Staff WritersTelstra is launching a Software as a Service (SaaS) platform called T-Suite to supply on-demand business applications more efficiently to Australian businesses.
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Telstra Business Group Managing Director Deena Shiff said: “Small to medium enterprises (SMEs) are the ‘engine room’ of the Australian economy and with the launch of with T-Suite they will be able to access the latest on-demand business applications previously only available to big businesses that could afford their own IT departments,” Shiff said.
“For the first time, when it comes to business applications, small businesses will be on a level playing field with the big end of town,” she said.
SaaS enables software to be hosted on a remote third-party server rather than on a business’ own computer network. A business subscriber can use the software at any time simply by accessing it over the internet.
The SaaS market in Australia and NZ is expected to grow at a rate of 65 per cent annually, worth $506 million by 2010. Shiff said Telstra’s plan was to help foster and be part of that growth.
“T-Suite will be a one-stop shop where established software names will share ‘shelf space’ with up-and-coming Australian companies. If an Australian software designer comes up with an innovative program it means they will have access to a national market in Australia and can use it as a springboard to the world”.
Telstra Business Executive Director, Charles Agee, said Telstra was in advanced talks with local and global software providers: “Until now they couldn’t afford it because of the licence fees, the costs to maintain and update and the fact that the applications itself is often over engineered for a small user. We will begin tests with a limited number of businesses at the end of this month with a full scale launch in early 2009,” he said.