Selection Criteria for Software as a Service: An Explorative Analysis of Provider Requirements

Author

Jonas Repschlaeger, Chair of Information and Communication Management, Technical University of Berlin, Berlin, Germany.Follow
Stefan Wind, Business Informatics and Systems Engineering, University Augsburg, Augsburg, Germany.Follow
Rüdiger Zarnekow, Information and Communication Management, Berlin Institute of Technology, Berlin, Berlin, Germany.Follow
Klaus Turowski, ITI, University of Magdeburg, Magdeburg, Germany.Follow

Abstract

Currently, customers can choose among many Cloud providers for enterprise systems. The provider selection involves several challenges to match individual customer requirements and provided service characteristics. Unfortunately, this process is not transparent and characterized by the lack of appropriate selection criteria. Research is mainly concentrated on capabilities and success factors on the customer side. A set of Cloud provider requirements from a customer perspective, especially within the context of an adoption of on-demand enterprise systems, have barely been discussed so far. In this paper we present a set of selection criteria for Software as a Service (SaaS). These criteria are developed to enable a Cloud provider comparison and match the customer requirements with the provider characteristics. We followed a design science approach and conducted a systematic literature review, an extensive market analysis of 651 providers and an evaluation based on expert interviews to develop the presented selection criteria.

Recommended Citation

Repschlaeger, Jonas; Wind, Stefan; Zarnekow, Rüdiger; and Turowski, Klaus, "Selection Criteria for Software as a Service: An Explorative Analysis of Provider Requirements" (2012). AMCIS 2012 Proceedings. 3.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/amcis2012/proceedings/EnterpriseSystems/3