1. “I think there is a world market for maybe five computers”
Attributed to Thomas J. Watson,
Chairman of IBM 1943

2. Software as a Service (SaaS)
What is it and why do we care?

3. What is Web 2.0 Bumper sticker slogan with no real meaning?
A way of noting the natural evolution of the web
Collaborative information (many to many publishing)
Web as a platform (no client other than the standard web browser to do tasks)
Social/technical changes in approach to authority and information
There seems to be a loose visual style associated with web 2.0
Theories about how information is gathered and presented

4. What is Software as a Service?
Software as a service (SaaS) is a software application delivery model where a software vendor develops a web-native software application and hosts and operates (either independently or through a third-party) the application for use by its customers over the Internet. Customers do not pay for owning the software itself but rather for using it.

5. Some History...
The company, copyright and trademark of StarOffice were acquired by Sun Microsystems in for US$73.5 million.

6. What is Software as a Service?
Strictly speaking, it is about corporate productivity

7. Enter: Google Apps Premiere Edition
Announced in February For $50 per year per user you get...
Gmail with your domain name and 10GB of storage (versus 2GB for the free version)
Google Talk
Google Calendar with shareable schedules
a Google Start Page that can include company info
Google Docs and Spreadsheets (the neat hosted word processor and spreadsheet)
Google Page Creator (a very basic Web site designer)a control panel to manage everything and some sort of hooks into your company's existing IT infrastructure
mobile access to some functionalit (such as Gmail)
24/7 tech support (including phone help) and a 99.9% uptime guarantee for Gmail (but not for the other applications)
Who is using these tools? Check out the Google testimonial page
Source:

8. What Are Other People Saying?
“As usual with virtually anything that anyone identifies as a ‘killer,’ the label is pure hype –there are many, many things that Microsoft Office does well that Google Apps doesn't do at all.”
Links:
PCWorld.com
Computerworld.com
Eweek.com
Informationweek.com
Text
“Given all the features and tools that come with the free Standard edition of Google Apps, businesses may have a hard time justifying $50 per user per year for the Premier edition.”
“Google has yet to iron out all the wrinkles in its suite.”

9. So where do we stand? Benefits Concerns Cost Savings Time Savings
Scalability
Simpler Upgrade Path
Consistency for users
Data Security
Data Control
Available Features
Working Offline

10. Don’t Forget About Yahoo!
Yahoo's purchase of Zimbra for $350 million

11. Why do we care? Because many of these tools are FREE
Because it is not just about productivity for large companies
Because it is not just about the Big Boys (Google and Yahoo). There are many small companies exploring productivity tools delivered via the web. (Some are free, some have a fee.)

12. rememberthemilk.com

13. SideJobTrack

14. Coghead

15. Even More... FreshBooks BaseCamp Meebo ConceptShare GoToMeeting
SpongeCell
MyStickies
Qoop
EyesOS
next

16. Further Expansion of SaaS
The SaaS delivery model brings unparalleled collaborative opportunities
Many of the productivity tools we have looked at have collaboration built in at their core
Web 2.0 is also about collaboration and social networks
Include social networking tools as part of SaaS

17. Linked In

18. design:related

19. Ning

20. Summary:
SaaS strictly refers to productivity tools for large organizations who need to save time and money
We expand that to included productivity tools that can be used for personal use, and small businesses
We further expand the definition to include social networking tools because collaboration is key
Also, we saw tools such as CogHead and Ning which could be called meta-tools – they allow you to create and deploy your own web based tools right through the web browser.