Time to move forward with that SaaS model?

The real question might be - Why haven't you already moved forward with SaaS applications?  Let's start with the infrastructure view.  There are few organizations that can commit the resources (hardware and people) that can match the vendors' abilities.  You have multiple data centers; failover; disaster recovery; 24-hour monitoring; security that would be too costly to replicate internally.  If you have these features in your infrastructure and it is not core to your business, perhaps you have invested unwisely?

Now on to the software applications.  For those of us who struggled over the years to keep our applications up to date and provide the necessary IT support, we know what it means to invest in software, developers and administrators.  For most businesses the CRM and ERP applications are not core to our business and do not provide a business differentiation (regardless of what the software vendors tell you).  Rather, the use of information and business process automation to support the business are the keys.

The time is now to review those business processes; figure out new ways to run operations and discard those old practices that no longer provide business value.  I've had the perfect opportunity to review the major CRM and ERP players and their functionality; partner eco-systems and platforms are available now to build an exceptional systems architecture.  Each of the vendors shown in the diagram have strengths and might be a good match to your business model.  You just need to identify what unique features you really need.

My recommendation..... start with a small team that can imagine the future and overlook the nay-sayers.