Network World — Some people complain because SaaS (Software As A Service) applications can't be customized to suit their needs. Of course small businesses have never had the ability to change applications like Microsoft Office, but help abounds for companies wanting installation and configuration support. Now a growing number of SaaS resellers and consultants offer the same level of support for hosted applications. Let's look at help available for Google Apps, HyperOffice and InfoStreet's StreetSmart.

Software as a Service (SaaS) Definition and Solutions

Allen Falcon, CEO of Horizon Info Services, started reselling Google Apps “before Google was quite ready to provision and handle new customers.” His company, a spinoff from a company that provides technical executives to small companies, started with Postini for e-mail archiving and discovery services. When Google gobbled up Postini, Falcon became one of the two dozen initial Google Enterprise reseller partners.

“Google doesn't want to be in the support business, so we do that,” Falcon said. “We help with initial planning and data migration as well.” The company has five employees and 15 independent sales reps, mostly in the northeast and Florida.

Few of Falcon’s customers throw Microsoft Office out when they add Google Apps. “They want to keep their investment in Office, but we handle the Office integration for them with some third party tools.”

One product Falcon mentioned was OffiSync, a tool currently in beta that interweaves Google Apps and Office Apps in some interesting ways. “There are a number of third parties filling in the gaps left by Google, making things easier for customers,” said Falcon.

Gaps remain in several areas of both Office and Google Apps, according to Falcon. “Outlook address lists are clumsy with no synchronization between services. Google lets you build a global e-mail list for an administrator to manage, but won't do a user interface. A number of third parties are working on tools to manage that problem.”

Customers come to Google Apps in general, and Falcon in particular, for e-mail and calendaring. Once they dig deeper, they “get excited about Google Talk with Instant Messaging transcripts, then Google Sites that let them do 90% of what SharePoint does for internal teams and secure customer portals,” Falcon said.

Bundled with support, Falcon charges $75 per user per year for Google Apps. Setup fees vary per user depending on whether Horizon techs must transfer mail from Exchange servers or individual users mailboxes. “Google's new message sync for Outlook is a great move,” said Falcon. “It's much easier for end users.”

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