A01 chaf6542 06 se fm indd

  3 

   Hosted Software as a Service (SaaS) solution.  With a  

hosted solution

 , a standard sys-

tem is used, but it is managed using a  third-  party applications service provider variously 

known as ‘on-demand’, ‘web services’ or a ‘managed solution’. The merits and examples 

of the SaaS approach have been discussed in  Chapters   3    and  6 .  

  4 

   Tailored development.  In a  

tailored development

 ,  an   off-  the-  shelf  system  or  SaaS  solu-

tion is tailored according to the organisation’s needs. This form of project is often based 

on integrating components from one or several vendors.   

 Chaffey and Wood (2005) demonstrated that the prevalent approach is the tailored  off-  the- 

 shelf or hosted approach, which is often the best compromise between meeting an organisa-

tion’s specific needs and reliability while minimising cost and development time. Decisions 

also have to be taken as to whether bespoke development or tailoring occurs in-house or 

using a consultant who is familiar with the latest e-commerce development tools. 

 Regardless of the source of the system, the main criteria used to select the solution are 

common. They are: