A survey by paperless office provider VersionOne reveals many financial professionals don’t know their cirrostratus from their SaaS. Jon Wilcox reports.

For many months now, astute AccountingWEB.co.uk readers will have noticed [1] an ongoing war bubbling between traditional on-premise software vendors, and Software as a Service [2] (SaaS) providers. The recession has proved to be an ideal time for cloud-based SaaS solutions, with some (like Danish outfit, e-conomic [3]) expecting year-on-year growth of up to 40% for 2009. SaaS Customer Relationship Management provider, Salesforce.com, announced [4] turnover of $1bn earlier in the year, whilst the winners of the Small Business Accounting category at the 2008 Software Satisfaction Awards was cloud-based Kashflow - beating [5] offline rivals, Sage.

The tide doesn’t seems to be turning entirely for SaaS however, as a new survey from paperless office provider, VersionOne [6], has revealed. 67% of senior financial professional who responded to the survey revealed they didn’t know what Software as a Service was. 66% said they didn’t know whether their respective companies would be investing in SaaS over the coming twelve months. We’re just wondering about the 1% who didn’t know what SaaS was, but at least knew their company would be investing in it...

Julian Buck, General Manager of Version One, says, “Despite all the recent hype about cloud computing, this research reveals that many finance professionals are still confused about what on earth it is! My understanding is that the ‘cloud’ is the infrastructure which allows an internet-based application to operate. However, until there is a definitive understanding of what it is and this is communicated in easy-to-understand language and not ‘buzz words’, confusion will continue to reign.”

Buck continues, “IT directors should remember that if they have plans to invest in cloud computing in the future, they will need to convince their organisation’s finance director to release the funds. How can FDs be persuaded to make such an investment when they don’t even understand what cloud computing is?”

Have you found yourself flummoxed by the cloud and SaaS, or are you already an ardent Software as a Service user?