OFFERING ERP SOLUTIONS AS ONLINE SERVICES

Aki Lassila

2006

Abstract

The differences between product and service business are considerable and the change of focus in a firm’s business model from one to the other is not easy to accomplish. The objective of this paper is to study how a software product company specialised in developing Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) applications can use the Software as a Service (SaaS) business model to expand its business. To software companies who provide SaaS services, SaaS offers e.g. lowered production and distribution costs, more predictable cash flows, and shortened sales cycle. However, in order to be able to successfully offer SaaS services the providers have to overcome the potential risks associated with e.g. scalability, reliability, and partner management. In this case study we concentrate on SAP and examine how the SaaS model can be implemented by an ERP software company. Our findings include that SAP has successfully leveraged its market leader position with its SaaS offering and expanded its customer base in the SME markets with the help of its partner network. SAP has also been able to cope with the problems associated with SaaS and managed to take advantage of the SaaS model’s benefits.

Paper Citation

in Harvard Style

Lassila A. (2006). OFFERING ERP SOLUTIONS AS ONLINE SERVICES . In Proceedings of WEBIST 2006 - Second International Conference on Web Information Systems and Technologies - Volume 2: WEBIST, ISBN 978-972-8865-47-4, pages 66-73. DOI: 10.5220/0001248000660073

in Bibtex Style

@conference{webist06,
author={Aki Lassila},
title={OFFERING ERP SOLUTIONS AS ONLINE SERVICES},
booktitle={Proceedings of WEBIST 2006 - Second International Conference on Web Information Systems and Technologies - Volume 2: WEBIST,},
year={2006},
pages={66-73},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0001248000660073},
isbn={978-972-8865-47-4},
}

in EndNote Style

TY - CONF
JO - Proceedings of WEBIST 2006 - Second International Conference on Web Information Systems and Technologies - Volume 2: WEBIST,
TI - OFFERING ERP SOLUTIONS AS ONLINE SERVICES
SN - 978-972-8865-47-4
AU - Lassila A.
PY - 2006
SP - 66
EP - 73
DO - 10.5220/0001248000660073