NIIT launches 'software as a service'

Mumbai, Feb 14 (UNI) Leading IT solutions company, NIIT Technologies today launched a new paradigm offering ''software as a service'' (Saas) to enable companies use software applications on demand on user-based costs.

Announcing the launch on the sidelines of the Nasscom Leadership Summit here, NIIT Chairman Rajendra S Pawar hoped to earn a revenue of 10 million dollars in the first year.

NIIT also announced the availability of ''ProcureEasy'', the first Saas offering. A few companies are already on the user mode of this package, which met the diverse procurement process needs of large enterprises.

This software application is of seven year vintage and is functioning smoothly with the Singapore Government, NIIT CEO Arvind Thakur said.

Before the end of the current fiscal, NIIT plans to come out with another Saas offering in the processing sector, making human resource management, payroll, financial, sales and distribution easy.

Mr Thakur said Saas offering is an exciting business innovation that has transformed the traditional headcount based IT services model to pay as you use the platform.

For the customer, it will reduce upfront investments, improve time for implementation and enhance business value through flexibility in deployment.

Gartner predicts that by 2012, at least one third of business application software spending would be as service subscription instead of as product licence. They also predict that by 2010, 30 per cent of new software purchases in Asia Pacific will be delivered via an application utility Saas model.

Analysts also report that the market potential for Saas in Asia is estimatead to reach 1.16 billion US dollars by 2010.

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