Aberdeen reports on QAD Enterprise Applications On Demand SaaS solution

QAD Inc. (NASDAQ:QADA) (NASDAQ:QADB), a leading provider of enterprise software and services for global manufacturing companies, announced today that Aberdeen Group, a leading firm of technology analysts, has published QAD On Demand Gives Manufacturers the Tools They Need to Become Global - its latest Analyst Insight report - in which it cites QAD as a pioneer in delivering a complete Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution in a Software as a Service (SaaS) delivery model.

“It validates the value that QAD On Demand provides our customers and corroborates our own market adoption expectations. In fact, we expect significant adoption in the coming year among customers planning global expansion and smaller companies requiring a robust, yet affordable ERP option.”

This report is the latest in a series of Aberdeen research reports exploring trends and observations around companies' willingness, during the last year, to adopt SaaS for ERP versus standard on-premise solutions. "Some ERP providers have been ahead of the curve in acting on this willingness," Aberdeen stated in its report. "QAD was among the first to offer ERP in the SaaS model with QAD On Demand."

QAD Enterprise Applications On Demand is a SaaS solution that delivers all of the functionality of QAD's On Premise applications, while reducing the total cost of ownership. All of the software, systems and infrastructure are managed and administered by QAD in a secure, reliable data center complying to SAS 70 standards for security and delivering availability greater than 99%, thereby mitigating many of the IT and financial risks associated with ERP implementation and operation.

Aberdeen identifies multiple reasons that explain why companies consider a SaaS option for their ERP solution. Among the reasons most often cited by respondents in a 2010 Aberdeen survey were: a lower total cost of ownership (TCO), the reduced cost and effort of upgrading and lower up-front costs.

"QAD On Demand is priced to address some of these cost factors," noted Aberdeen in its report. "If you consider all of the associated costs of running an on-premise solution, including hardware, software and supporting staff, the all-inclusive price of QAD On Demand is lower than the average cost of a traditional licensed on-premise solution."

Moreover, Aberdeen's survey responses indicate that QAD should expect a further uptick in QAD On Demand adoption due to many companies' limited IT resources and expressed interest in focusing those IT resources elsewhere. QAD On Demand addresses these concerns by minimizing the underlying infrastructure work and technical efforts associated with a deployment, while providing its customers 24 x 7 global support.

"We're extremely pleased by the outlook expressed in the Aberdeen Analyst Insight report," stated Gordon Fleming, chief marketing officer at QAD. "It validates the value that QAD On Demand provides our customers and corroborates our own market adoption expectations. In fact, we expect significant adoption in the coming year among customers planning global expansion and smaller companies requiring a robust, yet affordable ERP option."