The On-Demand Commerce Consortium, an association of independent software vendors dedicated to the advancement of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions for retail organizations, today announced at the 2008 Shop.org Annual Summit that it will unveil a white paper from strategic consulting firm, THINKstrategies titled, Leveraging On-Demand Retail Solutions to Achieve a Competitive Advantage. The white paper provides valuable insight into the growing number of online retailers turning to on-demand, SaaS offerings to reduce costs, simplify IT management, accelerate revenue growth opportunities and improve overall business practices.

According to a recent Gartner, Inc report¹, “90% of eCommerce sites will rely on at least one SaaS solution by 2013, and 40% of all eCommerce sites will rely entirely on SaaS solutions by that same year.” Given this growth, there is an immediate need to educate the marketplace on what these solutions entail and how they are being adopted to satisfy retailers’ mission-critical business requirements.

The Leveraging On-Demand Retail Solutions to Achieve a Competitive Advantage white paper answers the following questions to help today’s retailers obtain the insight needed to make an informed decision as to how on-demand, SaaS solutions will impact their bottom-line:

• What are the key macro-market trends driving retail companies to seek different tactics for executing their eCommerce strategies?
• What are the direct and indirect costs of in-house, custom solutions?
• What are the most important business and technical benefits of leveraging on-demand eCommerce solutions?
• Who are some of the retail companies that have successfully leveraged on-demand eCommerce solutions?
• What are the steps for success when adopting on-demand eCommerce solutions?

“While many retailers have sought to build and manage on-premise eCommerce infrastructures, many have found that due to the complexity and cost of these solutions, they have failed to meet important business objectives,” said Jeff Kaplan, Managing Director, THINKstrategies, Inc. “On-demand, SaaS alternatives can eliminate these challenges, and deliver significant cost and operations benefits.”

The recently formed On-Demand Commerce Consortium will convene at the 2008 Shop.org Annual Summit to discuss future joint initiatives, expansion plans and policy issues that will help shape the ways in which the organization continues its advancement of on-demand, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions for retail organizations.

To download a copy of Leveraging On-Demand Retail Solutions to Achieve a Competitive Advantage, click here.

About the On-Demand Commerce Consortium

The On-Demand Commerce Consortium is an association of Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) dedicated to the advancement of on-demand, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions for retail organizations. The group invests in market education, practical research and standards advancement that encourage the adoption of the on-demand delivery model. Members of the Consortium include Akamai Technologies, Certona, ChoiceStream, CyberSource, Demandware, ExactTarget, Fifty One Global E-Commerce, Mercent, MyBuys, Omniture, Profitcenter Software (PCS), PFS Web, PowerReviews, richrelevance, RightNow, Riversand, Sitebrand, SLI Systems, and Vcommerce.

About THINKstrategies

THINKstrategies is the only independent strategic consulting firm dedicated to helping enterprise IT decision-makers and technology solution providers achieve their business objectives by leveraging the value of IT/telecom services, ranging from professional services to on-demand services, including application, hosting and managed services, as well as IT and business process outsourcing (ITO/BPO).

¹ “SaaS Impact on E-Commerce” by Gene Alvarez (July 2008)