One prospective Fusion Applications customer said her only interest is in the SaaS deployment model, given the hassles of running Fusion in-house.

The latter option is "out of the question," said Albina Shekhtman, director of business application services and programs at Abt Associates, a public policy and business consulting company, in an interview. "Our direction is: Let somebody else have the headaches."

For example, Abt Associates currently has an E-Business Suite implementation that lacks high-availability functions, she said. "In the cloud, I don't have this issue."

The sole initial reason Shekhtman began looking into Fusion was because she heard it was an online offering, she said.

Shekhtman is hoping to first roll out Fusion HCM software for recruitment, applicant tracking and employee onboarding, if she's able to convince Abt's human resources officials that it's the right move.