India is expected to be the fastest growing market for Software as a Service (SaaS) in the Asia-Pacific region, according to a report released by global IT research agency Springboard Research. The report says there is strong growth in adoption levels in India and across Asia for SaaS in 2005, and even brighter prospects ahead. India saw revenues increase over 53% to $7 million in 2005, and the market is expected to grow to $48 million by 2008, representing the fastest growth in the region. SaaS is an emerging software delivery model in which application software is delivered remotely through a subscription-based fee rather than being sold for perpetual use. The users do not buy the license for the software, but only a right to use it. SaaS is also referred to as on-demand software and on-demand application."The SaaS market is receiving considerable focus from software vendors operating in various spheres of the industry. Global software giants, local ISVs and emerging on-demand software vendors all agree the power of SaaS will disrupt the competitive framework of the software industry in the future," Dane Anderson, research VP at Springboard Research, said.A survey of Indian Small and Medium-sized Businesses (SMBs) identified cost benefits as the primary driver for SaaS adoption, but ease of use and business benefits were also cited as important market accelerators. Indian SMBs have the highest level of awareness of SaaS in Asia. However, SaaS has not made much headway among them largely because of low penetration of software application usage in this market segment. "We believe that the current buoyancy in the Indian economy, driven by rising domestic consumption as well as exports, the growth of broadband infrastructure and growing penetration of the Internet among SMBs will make India a significant market for SaaS applications," Ravi Shekhar Pandey, senior market analyst at Springboard Research, said.
