Which Factors Affect Software-as-a-Service Selection the Most? A Study from the Customer's and the Vendor's Perspective

Business interest in deploying Software-As-A-Service (SaaS) solutions has been increasing steadily. Despite this, there is limited empirical work addressing SaaS selection factors or attempting to understand the vendors' perception of the customer preferences. In this paper, we present the results of a qualitative study on SaaS selection factors that takes into account both the customers' and the vendors' perspectives. According to our findings, selection factors differ across customer segments. Furthermore, vendors appreciate the selection factors that relate more closely to the technical and branding aspects and seem to underestimate the importance of usability and support aspects that are highlighted by the customers.

[1]  Katarina Stanoevska-Slabeva,et al.  Platform as a Service - A Conjoint Study on Consumers' Preferences , 2012, ICIS.

[2]  R. Brodie,et al.  The influence of brand image and company reputation where manufacturers market to small firms: A customer value perspective , 2007 .

[3]  Arun Anandasivam,et al.  Cloud Services from a Consumer Perspective , 2010, AMCIS.

[4]  J. Saunders,et al.  Do brand names differentiate identical industrial products , 1979 .

[5]  Mladen A. Vouk,et al.  Cloud Computing – Issues, Research and Implementations , 2008, CIT 2008.

[6]  Arun Anandasivam,et al.  Consumer preferences and bid-price control for cloud services , 2010 .

[7]  David Hilley,et al.  Cloud Computing: A Taxonomy of Platform and Infrastructure-level Offerings , 2009 .

[8]  Christof Weinhardt,et al.  International Conference on Information Systems ( ICIS ) 1-1-2010 CUSTOMER HETEROGENEITY AND TARIFF BIASES IN CLOUD COMPUTING , 2013 .

[9]  Guy Fitzgerald,et al.  The IT outsourcing market-place: vendors and their selection , 1997, J. Inf. Technol..

[10]  Simon See,et al.  Customers' Preferences for Infrastructure Cloud Services , 2010, 2010 IEEE 12th Conference on Commerce and Enterprise Computing.

[11]  Chris Rose,et al.  A Break in the Clouds: Towards a Cloud Definition , 2011 .

[12]  Edwin Baker,et al.  Hey, you, get off of that cloud? , 2009, Comput. Law Secur. Rev..

[13]  Marijn Janssen,et al.  Challenges for adopting cloud-based software as a service (saas) in the public sector , 2011, ECIS.

[14]  Siffat Ullah Khan,et al.  Factors influencing clients in the selection of offshore software outsourcing vendors: An exploratory study using a systematic literature review , 2011, J. Syst. Softw..

[15]  Ann E. Schlosser,et al.  Converting Web Site Visitors into Buyers: How Web Site Investment Increases Consumer Trusting Beliefs and Online Purchase Intentions , 2006 .

[16]  Randy H. Katz,et al.  Above the Clouds: A Berkeley View of Cloud Computing , 2009 .

[17]  Dave Durkee,et al.  Why cloud computing will never be free , 2010, ACM Queue.

[18]  K. Srinivasan,et al.  Drivers of customer satisfaction for software products: implications for design and service support , 1995 .

[19]  Rajkumar Buyya,et al.  Market-Oriented Cloud Computing: Vision, Hype, and Reality of Delivering Computing as the 5th Utility , 2009, 2009 9th IEEE/ACM International Symposium on Cluster Computing and the Grid.

[20]  Henry H. Emurian,et al.  An overview of online trust: Concepts, elements, and implications , 2005, Comput. Hum. Behav..

[21]  Fred D. Davis.  Perceived Usefulness, Perceived Ease of Use, and User Acceptance of Information Technology , 1989, MIS Q..

[22]  Stefan Koch,et al.  ERP selection process in midsize and large organizations , 2001, Bus. Process. Manag. J..

[23]  Tim Goles,et al.  Vendor capabilities and outsourcing success: A resource-based view , 2003, Wirtschaftsinf..

[24]  Jonas Repschläger,et al.  Selection Criteria for Software as a Service: An Explorative Analysis of Provider Requirements , 2012, AMCIS.

[25]  C. Saunders,et al.  Achieving Success in Information Systems Outsourcing , 1997 .