The Internet has served as an enabler for new service delivery models such as Salesforce.com, which delivers both the underlying infrastructure (servers, telecom and data centers), including updates and maintenance under service level agreements. Like a “greenfield” outsourcing model, there is never any transfer of personnel to the service provider in a SaaS outsourcing model. While the SaaS model is essentially a variation on the pricing models of licensing of software for a limited duration, it also serves as an outsourcing model because the service provider owns its own proprietary software and aggregates other services providers (licensors providing plug-in applications) onto its platform. The aggregation of such other technology providers thus shifts from enterprise customer to service provider the control over innovation and improvements to the underlying service delivery infrastructure.
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