While much of the focus of SaaS is on services that are driven off a browser, there is nothing inherent in the model that prohibits programmatic access to structured web services with a defined business functions. We are begininng to see an evolution of a market for complex business functions offered on a web as a service. One of such services is Monetization, i.e. ability to perform complex calculations over the web for functions such as billing, sales compensation, benefit/pension calculations, complex revenue splits, etc. etc. Examples in the business world abound and range from stock exchange transactions to cell phone billing to sales commissions for complex products.
In the past such processing was largely handled by programs embedded inside monolithic ERP products or custom coded by enterprises. In both cases, the cost for anything robust was prohibitive for most small and medium sized businesses. Now, with a cloud-based offering, many midsize and some small firms will have access to very flexible calculation capabilities.
One of the companies focused in this space is MetraTech. We recently hosted the CEO of MetraTech Scott Swartz for a 20 Questions session during which we discussed the merits of this emerging opportunity.
© 2012 MGI Research, LLC