Another subtly significant aspect of SaaS
Now that's changing, partly because of an accounting quirk. Companies are starting to get rid of their old software at a time when capital-expenditure budgets are tight. Traditional software and the hardware to run it are considered a capital expenditure. But Web-based services are typically sold as a subscription, which means corporate buyers can account for them as a maintenance expense, which falls into a different bucket.
As a result, companies are turning to start-ups such as Ketera, LucidEra Inc. and Workday Inc. that are offering Web-based services for tasks like controlling spending and managing employees. Meanwhile, a handful of older software-as-a-service companies such as Taleo Corp. and RightNow Technologies Inc. have gone public; another, NetSuite Inc., is widely expected to try to do so.