SaaS projected to grow in SMB sector

It occurred to me at my 30 year high school reunion that nobody likes change, and we don't like to admit it when it's upon us. Even though most of us are now fat, bald and otherwise unrecognizeable, we spent the evening talking about how we all look "just like we did in high school."

Of course in business, as in life, change never comes easy. A recent report shows that SaaS will grow in the small and midsized business (SMB) sector at 20 percent annually, over the next five years, and that the channel will play an increasingly important role in delivering SaaS solutions to customers.

That's truly no great surprise, although some VARs, integrators, resellers and other channel partners are being dragged kicking and screaming to the SaaS table. Ultimately, it will be just as profitable to resell managed services and SaaS as traditional software licenses, it's not going to be a smooth transition.

The report says that SaaS in the SMB space will hit $1.6 billion in 2008, so smooth transition or not, that's a piece of action worth making changes for. The handwriting is on the wall, and resellers are faced with an inevitably right now--especially with Microsoft getting into the act, others are sure to follow.

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