"A lot of the activity is happening in the market for collaboration and office productivity applications, which has been ruled for many years by Microsoft [Corp.]," according to Cutter Consortium analyst Jeffrey Kaplan.

"The move is part of a broader trend toward software-as-a-service (SAAS) which will become a dominant force in 2007.

"SAAS has entered the mainstream and is poised to have a "watershed year."

When it comes to SAAS there is interest in the enterprise, according to a Forrester Research Inc. report compiled in November, 2006.

"Enterprises use SAAS most often for human resources, enterprise resource planning, customer relationship management, and security," Forrester reported.