Think about it: currently your IT person (assuming you have one) is paid by the hour to keep your operating systems and applications up to date. By contrast, SAAS is modeled much like the ancient Chinese doctor's approach - you only pay them when you are healthy - if you get sick, they don't get paid. Does it matter that half of the firm is on one version of a software program while the other is still waiting to be updated?

Does it matter that your clients are working off newer versions of a program that they have save to an earlier version before you can access their data? Yes, it does matter. The IT person's perspective: What's the hurry? Eventually everyone will be up to date, right? That's like painting the Golden Gate Bridge; the job is never done. As soon as they get to the end of the bridge, they immediately go back to the beginning and start painting again.

No company is ever "up to date" on every computer at the same time. No matter how you look at it, there is a lag between what was current and being current. That lag causes enormous headaches and frustrations for everyone; those who are running behind and those who are current are constantly having to accommodate the inconsistency; saving documents in multiple versions or converting to PDFs that can't be edited.

Software as a Service is like getting your application needs met "Just In Time". And unlike, your IT guru whose expertise should be focused on mission critical firewalls and, back-ups,  SaaS application companies have but one thing to do right to keep millions of clients happy.

Leverage alone, insures that SaaS applications will be less problematic than what we are currently dealing with. Is SaaS perfect? Not yet but getting better everyday. For example, I am just getting going with Google Business Apps and there are some obvious limitations to their current (almost free) offerings, but given the size of the market, I suspect it won't be long before their on-line applications rival desktop versions. A terminal and highispeed Internet connection is all that is needed to be SAAS functional.

Okay, here is the rub and the primary objection I hear people talk about. What if I can't get to the internet? For 99 percent of us, iInternet outages are rare to say the least. High-speed Internet coverage is becoming as ubiquitous as electricity. To allay our fears, SAAS companies will probably come up with a way for us to have a "lite" version on our hard drive so we can still function even when we are on vacation out in the middle of nowhere. (STOP - maybe we need to rethink this?)

In any case, when you add up the time lost due to inconsistency of operating systems and applications, recovering lost files, and updating computers one unit at a time, the idea of a just in time, always current application is very appealing. So when you do your ROI calculation, be sure to include the hours of frustration and inefficiencies buried in your time and billing system in your overall calculation. Remember this too, your greatest point of leverage is your people; time wasted on technology frustrations takes away from the health and well being of your team; the correlation between employee morale and customer satisfaction is absolute.