Determinants of Choice of Semantic Web Based Software as a Service : An Integrative Framework in the Context of E-Procurement and ERP

The ever increasing internet bandwidth and the fast changing needs of businesses for effectiveness and integration within and with the partners and the distributed/mobile employee force is leading organizations to adopt information systems infrastructures that are cost effective as well as flexible. Whereas the decision to buy software for monolithic applications (single user application) depends only on the user, the decision to buy/upgrade in network applications depends upon the other players in the network and compatibility/standardization with them. Even if one member in the entire chain chooses not to buy/upgrade their systems, the throughput of the entire chain goes down. In such a context, the question seems to be: what is driving organizations to go in for SaaS rather than the packaged model of software provisioning? Whereas there have been studies reporting technology, cost, quality, network externalities and process as the main variables in the utility function of the user, but most of the studies have modelled either one or two in the their models. In this study we develop an integrative framework to identify the determinants of choice of software as a service in the specific context of network applications like the E-procurement, ERP, SCM and CRM. The framework was then tested empirically using the extended analytic hierarchy process method suggested by Liberatore (1987) and the relative importance and the weights of the factors identified using data collected on 8 clients of SaaS and 9 experts in the field of SaaS. Although the analysis helped in identifying quality and costs as the two most important determinants of choice of SaaS, but the other factors such as network externality benefits, technology and process were also found to be significant determinants of choice