I spoke with Jeffrey Falk, director of product development at The Members Group, a midsize payment-processing company. The group uses Innotas, a SAAS solution for enterprisewide PM (project management).

Falk says the group looked into a SAAS PM solution almost five years ago, but the functionality wasn't there yet, so they went with an on-premises app. Five years later, when they wanted a new solution to "take them to the next level," Falk says, they looked again at SAAS.

"What struck us was that the functionality had caught up, and in some cases, the UI had surpassed what the on-premises solution provides," Falk tells me. As a result, the group deployed Innotas.

The reason for that, Falk says, is that in most cases SAAS apps were designed from the beginning to be Web apps, not just ports of fat clients. Most SAAS startups stay on the cutting edge of all issues related to running an Internet application: SOA, AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML), and mashups are all part of the DNA of any worthwhile SAAS solution.

I also spoke with Rishi Ghuldu, manager of supplier development at Barrick Gold, the world's largest gold-mining company, with revenue of US$6 billion. Barrick uses Ketera Technologies' solution for spend management. It has 27 operation centers, yet before it signed up for Ketera, it had no spend-management system in place.