From software-as-a-good to SaaS: Challenges and needs - developing a tool supported methodology for the migration of non-saas applications to SaaS

For all software vendors, but especially small and medium ones and in the current downturn economic situation with such a high competition, businesses that are not prepared to migrate the offerings of their software solutions to the form of online-services not only miss the opportunity to acquire new customers but they also run the risk of losing their existing customers towards new competitors. This transition from a software-as-a-good approach to a software-as-a-service one, is not trivial at all, and there exists a real demand for proven methods to perform the transition from traditional software products to the service concept. Based on this premise, the objective of this position paper is to provide software organizations with a stepwise procedure, methods and tools to migrate non-SaaS applications into SaaS, taking into account not only technical and technological issues but also issues related to business models and how to monetize the final solution. The solutio n presented here is a theoretical approach that is currently being validated in eight use cases in the Basque Country.