Enterprise Software will experience dramatic changes ahead. SaaS is the primary driver for those change. It is not the new delivery model, but three key elements: Benchmarking, User Experience and Reach and Cost & Efficiency advantages.

The 2006 Enterprise Software Summit http://www.enterprisesoftwaresummit.com/agenda.htm circles around those themes. I look forward to it.

2006 may become the most important year for the Software as a Service industry. I recently heard people talk about “Hardware as a Service”. Wouldn’t it be cool to get a washing mashine in a HaaS (Hardware as a Service) model? We enter an annual contract and pay $25 per month. If it breaks, it will be replaced, if a new model comes out we’ll get it. And how about our $20,000 home theater for $690 per month? If we wan’t a bigger and better one – no problem! And may be our….

Seriously – our economy will change. Leasing and full service leasing will morph to Hardware as a Service as Software as a Service makes further progress. It will be an exciting yet very challanging development for most of us.