Hosted software solutions can offer big payback in hard economic times

Editor’s note: Jeff Pyden is managing director of OmniVue Business Solutions. WRAL Local Tech Wire will host two Executives' Edge briefings on June 17 in Durham and June 18 in Charlotte in partnership with the Carolina SaaS User Group.

ALPHARETTA, Ga. - With talk of a recession swirling, the last thing businesses want to do is to invest in a large capital expenditure. Instead, they want to reign in financial costs and solve problems with a lower upfront risk. One strategy in lowering this risk is using hosted software solutions to gain greater cost control and flexibility.

As businesses face pressure to cut costs in all areas while maintaining and improving outcomes and customer satisfaction, hosted software solutions become even more attractive. According to industry analyst Gartner, the annual cost to own and manage on-premise enterprise software applications can be an estimated four times the initial purchase price, often making hosted software solutions a better choice.

By using hosted software solutions, a business eliminates the need to acquire and maintain the resources necessary for supporting a large-scale in-house software deployment, including hardware, software upgrades and maintenance. As a result, many of these costs are removed and the responsibility is taken away for the day-to-day operations, upgrades, and infrastructure rather than placing it on the end user. The outcome is a much more economic solution that allows a business to focus its resources on processes that impact its bottom line.

In contrast to on-premise enterprise software, hosted software solutions mean no upfront hardware and software costs, no worrying about locking in license purchases that you may not need in the future and the flexibility to later move on-premise should your situation change. Rather than facing major enterprise software purchase decisions, businesses are free to implement rapid change because there is no on-site deployment. As a result, there is less risk because no money has been spent on internal resources.

Because hosted software solutions offer pay-as-you-go flexibility, there is even less risk to a business. Hosted software solutions are delivered as a subscription allowing businesses to pay for the use of the application on a monthly or a yearly basis. The pay-as-you-go nature of hosted software solutions enables greater scalability as well, enabling you to add and reduce users to match your demand. Businesses can select applications they wish to use and to stop using those that no longer meet their needs. That way, businesses can avoid accumulating unwanted shelfware and make more efficient use of their applications.

Since access to hosted software solutions are Internet-based, businesses can get to their data and applications anywhere and at any time. Users do not have to be at their office or access the corporate network through a virtual private network or other method in order to use their applications.

Whether or not the economy is in a crunch should not stop a business from fulfilling enterprise application needs. Using hosted software solutions solves this, but in a cost effective way that offers flexibility, predictable costs and unmatched levels of service.

Jeff Pyden is founder and managing director of OmniVue Business Solutions, the provider of choice for businesses looking to automate and streamline financial and customer relationship management to help drive business success. OmniVue specializes in implementing, hosting and managing best-of-breed Microsoft Dynamics GP, SL and CRM software.