31st January 2007 Lunch at the Circle, Is “Software as a Service” (SaaS) disrupting the online business world?
You don’t need a big pc any longer? Death of the desktop? Final liberation from Microsoft’s license payments? Return of the dinosaurs (centralised computing)? Only pay for what you really need and use instead of paying hefty annual fees?…. There are many ways to look at Software as a Service, a reincarnation of the rumoured-defunct ASP model. Presented by Rob Steggles, Marketing Director for NTT Europe Online (previously Verio), http://www.ntteuropeonline.com/.
Rob works with many software companies to deliver software online ‘as a service’, including aggregators, innovators and software companies that are just plain scared of SaaS. (Rob was also recently instrumental in making NTT Europe the only really European partner to Microsoft for SaaS.) Rob explains how SaaS affects software companies and how it will change the industry. What IS this SaaS thing? Why does it matter? Should I do it? How is it different from ASP (well, there you have it!!)? What are the pitfalls and the advantages?

Watch the vidcast interview before the lunch (7 mins):

Download the podcast of the lunch (57 mins, 27MB)