Should you select a hosted royalty software solution or a more traditional standalone solution?
A traditional standalone solution is located on a computer at your place of business. You are responsible for backing up the files, installing updates and usually have a maintenance agreement with the vendor. If people from out of the office want to access the files you need to use a service such as www.gotomypc.com or have your IT department setup a secure remote access to the royalty software’s server.
A hosted, or a Software as a Service (SaaS) solution is located on the computers of your vendor. You access it via the internet and they are responsible for backing up your files. The hosting agreement includes all software updates, which are installed by the vendor.
Our View:
a. Compare the 1 year, 3 year and 5 year total cost of ownership. In our experience a hosted solution will usually cost less in the first three years when compared to a comparable stand-alone version. After four or five years the stand-alone’s lifetime cost of ownership will be less.
b. Some royalty software vendors; such as Klopotek, offer an affordable SaaS version of the software used by their larger clients.
c. If you choose a hosted solution pay careful attention to who is hosting the software. Are they financially stable? Is the software mirrored among multiple data-centers? If the hosting service shuts down you could loose access to your software if they shut their doors. If Internet access to the data-center is lost; due to a fire, flood, storm, hurricane, or earthquake you could lose access to your software if it is not mirrored to an alternate site.
d. A hosted solution offers easy access for out of the office workers.