It has taken quite some time, but it seems that centrally hosted content management tools are finally beginning to reach critical mass. And as content management Software as a Service offerings (SaaS) become more reliable and feature rich, there's no reason to expect the trend of businesses adopting them to slow down.There's a good piece by Marcia Jedd on software as a service in the September/October issue of AIIM's Infonomics. Titled "The Next Big Thing? Software as a Service Takes on Enterprise Content Management," the piece looks at a few different examples of software as a service in the content management arena including, Xythos and Salesforce.com's content tools. From the article:

A recent study by market intelligence firm AMI-Partners...found that 21 percent of small businesses and 31 percent of mid-size enterprises use SaaS solutions today - double the percentage of just four years ago. But what about using SaaS for enterprise content management (ECM)? In this realm, many small- to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and even large enterprises are now turning to SaaS for on-demand solutions.

Although Jedd's article mentions reliability, scalability and security as three of the most critical drivers of SaaS adoption, I don't think you can discount the importance of the cost savings (both initial and ongoing), as well as a reduced reliance on internal IT resources.

Selecting and implementing a SaaS content management solution can be daunting, but the article gives some good general pointers and looks at a number of different solutions. There are a few other interesting pieces in the magazine and you can get a digital edition of the September/October issue of AIIM's Infonomics (formerly E-DOC Magazine) at Infonomicsmag.com. You'll need to create a free account to view the content, but once you have one, you can also download the issue as a PDF.