Hardly a week goes by without a SaaS vendor reporting support for offline services, in line with Phil Wainewright‘s predictions. Industry monitors are distinguishing offline support as one the key components of SaaS delivery model as well.

No, it is not a step backward to the enterprise model, it is a major move forward into a whole new world.

SaaS industry vendors are recognizing the need for offline support for clients with intermittent Internet connectivity (Manhattan Fruitier discussion) or who are on the move. And they are working to ensure that these clients are able to continue to use their services and do not have to turn to the enterprise model. With the offline limitation removed, the choice is becoming clearer.

While it is a given that a vendor is expected to maintain more than a certain degree of service accessibility, it may not make business sense to assume that of clients.

The ability to take a paradigm that may look alien and embrace it for a client’s benefit, shows tremendous adaptability of vendors across the industry. This is a powerful message to the consumers that further pulls the rug away from under the “pure enterprise” solution.

Robert Jaques mentions this when discussing Google new online office product offering:
“…the analyst firm went on to advise firms that Google Apps is not ready as an enterprise-wide SaaS collaboration option for most enterprises”…"This is a version 1.0 product and lacks key features, such as offline availability.”

This is the world we are in today... Moving forward.