Providing software products as online services (Software as a Service – SaaS) has become a popular trend. Such software products don’t require installation and they can be used directly on Internet Explorer and Firefox. This trend has spread to Vietnam.
Starsoft has just launched personnel management software called StarHrm in the form of a monthly subscription via the Internet, not as a packaged product. Clients only need to buy service packs worth from 100,000 to 1 million dong/month, depending on the number of staff that log in Starsoft’s website to use this web-based software.
In late May, MISA software firm also introduced a new version of its popular accounting software for small- and medium-sized enterprises named MISA SME.Net 2010, which is used by more than 20,000 companies. The most special feature of the new version is that it is available on the Internet.
Nguyen Tu Quang, general director of BKAV, the biggest network security firm in Vietnam, observed that his company has invested around 40 billion dong (US$2.1 million) to prepare facilities for supplying web-based software services. Quang said BKAV will begin providing its e-Office and eGate software online later this year.
“This is the best time for providing software products in form of SaaS,” added Starsoft Director Duong Tien Phong.
Phong noted that the speed of Internet connection in Vietnam is getting faster while coverage is spreading. The arrival of 3G networks enables people to use the Internet anytime, anywhere. The economic crisis is also an opportunity for online software, because this service is very price competitive.
Security and dependence to service providers are some worries of users, because all their information is archived on the servers of service providers. The service providers don’t think that this is a matter, because, according to BKAV’s Nguyen Tu Quang, this is an indispensable trend in the world and service providers must invest in servers that meet security standards to maintain their prestige.
Quang was very optimistic that, in the next five years, half of BKAV’s software revenue will come from online software and up to 90 percent in ten years.
StarSoft hoped to have 300 customers using web-based software services this year. StarSoft Director Duong Tien Phong revealed that the first users of web-based software will be small and medium enterprises.
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