SaaS stands for Software As A Service and is gaining momentum in the digital signage industry.
Wikipedia defines SaaS as:
"a model of software deployment where an application is hosted as a service provided to customers across the Internet. By eliminating the need to install and run the application on the customer's own computer, SaaS alleviates the customer's burden of software maintenance, ongoing operation, and support. Conversely, customers relinquish control over software versions or changing requirements; moreover, costs to use the service become a continuous expense, rather than a single expense at time of purchase. Using SaaS also can conceivably reduce the up-front expense of software purchases, through less costly,on-demand pricing. From the software vendor's standpoint, SaaS has the attraction of providing stronger protection of its intellectual property and establishing an ongoing revenue stream. The SaaS software vendor may host the application on its own web server, or this function may be handled by a third-partyapplication service provider (ASP). This way, end users may reduce their investment on server hardware too. "
For more information about SaaS visit:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_as_a_ServiceThe main benefits of using Digital Signage SaaS are :
* affordable and cost savings - low monthly costs (no maintenance, ongoing operation and support costs) . Some companies are even providing this service for free.
* cut the upfront costs associated with digital signage deployments
* all the digital signage software is centrally hosted and managed by the company which means all software upgraded are performed by the company
Finally, watch out for SaaS as it will be the next model in the digital signage industry.
