Why SaaS needs RIA

Softwares sold under the SaaS model are usually web applications. I say usually because it may not always be the case as SaaS vendor Entellium demonstrated recently.
One of the things that SaaS vendors use to sell is the fact that the software is immediately available and that no install is needed. However desktop installs are now easier than ever and if the desktop application of your competitor is better in terms of UI and/or functionality, the choice will be simple.

Not only your UI should be Rich and easy to use to compete with the desktop equivalent but also to keep support costs as low as possible. Additionnaly, moving some of the processing to the client machine is a good thing in general, it makes the app more responsive and will save cpu cycles on the servers to keep hosting costs down.

Lately a lot of people are saying that SaaS is not a profitable business. It's partially true. Some vendors think they can build any software and sell it under the SaaS model and that it will work. Believing in this is like thinking that SaaS will turn any software into gold. However, take it the other way if your software is gold then you can potentially sell it under any model.