"The cloud" has been a hot subject the last couple of years, and has been considered especially attractive to SMEs due to making it possible for whole information systems to be fully managed by the vendor. This can unburden the customer organization regarding for example large investment costs, hardware and software maintenance, while also adding flexibility and scalability. There are three types of service models: infrastructure, platform and software, which dictate what the customer and vendor manages. In Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), which is the focus of this study, a third part manages both the applications and hardware and the users access these resources through the Internet. However, with the usage of SaaS comes several issues for companies to handle and make use of, for example security and mobility. This master thesis' aim is to present organizational effects of SaaS usage in SME user companies, by studying customer organizations post implementation. A qualitative comparative study was conducted where we held semi-structured interviews with SME users mainly at their own offices. In total six interviews were conducted at five different companies. At least two years usage experience was a criteria we set to ensure we could retrieve enough data from the companies. To fulfill the aim of the study we set out to find common issues affecting SMEs using SaaS systems. Through a pre-study, including literature studies and customer interviews, we determined which of the common issues that could be considered most relevant. Factors taken into consideration was how SaaS specific an issue was and how relevant it is in the post implementation phase, and how much data we were able to retrieve regarding an issue through the interviews. The relevant issues were: price model, vendor relation, frequent updates, mobility and integration. Further, five hypotheses were derived, one for each relevant issue regarding the organizational effects of SaaS usage. An analytical model was constructed mainly based on DeLone and McLean's (1992; 2003) original and updated Information System Success Model. The model helped in deriving organizational effects of usage from the different relevant issues. By using the analytical model with interview and literature study material we came up with the findings of this report, as described below. The possible price models enables companies to be more flexible with their IT portfolio. Also, it was concluded that the costs of SaaS are based upon usage, which could make it harder to estimate, especially if the usage varies. But it can also be a strength enabling customers to scale their usage as needed. In general, the vendor relation between a customer and vendor was not too complex, however with one exception. Our main discovery was that certain factors of SaaS usage affect the degree of experienced vendor lock-in differently. These include the nature of the pricing model, contract binding times and data ownership rights. Further, the level of trust and lock-in level could also affect the customer intention to change system. Frequent updates, which are managed by the vendor, reduce time and effort in regards to maintenance performed by customers. However, sometimes the updates could also cause problems when the customer had own configurations. The mobility offered by SaaS systems extends organizations ability to work. This includes increased geographical freedom for mainly employees of an organization. We found that integration is much more of a general issue for information systems. But in SaaS connection of services are possible and can thus enable further value than each service can on its own. However, integration also causes increased lock-in and system management. / Molnet har var ett hett ämne de senaste åren, och har ansetts vara särskilt attraktivt för SME:s då det möjliggör att hela informationssystem sköts av systemleverantören. Detta avlastar kundorganisationer från stora investeringskostnader och underhåll av hårdvara och mjukvara, genom att samtidigt öka både skalbarheten och flexibiliteten. Det finns tre typer av tjänstetyper: infrastructure, platform och software, vilka avgör vad som leverantören och kunden hanterar. I Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), som är i fokus får denna studie, så hanteras både applikationer och hårdvara av tredje part och användare kan få åtkomst till dessa genom internet. Med SaaS tillkommer dock även vissa svårigheter som företag måste hantera, exempelvis gällande säkerhet och mobilitet. Syftet med examensarbetet var att presentera de organisatoriska effekterna av SaaS-användning för SMEs genom att studera kundorganisationer i postimplementations-fasen. En kvalitativ, jämförande studie genomfördes där vi höll semi-strukturerade intervjuer med SME:s främst på deras egna kontor. Totalt sex stycken intervjuer genomfördes på fem olika företag. Vi krävde åtminstone två års användningserfarenhet för att säkerställa åtkomst till tillräcklig data. För att uppnå syftet med arbetet så började vi med att hitta vanligt förekommande svårigheter (”common issues”) som påverkar SME-användare. Genom en förstudie som innefattade intervjuer, litterära studier och användarintervjuer så kunde vi fastställa vilka av dessa problemområden som var mest relevanta. Faktorer vi tog hänsyn till var hur SaaS-specifikt och relevanta svårigheterna var i postimplementations-fasen, samt hur mycket data vi kunde få ut av våra fallföretag genom intervjuer. De relevanta svårigheterna (”relevant issues”) var: prismodellen, relationen till systemleverantör, frekventa uppdateringar, mobilitet och integration. Dessutom tog vi fram fem hypoteser gällande de organisatoriska effekterna av SaaS-användning baserad på svårigheterna. En analytisk modell skapades huvudsakligen baserad på DeLone och McLeans (1992; 2003) ursprungliga och uppdaterade ”Information System Success Model”. Denna modell underlättade att ta fram organisatoriska effekter av användning för de olika relevanta svårigheterna. Genom användningen av den analytiska modellen tillsammans med intervjuer och litteratur så kom vi fram till resultatet av studien, beskrivet nedan. De möjliga prismodellerna möjliggör för företag att vara mer flexibla med deras IT-portföljer. Dessutom fastställdes det att när kostnaderna för SaaS baseras på användningen kan vara svårt att uppskatta totalkostnaden, särskilt när användningen varierar. Detta kan dock samtidigt vara en styrka då det möjliggör skalbarhet efter behov. Kundrelationen mellan en kund och systemleverantör var inte alltför komplicerad, dock med ett undantag. Vår huvudsakliga upptäckt var att vissa faktorer i SaaS-användning påverkar den upplevda graden av inlåsningseffekter till systemleverantören. Dessa inkluderar prismodellens utformning, bindningstider och äganderättigheter till sin data. Dessutom kunde förtroendet och inlåsningsgraden också påverka kunders avsikt att byta system. Frekventa uppdateringar som hanteras av systemleverantören, minskar både tid och ansträngning för kunden gällande underhåll. Däremot kunde uppdateringarna ibland orsaka problem när kunden hade egna konfigurationer. Mobiliteten som möjliggörs av SaaS-system utökar organisationers arbetsmöjligheter. Detta inkluderar större geografisk frihet för de anställda i en organisation. Vi kom fram till att integration är mer en generell svårighet för informationssystem. Däremot i SaaS så är det möjligt att ansluta olika SaaS-tjänster, vilket kan skapa större mervärde än vad varje tjänst var för sig kan skapa. Däremot kan integration också orsaka ökade inlåsningseffekter och ökat behov av systemunderhåll.

ITC/USA 2010 Conference Proceedings / The Forty-Sixth Annual International Telemetering Conference and Technical Exhibition / October 25-28, 2010 / Town and Country Resort & Convention Center, San Diego, California / The development and analysis cloud is a rapid development system being designed to support the Air Force Research Lab (AFRL) Simulation & Technology Assessment Branch. The purpose is to isolate research, development, test, and evaluation of unique software within a Zone D enclave [1] to allow researchers and analysts to develop and test software free of the many IT requirements that hamper development and without risk of contaminating the overall Air Force network. The cloud system is being designed so researchers and analysts will utilize Software as a Service (SaaS) models. Such a model makes it transparent to users such things as where the software originates and any licensing concerns. Utilities, tools, and other enhancing software that users need are published and using them frees the developer to focus on their specific development efforts versus tertiary development modules.

Studien avser att beskriva om och hur faktorernakärnkompetens, osäkerhet, nyttoaspekter och kontroll/flexibilitet påverkat besluten vid inköp av cloud-tjänsten SaaS. Uppsatsen är en kvalitativ studie som är baserad på semistruktuerade intervjuer med nyckelpersoner på två små IT-företag samt vetenskapliga artiklar och litteratur inom ämnesområdet. Studiens slutsats är att de båda företagen påverkats av några eller alla faktorer vid inköpen av cloud-tjänsten. Faktorn nyttoaspekter påverkade båda företagens inköpsbeslut i hög grad. Faktorerna osäkerhet och kontroll/flexibilitet påverkade inte alls inköpsbeslutet hos det ena företaget medan de till stor del påverkade inköpsbeslutet hos det andra företaget. Faktorn kärnverksamhet påverkade det ena företagets inköpsbeslut till en viss del och det andra företaget till en stor del.

For most of organizations initiating IT projects to improve the business performance, they could possibly face an opportunities lost and spend a huge project cost resulting in losing competence in making profit simply due to IT project failure. The senior managers in the organization need fully understand what kind resources and capabilities are required for the project team to ensure the success. As value proposition addressed by ASP (application services provider), Software as a Service or on-demand application, it will allow organizations to only focus on the business needs and redesign the cross-functional and cross-organizational processes. Also the IT project could quickly show its striking value in a shorter time frame by outsourcing the technical works to application service provider. In other words, ASP business model provide customers a new choice to access the system services via the internet. These solution providers not only develop the product and upgrade roadmaps but also operate and maintain the systems on behalf of the customers. It¡¦s also a method for the customers to enjoy the latest technology and professional services in an economical way. The value of this research work is to analyze how the senior managers of the enterprise making the choices over different alternatives under the organizational constraints comprising successful stories, personal own experiences and used operational practices in the past. A case study of B2B supply chain collaboration project is used to revisit the managers¡¦ assumptions and elaborate how these organizational constraints are exercised in the project evaluation, decision and implementation cycle based on a generic evaluation and decision framework of B2B collaboration solutions. This report intends to provide some insight and suggestions for the senior managers to take advantage of the opportunities and advantage, like the Software as a Service or On-demand applications, enabled by the internet world. An optimized decision can be possibly achieved only if the managers are aware of the invisible organizational constraints.

Fierce competition in the market is driving software vendors to rely on Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) strategies and to continuously match new software versions with customers’ needs and competitors’ moves. Although release management as a recurrent activity related to SaaS arguably shapes how a vendor services its customers, the literature is surprisingly limited on how software releases are managed to support SaaS strategies. Against this backdrop, we present a collaborative action-research study with Software Inc., a large multi-national software provider, focused on improving the release cycle management process for a complex security software service. The study is part of a comprehensive intervention into Software Inc. that combines a perspective rooted in software process improvement and engineering practices with one rooted in service delivery and customer interactions. The part that is reported in this dissertation draws on the service-dominant logic framework to analyze how the release cycle management process was organized to improve Software Inc.’s ongoing value co-creation with its customers. As a result, the study contributed to improving release cycle management at Software Inc. and it expands industry knowledge about the challenges and opportunities for software vendors to manage releases and improve the value delivered to and co-created with their customers. This added knowledge is of interest to both practitioners and researchers as SaaS strategies increasingly shape the industry with important implications for how software is released.

V současném ekonomickém prostředí je velmi silný tlak na inovace jednotlivých softwarových výrobců, poskytovatelů služeb v oblasti IT či systémových integrátorů. Předmětem konkurenčního boje se nestává produkt nebo služba jako taková, ale i forma jejího zajištění a obchodní model, který definuje kvalitu a cenu pro zákazníka. V posledních letech zaznamenáváme vzestupnou tendenci výrobců / dodavatelů softwaru nabídnout dodávku software přímo formou služby tzv. Software as a Service neboli on-demand. Primárním cílem této diplomové práce je přispět k rozvoji teoretické základny modelů Software as s Service s hlavním zaměřením na oblast kancelářských aplikací pro segment malých a středně velkých firem.

Social media data can be collected and analyzed during and after crisis events to aid in disaster relief efforts. Setting up a system to perform this analysis is associated with various technical challenges. This thesis presents the design and implementation of a social media analysis as a service system. This system is hosted on cloud infrastructure and allows for on demand collection, processing, and delivery of social media data via an intuitive web interface. The service model and cloud infrastructure allow the system to be highly scalable and produce near real time analysis data. A cost evaluation of the system was performed and presented in this thesis. The SMAS system was evaluated through a user study and participants found the system unique, interesting, and easy to understand and use. The usability of the system was also evaluated during the user study and resulted in a system usability score of 79.25 out of 100. Suggestions to improve the system and increase its adoptability are also discussed. The thesis concludes with suggestions for future work.

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The diploma thesis deals with the definition of transformation process of the "appropriate" application into Software as a Service (SaaS) distribution model. For this purpose, it describes the SaaS model and evaluates its pros and cons in four points of view -- developer, distributor, customer and user. Following parts of the model description are an estimation of the future evolution of the SaaS model, the introduction of application SaaS Platforms and the specification of appropriate application for the SaaS model. Next chapter deals with the specifications of the application distributed in the Software as a Service model. These specifications define all needed application properties that have to be implemented in the transformation process. These specifications are for example differentiation of customer data and administration access, configuration and customization, application and data security, business and pricing model, service level agreement etc. The last chapter deals with the formulation of the transformation process of the application into SaaS model. Individual activities of the process are closely described and demonstrated on the preparation of details for the transformation of the web-based application Audit Information Tracker into SaaS model.

This thesis focuses on the ubiquitous cloud computing trend and particularly Software as a Service. The main goal is to specify all pros and cons of this concept for its customers and also cloud providers. The global perspective is then specified to Software as a Service and deployment of SaaS ERP products. The next goal is to define an appropriate method to analyze a company's needs prior to switching to the cloud. Furthermore, recommendations as to whether the cloud is better than an on-premise version should result from the previous analysis. Another aim is to form a process for successful switch to the cloud and ensure all important aspects of using cloud services are covered. Theoretical findings and recommendations are used in a practical example of SaaS ERP deployment. To reach all goals, a theoretical analysis of all available monograph and electronic sources, covering cloud computing and consultations with experts from the company; Algotech BSC, were used. The main added value is in the dual point of view on the topic, from customer's and provider's viewpoints with a more detailed focus on ERP. The author suggests the right procedure for switching to the cloud, guidance with calculating ROI, TCO and preparing all necessary contracts and agreements.