Saugatuck Research Reports are deep-dive 20-40 page strategic impact reports concerning important “meta” trends driving the IT industry, and around which significant market momentum is (or will be) occurring. Research Reports provide an executive-level perspective related to key trends and market drivers, supported by fact-based research that often includes Saugatuck-based web surveys, executive interviews and vendor briefings with established and emerging players.

In addition to viewing the list of Research Reports below, organized by date, please take advantage of our Advanced Research Search capability to input a free-form text search, or the ability to search by author, by date, or by topic area -- or visit our Research Library by Topic.

Cloud Business Solutions (SaaS) – Topline Survey Data Report (B. McNee, 26 pages, SSR-750, $$$)

This summary data report exclusive to Saugatuck CRS clients provides fact-based insight into business and IT user business drivers, Cloud Business Solution / SaaS adoption trends, benefits, concerns, satisfaction, business and technology channel preference and total software spend (Cloud vs On Prem).

The report highlights data and analysis from 6 months of Saugatuck Cloud Business Solutions program research, including a global web survey, briefings with leading Cloud services providers, and interviews with user executives and managers having extensive Cloud Computing experience.

Lead, Follow, and Get Out of the Way: A Working Model for Cloud IT through 2014 (B. Guptill,  24 pages, SSR-706, $$$)

Traditional IT and business leadership strategies and tactics will be of limited effectiveness in a Cloud-based environment where anyone can do practically anything they want or need to. Thus, how user organizations plan for and manage Cloud IT will have to improve upon established practices and policies. IT, Finance, and line-of-business executives must learn and use new, combined management tactics when it comes to Cloud IT. 

This core finding is the foundation of the latest research study from Saugatuck Technology Inc., titled “Lead, Follow, and Get Out of the Way: A Working Model for Cloud IT through 2014.” Released on February 25, 2010, the study uses interviews with experienced user organization executives, analysis of global survey data, and insights from leading Cloud providers, to build a realistic, working model of Cloud evolution, adoption, and most importantly, cost-effective management.

"Cloud adoption right now is a point-solution phenomenon, and we know from every previous instance of IT that point solutions cost more in the long run,” according to Saugatuck Managing Director Bruce Guptill,  the study’s lead author. “If IT, Finance, and business leaders can see and  understand how Cloud adoption is growing and changing, they can manage it, and take advantage of tremendous cost efficiencies. In this report, we have developed a  simple, evolutionary model of Cloud IT adoption and its impact over time. And we deliver guidance to user executives as well as to providers of Cloud IT and traditional IT as to how best to manage the Cloud’s present and future.”

This argument is borne out by the study’s key findings, which include the following:

Cloud Infrastructure Services Data Report: Traditional Approaches to New IT (B. Guptill, M. Koenig, 28 pages, SSR-680, $$$)

This summary data report exclusive to Saugatuck CRS clients provides fact-based insight into what user IT and business executives really see in, and expect from, Cloud Computing, especially in the rapidly-emerging market for Cloud Infrastructure Services.

In this report, CRS clients receive data, analysis and insight on key areas of Cloud infrastructure adoption and planning, including the following:

The report highlights data and analysis from 6 months of Saugatuck Cloud program research, including a global web survey, briefings with leading Cloud services providers, and interviews with user executives and managers having extensive Cloud Computing experience.

Monetizing the Cloud: Assessing Billing and Payment Providers (M. West, 36 pages, SSR-661, $$$)

Billing capability is a critical ingredient in business success and sustainability in the Cloud. Effective billing and payment solutions are essential in enabling monetization, providing agility in competitive situations, managing the channel, and reducing operational costs for any Cloud services provider.

The need for effective billing and payment solutions is the foundation of the latest research study from Saugatuck Technology Inc., titled “Monetizing the Cloud: Assessing Billing and Payment Providers,” which focuses on the need for, and roles of, billing and payment solutions in all aspects of Cloud Computing, from the foundational technology layers up through SaaS and Cloud platforms and ecosystems.

In examining this highly fragmented market, the study profiles solutions of eight Cloud billing solution providers, some of them Cloud-based solutions -- Aria, Monexa (formerly IP Applications), OpSource, Vindicia and Zuora -- and some on-premise software solutions -- Metratech, Parallels, RevX.

One thing is certain: You cannot monetize it if you cannot bill for it.

An Endless Cycle of Innovation: Saugatuck SaaS Scenarios Through 2014 (B. Guptill, B. McNee, 28 pages, SSR-634, $$$)

Software-as-a-service (SaaS) is changing the fundamentals of business for user companies and for SaaS providers themselves. These changes are part of a multi-year “loop” cycle that reciprocates between users and providers, with each side influencing the other in unforeseen ways.

Mismanaging this “endless loop of innovation” will prevent user firms from being able to derive real competitive advantage from SaaS, prevent SaaS providers from competing on an increasingly global stage, and trap ISVs from growing along with the global user IT market.

Understanding how each side influences the others, and how to manage it effectively through changing market scenarios, is the key theme of “An Endless Cycle of Innovation: Saugatuck SaaS Scenarios Through 2014,” the latest and most ambitious global research report developed by Saugatuck Technology Inc.

This report includes analysis, insights and guidance developed from Saugatuck’s fourth annual SaaS research program, which was comprised of a web survey including 1,788 qualified user enterprise executives; interviews with 30 user enterprise executives with SaaS experience; and briefings with 25 SaaS vendors/providers.

“The research shows us a combination of changing SaaS acquisition and adoption, both as a result of the global recession, and as a result of the changing nature of SaaS itself. How users do business with SaaS is changing how providers develop and deliver SaaS, and is changing how ISVs and other players will need to compete over the next several years,” according to Saugatuck founder and CEO Bill McNee, one of the study’s lead authors. “Failure to recognize and adapt to these changes will make it extremely difficult, and much more costly than it should be, for anyone to benefit from SaaS.”

Bridging the Gap: Achieving the Promise of Enterprise Social Computing (M. Koenig, 24 pages, SSR-571, $$$)

The business potential of enterprise social computing (ESC) goes far beyond typical reports promoting it to improve marketing and customer service. Research released today by Saugatuck Technology shows that ESC solutions also deliver quantifiable business value by improving collaboration and business performance within and between user enterprises, from Research & Development to Customer Service & Support – with the result that ESC is increasingly viewed as an business game-changer.

But as noted in Saugatuck’s new report, “Bridging the Gap: Achieving the Promise of Enterprise Social Computing,” the scenario is not all rosy. Significant obstacles exist for user organizations and providers both – and are not necessarily planned for, or managed, effectively.

“Our research shows that, just as with other emerging technologies before it, there are critical technology, management and - most importantly - cultural hurdles that must be overcome before social computing can deliver on its potential. If these are not addressed, then enterprise social computing will be relegated to ‘niche software’ status, and used only for limited business functions,” according to Saugatuck research vice president Mark Koenig, the study’s lead author. “More importantly, many user and provider organizations will have wasted substantial resources that could have been much more effectively utilized.”

The 24-page Saugatuck report includes insights, analysis, and recommendations from Saugatuck’s 2008 and 2009 social computing research program, including in-depth interviews with user executives regarding their ESC plans and experiences, and strategic briefings with leading and emergent ESC providers.

Great Expectations: SaaS Strategies in the Finance Organization (B. McNee, M. West, B. Guptill, M. Koenig, C. Burns,  32 pages, SSR-561, $$$)

The Finance organization sees SaaS as increasingly critical to their evolving business goals, and is increasingly investing in SaaS for point financial processes as well as core systems of record. CFOs and other senior Finance executives within all types and sizes of user firms expect to use Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) to improve their abilities to meet critical business goals, including Finance’s abilities to play a more strategic role in business. In fact, Finance executives expect SaaS to enable improvement in all aspects of core and non-core Finance systems and operations.

This significant shift in the attitude and actions of senior Finance executives toward SaaS as strategic to business is a key aspect of  Saugatuck Technology’s newest research study on SaaS, titled “Great Expectations: SaaS Strategies in the Finance Organization.”

Transition to SaaS: An ISV Cookbook (C. Burns, B.  Guptill, M. Koenig, B. McNee, M. West, 26 pages, SSR-545, $$$)

Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) is increasingly considered “enterprise grade” by many IT buyers, and a viable choice to achieve reduced costs, improved service, and ongoing timely functional currency.  As a result, many established independent software vendors (ISVs) are faced with strategic questions that will determine the future of their companies: Will buyers continue to purchase and deploy new perpetual licensed-based software? Should our company begin developing SaaS-based offerings? – If so, when? What is the best roadmap to follow to “SaaS-ify” my business?

Not surprisingly, most software providers are eager to avoid mistakes by learning from others who have already made the transition to SaaS. This Research Report provides guidance to ISVs in transition, with a goal to share the key critical success factors and best practice learning from the 300+ ISVs, system integrators, hosting providers, and pure-play SaaS providers that Saugatuck has either conducted deep-dive briefing as part of our on-going research agenda (over the past 18 months), or with whom we have conducted various engagement work.

Saugatuck research indicates that the decision by a traditional ISV to invest in SaaS should be approached the same as any other strategic business investment. Any such evolution or transition will no doubt affect every aspect of the ISV’s business, and will require development of – and most likely, partnerships for – new competencies and capabilities.

Our research indicates that for many software providers, the technical aspects of the transition are often fairly well understood – even if the roadmap for success may take some time. However, what is less understood are the changes that are required in other areas of the business that are typically much deeper and harder to execute, and often entail much more risk. What many do not understand is that making the transition is more than just re-architecting the software. It is often a fundamental re-examination of the business itself to fully understand the organizational and cultural transition issues that are required for a company shifting from a product- to services-based focus.

Power, Speed and Assimilation: Open Source Changes the Industry, and the Industry Changes Open Source (B. Guptill, C. Burns, 15 pages, SSR-540, $$$)

From 2005 through 2007, Saugatuck described how open source software would change the software industry, from how users buy and deploy business software to vendor business models and development strategies.

In 2008, we found that the key changes that we predicted had already occurred, or where occurring now - as much as two years ahead of the expected timeframe. In short, we found that open source as already changed the software business as we knew it. But as a result, the software business has changed open source as well.

To understand how and why so much change happened so quickly, we delved deeply into the business and technology strategies of open source and traditional software vendors. We interviewed strategists and product development executives, as well as leaders of key open source communities. We spoke with user IT executives about their software adoption and management experiences, and analyzed data from our user surveys from 2005 through 2008.

What we found is detailed in Saugatuck’s latest Strategic Research Report, Power, Speed and Assimilation: Open Source Changes the Industry, and the Industry Changes Open Source.

09-30-08 Different Wavelengths: SMBs, Change, and SaaS Adoption (B. Guptill, M. West, B. McNee, 22 pages, SSR-510, $$$)

Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) is often touted by SaaS providers and others as a key competitive advantage for small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) worldwide. The most aggressive adopters of SaaS in most markets are found within SMB ranks.

Unfortunately, SaaS providers’ approaches and offerings too often fail to resonate with SMB executives. Providers tend to focus on business advantages more germane to larger firms; or they fail to perceive important differences in SaaS awareness and buying based on key sub-categories of SMB.

Meanwhile, SMB executives are increasingly caught in a pattern of aggressive SaaS adoption activity without strategic or tactical plans. As a result, many if not most SMBs today could soon face expensive, and even prohibitive, integration requirements to link disparate SaaS solutions together and with on-premise systems. But an emerging generation of SMBs are more likely to use SaaS – and its close cousin, cloud computing – to cost-effectively outpace their peers.

Saugatuck’s new study of SMB SaaS acquisition, adoption, and management focuses on the business and technological challenges that are unique to smaller firms, and how these translate to business value for SMBs and for SaaS providers. The study examines and illustrates important differences in SMB SaaS adoption and use by company size, and by company age.  And the study provides guidance to SMB executives for cost-effective SaaS management, as well as insights for SaaS providers on how to deliver real value to different types of SMB customers.

This report includes data and analysis from over 200 SMB executives worldwide, insights on SaaS challenges from interviews with 20 SMB business and IT executives, and approaches to SMB SaaS sales and marketing from more than 30 SaaS providers.

At the bottom line, SaaS is about business. And the smaller the firm, the more likely it is that what you don’t know will hurt your business.

07-28-08 Enterprise Ready, or Not – SaaS Enters the Mainstream (Drilldown Data Report) (M. Koenig, M. West, C. Burns, B. McNee, B. Guptill, A. Perrin, 27 pages, SSR-486, $$$)

This 27-page Drilldown Data Report supplements Research Report SSR-460, published on July 10, 2008. It details the disruptive evolution, status, and future of SaaS within user enterprises, from basic applications to cloud-based computing - including the effects of these changes on vendor strategies, offerings, and business models. It provides a comprehensive look at the state of the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) market, supported by a rigorous research agenda that includes worldwide web research, more than 30 vendor briefings and two dozen user executive interviews.

Solely available to current CRS subscription research clients, as a value-added deliverable from Saugatuck.

07-10-08 Enterprise Ready, or Not - SaaS Enters the Mainstream (M. West,  B. Guptill, B. McNee, M. Koenig, , C. Burns, ,C. Beckham, 42 pages, SSR-460, $$$)

The explosive growth of software-as-a-service (SaaS) may be netted down to two core realities that will shape SaaS markets for years to come:

These are two key conclusions that Saugatuck Technology Inc. examines in its latest research study on SaaS, titled "Enterprise-ready Or Not: SaaS Enters the Mainstream." The 44-page study details the disruptive evolution, status, and future of SaaS within user enterprises, from basic applications to cloud-based computing - including the effects of these changes on vendor strategies, offerings, and business models. 

This comprehensive study mines Saugatuck’s rich SaaS research program to provide insight and guidance for users and vendors regarding:

“Enterprise Ready, or Not – SaaS Enters the Mainstream” includes data, analysis, insight and guidance based on Saugatuck’s market-leading SaaS research, including our 2008 worldwide user survey conducted with BusinessWeek Research Services, briefings and interviews with 30 leading and emerging SaaS providers, and in-depth interviews with user executives in key markets.

12-28-07 The Many Faces of Virtualization: Understanding a New IT Reality (C. Burns, B. Guptill, M. West, 28 pages, SSR-420, $$$)

Attracted by dazzling promises of dramatic reductions in the complexity and costs of infrastructures, user IT executives have made virtualization the hottest topic in many years.

All too frequently, the general concept of virtualization is equated with the specifics of server virtualization. That is because server virtualization, or more precisely, mainframe virtualization has been a fixture of the IT landscape for decades. But virtualization can be applied to all IT resources from servers to storage to networks to desktops and is not one-size-fits-all.

As IT vendors move to cash in on the growing popularity of virtualization, they are touting a growing array of offerings to implement, facilitate, organize, mitigate, and/or manage various aspects of virtualization. Not surprisingly, while each vendor’s sales efforts are well-intentioned, the numerous approaches to virtualization and a cacophony of terms can leave users overwhelmed or confused.

10-22-07 Open Source Software: The Next Disruptive IT Influence (B. Guptill, B. McNee, M. Koenig, C. Burns, 30 pages, SSR-395, $$$)

Open source software is everywhere within user organizations. It is considered acceptable and desirable by user executives for all software categories, in all aspects of the enterprise. Open source software is sought out, considered and evaluated for more than half of all business software acquisitions worldwide.  

User organizations see significant business and competitive value from their use of open source software. Users are drawn to open source due to its:  

As a result, open source software has a large and growing, and increasingly unseen, presence within user organizations. The presence of open source is much larger than previously reported – and getting harder to audit and manage. Low cost and ability to manipulate source code means that open source software is (and will be) integrated into  user environments, commercial software solutions, and software delivered as a service (SaaS).

It is this mixed-source, “hidden” presence that will change the nature of business software, the software industry itself, and user IT management, within three to five years. A lack of software standardization, increasingly varied and complex code licensing agreements, community development environments, and vendors’ need to protect intellectually property (and customer bases) mean that user IT and Finance executives will have their hands full with spiraling requirements for managing technology, IT licensing, and vendor relationships. Vendors will have their own pressing issues, from new competitors to their own licensing issues – with vast changes in technology and product/service development methods and costs. 

05-03-07 Three Waves of Change: SaaS Beyond the Tipping Point (M. West,  B. McNee, M. Koenig, B. Guptill, 34 pages, SSR-342, 05-03-07, 34 pages, $$$)

In the span of less than a year, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) has gone from point-solution curiosity to mission-critical applications for user enterprises.  And according to research published this month by Saugatuck Technology, the next wave of SaaS is already being absorbed and adopted by user enterprises as platforms for multiple, critical business applications and processes. 

This Research Report provides a comprehensive look at the state of the SaaS industry and user adoption. The report is based in part on a new worldwide web survey of 250 senior business and IT executives, 30+ briefings with leading SaaS providers and 15 deep dive interviews with early adopter SaaS users. Among other things, the report provides an update to our SaaS adoption scenario, and fine-tunes our SaaS 2.0 vision in areas such as pricing and licensing, ecosystems and verticalization.

“SaaS is beyond the tipping point and accelerating into mainstream adoption,” states Saugatuck VP Mark Koenig, head of the SaaS research program and co-lead author of the new report. “We’re seeing breakthrough levels of SaaS acceptance for mission-critical computing, from SMBs to the largest enterprises worldwide. SaaS is not a curiosity – it’s mission-critical.”

“The second wave of SaaS as a next-generation business platform is already here, and already delivering powerful business advantages for user enterprises, “ adds Saugatuck VP Mike West, co-lead author of the report. “Users are already utilizing SaaS for transaction and collaboration marketplaces, and we’re starting to see a proliferation of SaaS ecosystems that offer portfolios of synergistic and integrated SaaS applications with business services.”

C-Team Research: Growth and Innovation Driving the Global Business Agenda (SSR325, 02-28-07, 15 pages, $$$)

While the pace of economic expansion will moderate in 2007, growth and innovation is clearly on the minds of the 443 senior business, finance and IT executives recently surveyed by Saugatuck Technology and BusinessWeek Research Services.

In fact, revenue growth outpaced both cost control and asset allocation by a 5-to-1 margin as the top business strategy for C-Team executives to improve their firm’s financial performance for 2007 -- implying a more than subtle shift in priorities -- and what looks like an emerging scenario of accelerated business spending rather than saving. In support of this shift, the top five business goals of C-Team executives are all revenue, customer and market share growth related -- with managing budgets and ROI measurement metrics falling precipitously in the rankings.

What is not yet clear is whether the desire for growth will be matched by dramatically accelerating IT investment over the next 12 months -- as IT spending in 2007 appears to lag relative to the business priorities that C-Team executives are embracing. As IT spending controls begin to loosen, however, we anticipate that enterprises will begin to shift toward larger investments, as IT and the business better align to evolving business priorities.

SOA Reality Check: Three Waves of Adoption through 2012 (SSR-305, 12-28-06, 30 pages, $$$)

Depending on who you talk to, Service Orientation is either the biggest disruptive innovation in software, or merely a rerun of object-oriented programming and development. Billions are being spent by vendors to promote Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) as the way forward for businesses struggling to create more flexible, agile business processes while reducing the cost of application development and management. Given all the “noise” in the market about SOA, Saugatuck determined that it was time to find out what users are really doing with SOA – hence we set out to interview over forty senior IT executives to find out what they are – and are not – doing with SOA. Hence the title of this report – a “SOA Reality Check.”

When Saugatuck embarked on our research program in the summer of 2006, our goal was to conduct a real-world analysis and assessment of SOA adoption. Our comprehensive look at the current state of SOA deployment includes understanding the types of applications where SOA is being applied, the degrees of enterprise compared to point solution deployment, whether SOA adoption is being led by business or by IT leadership, and the depth of enterprise SOA penetration. We also lay out a vision for how SOA will likely evolve in three main "waves" of deployment over the next five years. 

The IT Utility: Journey to a Virtual Reality, 2006 - 2010 (SSR-281, 10-18-06, 28 pages, $$$)

Utility Computing. On-demand Computing. Enterprise Agility. The IT Utility. Real Time Infrastructure.  Regardless of the label, the basic concept is remarkably consistent. Enterprise executives want information technology acquired, delivered, used, paid for, and managed in a manner similar to the way we use electricity, natural gas, telephone service, and other commoditized utilities.

The attraction of the IT Utility concept for users has three basic elements: Savings, Reliability/Availability, and Agility/Flexibility.  But what is the reality of Utility Computing? Is it really a desirable place to be? And how – and when – will we get there?  Most importantly, given the real-world complexities of migrating to an IT utility infrastructure, is user interest justified?

SaaS 2.0: Software-as-a-Service as Next-Gen Business Platform (SSR-239, 04-26-06, 34 pages,  $$$)

Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) is one of the most compelling and challenging IT and business innovations of the past two decades. Not surprisingly, SaaS is generating tremendous interest, heated debate, and a broad spectrum of opinion. Saugatuck’s latest Strategic Research Report shows that SaaS is at a fundamental “tipping point” between the current generation of software functionality delivered as a service (what Saugatuck calls SaaS 1.0), and the emerging generation of blended software, infrastructure, and business services arrayed across multiple usage and delivery platforms and business models (what Saugatuck calls SaaS 2.0).  

Based on a web survey with over 150 senior IT and business executives, 40 CIO interviews and 15 deep dive vendor briefings, the report examines the key trends driving SaaS adoption, evolving business motivators and the expected business impact of SaaS adoption. It provides a profile of the shifting mix of SaaS users and the types of applications they are demanding. The report also provides frameworks for optimizing next-generation SaaS provisioning and usage, and assesses the variety of vendor business models that are emerging.

Outsourcing Transformed: New Models and Methods (SSR-170, 05-19-05, 30 pages, $$$)

Significant thought-leadership and primary research-based research study that indicates that the growth in the outsourcing of IT and business processes not only will continue through 2010, but will be driven increasingly by firms making strategic shifts in their traditional business value and operations. The research includes interviews and surveys of more than 200 IT, finance and business executives worldwide.

The IT Utility: The Future of the Data Center 2004-2010 (SSR-150,  07-22-04,  21 pages, $$$) 

Thought leadership research report that provides an independent view of the future of the data center over the time period 2004-2010. It defines and assesses the key business and technology drivers and inhibitors that will have the greatest impact on how the future data center will evolve. Saugatuck believes that the IT Utility is the predominant driving force for change in the data center over 2004-2010, therefore the most important one for vendors selling products and services into the data center.

Pay-As-You-Go IT Services: Where's the Business Value? (SSR-148, 04-20-04, 54 pages, $$$)

Major multi-client study focusing on buyer trends, and key motivator and inhibitors concerning Pay-As-You-Go IT, a next-generation IT deployment and services model otherwise referred to as Utility Computing, Adaptive Enterprise or On Demand Computing. Study findings based on the results of a web and print/mail based survey with over 300 CFOs, CIOs and LOB executives, combined with detailed executive interviews. Co-published  with research partner CFO Research Services.

Utility Computing: A Hard Sell (SSR-141a, 07-31-03, 29 pages, $$$)
PowerPoint-based research summary highlighting the results from a web-based survey of more than 100 senior IT executives (user and vendor) focused on buyer demand for utility computing and pay-as-you go IT services. The objectives of the study included:

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