strategy to
implementationtoapplicationmanagementtoservicesandsupportfunctions.Inaddition,TCScanevaluateandassess
different products and feature fitment for SaaS enablement and offer recommendations on the “go-market”strategy
andoverallSaaSenablementroadmapfulfillingconsultingneedsofITdepartments.
TCSbelievesthatSaaSisanewcapabilityandadeliverymodelthatcanhelpcustomersindefiningtheirITroadmap.TCS’
expertise ensures that customers are delivered an end-to-end framework comprising SaaS enablement service
offerings and also provides techniques/ approaches at every stage of a typical SaaS maturity model that can help bring
applicationstomarketfasterwhileretaininghighquality.
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Domain Components
? Widgets, Mashups
? Dynamic Domain Engine
? Domain Specific
environments
Enablers & Frameworks
lDomain agnostic Platform
lCloud aware tools
lIntegration and
lData Migration
Business Models
? Owned vs. Shared
? Pay-as-you-use
? SaaS Enabler Maturity Model
? Single vs. Multi-tenant Solution Delivery
? Cloud delivery Services
? Global Network Delivery Model
? Shared Services Support Model
On Demand Presence
? IT-as-a-Service (Service Model
for SMBs)
? SaaS CRM Solutions
? SaaS Platform BPO
(Horizontal/Vertical Apps)
TCS SaaS Model
Characteristics

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TheuniqueadvantageofferedbyTCS’SaaSconsultingservicesaredrivenbythefollowingcapabilities:-
lSaaSConsulting:Thisspansactivitiessuchasperformingafeasibilitycheckoftheexistingproductarchitecturefor
SaaS enablement, prototyping, and formulating the road map for a successful transition. TCS SaaS consulting
services would help businesses/clients of all sizes in capitalizing the value of SaaS model driven by lower TCO,
quickerROI,increasedagilityandameteredsubscription-pricingmodel.
lArchitecture Definition Roadmap: This lays down the foundation for a robust architecture for a successful SaaS
applicationthatisscalable,multi-tenantandconfigurabletoachievetheeconomyofscalecustomersareaimingby
transitioningtoSaaS.
lEnriched User Experience: This focuses on building visually rich, intuitive SaaS applications by employing
industry-bestpractices.
lDevelopment: Backed by TCS’ pioneering experience in adopting Agile Methodologies in a distributed
environment, TCS’ SaaS solutions efficiently reduce customers’ time-to-market and shorten release cycles to
enhancethevaluethattheydelivertotheircustomers,partners,andsuppliers.
lSOAIntegration:IntegratingSaaSapplicationswithcustomers'otheron-premiseandSaaSapplicationsisalwaysa
challenge, since they reside across a firewall.TCS has developed strong capabilities in buildingWeb-Services based
integrationsolutiontoovercomesuchchallenges.
lTesting: This includes validating the solution using experienced test engineers to ensure that the SaaS-based
applicationisreadytomeetperformanceandsecuritydemandsofgeographicallydistributedusers/teams.

NextGenerationSaaS
New delivery models based on SaaS platform, platform-as-a-service (PaaS), and other cloud-based delivery models,
havebeengainingtractionontheirownmerit.
TCS believes that delivering a credible set of SaaS-based offerings to enterprises will require collaborative innovations
acrossdomain-specificplatforms,re-usablebusinesscomponentsandapplicationportfolios.
In short, there has been a fundamental shift in the software consumption model: there is nowmore focus on outcomes
throughcapacityrealizationandvalue-basedservicesarenowdrivingbusinesses.
Blendofon-premiseandoff-premisecomputing
A pragmatic approach involving a combination of on-premise and off-premise computing will ultimately prove to be
themostlikelyscenarioformostlargeandmid-sizecompanies.SpecificallyintheCRMsolutionspace,SaaSpartnersare
addressing customer requests with a variety of“on-Demand”deployment models like multi-tenancy, private hosting,
hybrid deployment. Vendors like Salesforce.comTM, RightNow® Technologies, NetSuite® have been pioneers in the
SaaS pure play market while traditional CRM vendors offer their own SaaS-based versions such as, Oracle® CRM On-
Demand,SAP®CRMon-demand,Microsoft®DynamicCRMonline,andsoon.
Various SaaS businesses involve widely different technology requirements, and sales and marketing programs.This is a
compelling reason for customers to be hesitant when it comes to building a hybrid model of on-premise and SaaS
offerings.Ahybriddeploymentscenarioisdepictedinthefollowingfigure.
15
While adopting SaaS, companies should follow a modular and incremental approach to minimize the possibility and
extentoffailure.
Organizationsaremostlikelytodeployacombinationofoptionswhenitcomestosoftwarehosting:
lHostedatthecustomer’spremisemanagedandrunbythecustomer;or
lHostedbyaparticularvendorandaccessedviatheinternet
MostSaaSprovidersshareacommonnotionthatonlinepresenceisnotpossibleforbusinessusersatalltimesandhave
begundeliveringofflinevariantsoftheirapplicationstack.
TCS believes in delivering on-demand business capability through“IT-as-a-Service”model, with an integrated suite of
hardware, network and software solutions. More importantly, all the required technical, business and consulting
services are provided in a “build-as-you-grow” or “pay-as-you-use” model through a combination of on-premise and
sharedserviceshostedplatforms.
Perpetual licensing Flat-fee based
Metered subscription/
term-based licensing
Isolated instance
Per tenant
Single instance
multi-tenant
Shared, multi-tenant,
scalable, configurable
Traditional Delivery Hybrid Pure SaaS

16
KeyFutureChallenges
Someofthekeychallengesthatenterprisesaregoingtoface,aregivenbelow:
lSaaS-basedapplicationsthatcanprovideafullyintegratedviewofbusinessapplicationsandsystems
lCloud-baseddevelopment
lMatureofferingsprovidingadvancedanalyticscapabilities
lPersonalizationandcustomizedworkflow
lBusinessProcessManagement
Clearly,SaaSasadeliverymodelisfastsheddingitsnascentimagewithmanyorganizationsexaminingthepossibilityof
employing SaaS for operational agility. Adoption of a cost-effective SaaS model is on the rise across businesses. Using
SaaS, it is extremely easy to create an entirely new breed of products and services that deliver previously unheard of
value to customers and this capability has been one of the significant pointers to the relevance, effectiveness, and
sustainabilityofSaaS.
TCS believes that Cloud-based SaaS offerings would play multiple roles in IT modernization efforts. Although the
current challenges being faced by SaaS seem daunting, it can mature into a future-ready, on-premises application or a
permanentreplacementforlegacysoftwareapplications.
TCSforeseesmanyopportunitiesbasedonSaaSofferings,especiallyinthePlatformBPOSaaSspacethatoffersservices-
based usage, instead of the usual number-of-seats-based costing terms characteristic of traditional BPO offerings
deliveredtosmallandmediumbusinesses.
TCS believes thatCloud-based SaaS solutions will cometobe recognizedas an increasingly viable option for enterprise
IT. In the current market scenario, even though the benefits of early SaaS adoption are well understood, there still exist
numerous reservations pertaining to SaaS’s capacity to support business needs, applications and underlying
infrastructure. EarlyadopterswiththeinsighttoaddresssuchreservationswillreapSaaSbenefitsinthelongterm.
TCS has launched a Cloud-based SaaS initiative to address such issues and has built a credible set of service offerings
related to SaaS enablement. Further, it has also started engaging with its customers taking into consideration their
strategicgoalsandobjectives.
Conclusion

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(TCS). The content / information contained here is correct at the time of publishing.
No material from here may be copied, modified, reproduced, republished, uploaded, transmitted,
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Copyright©2010TataConsultancyServicesLimited
About Tata Consultancy Services (TCS)
Tata Consultancy Services is an IT services, business solutions and
outsourcing organization that delivers real results to global
businesses,ensuring a levelof certainty no other firm can match.TCS
offers a consulting-led, integrated portfolio of IT and IT-enabled
services delivered through its unique Global Network Delivery
Model, recognized as the benchmark of excellence in software
development.
A part of the Tata Group, India’s largest industrial conglomerate, TCS
has over 160,000 of the world's best trained IT consultants in 42
countries.TheCompanygeneratedconsolidatedrevenuesofoverUS
$6.3 billion for fiscal year ended 31 March 2010 and is listed on the
NationalStockExchangeandBombayStockExchangeinIndia.
Formoreinformation,visitusatwww.tcs.com.
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To know more about how we help companies in the High Tech
Industry overcome their challenges to achieve real business results,
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About TCS HiTech Industry Solution Unit
TCS’ HiTech Industry Solution Unit comprises of Semiconductors,
Electronics, Computer Platforms & Services, Software industry and
Professional Services. At TCS, we leverage our experience in
EngineeringServices,BusinessProcessTransformation,end-to-end
IT Solutions and Infrastructure Services to provide comprehensive
solutions that will help the High Tech firms and manufactures
accelerate product innovation, achieve operational excellence,
attaingreaterprofitabilityandmaintainmarketleadership.
Ourprovenconsultingcapabilities, Extensiveengineeringexpertise,
and in-house innovation labs provide breakthrough transformation
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Netherlands).

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