SaaS Grows in Singapore

SINGAPORE -- Small and medium businesses (SMBs, or companies with up to 999 employees) in Singapore are set to spend US$3 million on hosted applications and SaaS (software as a service) in 2007, up 27% over 2006, according to the latest study by New York-based Access Markets International (AMI) Partners, Inc.

Even though spending on hosted applications and SaaS represents only 3% of all software spending among SMBs in Singapore, its 27% growth rate is the fastest in Southeast Asia,” says Daniel Sim, Singapore-based Senior Research Analyst at AMI-Partners. “Overall software spending by SMBs in Singapore is on track to cross US$127 million this year, up some 9% over last year.”

Hosted applications—such as Web-based emails and instant messaging—have played a critical role in driving the adoption rate of Singapore SMBs using online applications. Users are more comfortable than before in exchanging data and communicating over the Internet. This gives rise to a wider acceptance of business-related applications such as sales-ordering, contact-management, leave-management, inventory-checking, online information access, etc.

SaaS offers low-cost but high-value solutions as a paid or leased service to SMBs. “SMBs, unlike large businesses lack the resources when it comes to information system support,” Mr. Sim says. “For SMBs to adopt SaaS, vendors would have to play a value-added role in educating SMBs on critical issues such as data security, downtime management, costs versus benefits, data ownership and data migration issues.”

Access Markets International (AMI) Partners Inc.