Enterprise SaaS to be worth $9.2bn in 2010

CRM and email top business use of SaaS

Enterprise use of software as a service (SaaS) is continuing to rise with the market forecast to hit $9.2bn in 2010, according to analysts.

Global revenues from enterprise SaaS - the practice of accessing software over the internet on a pay-per-use or subscription basis - will increase by 15.7 per cent year-on-year in 2010 to reach $9.2bn. SaaS use will also grow by 16.2 per cent to $10.7bn in 2011, according to the report by analyst house Gartner.

SaaS is mainly used by business for communications, collaboration and content along with customer relationship management (CRM), the report said.

Facebook is playing a larger role in SaaS deployments
(Screenshot credit: Facebook)

According to Sharon Merz, research director at Gartner, adoption of SaaS by business is growing as organisations overcome initial concerns about security, response time and service availability.

The report notes that over the past 12 to 18 months, there have been shifts in the SaaS landscape with an increasing number of instances where SaaS has been deployed by a company's management without the involvement of the IT department.

SaaS deployments are also becoming larger, according to Gartner, with deals for big businesses typically running to thousands or tens of thousands of users. In addition, social media is increasingly being integrated into SaaS products, for example, Facebook and Twitter being incorporated into CRM or sales and marketing services.