Here's an interesting Q&A with Lawson CEO Harry Debes (picked up via deal architect) proclaiming a collapse in SaaS hype in a couple of years.  It is an interesting read and a compelling counterpoint to the hype and excitement around "software as a service" delivery models.

His perspective is based on essentially seeing this type of thing before as "service bureaus" or "application service providers" in previous incarnations that failed to deliver as promised.  Also, he takes a shot at the time to profitability for this type of model.

No doubt that the economics are different from a perpetual model that provides cash up front and a maintenance stream to get fat and happy off of over time.  Incurring an upfront "dip" to acquire customers and using a monthly subscription fee to plane up to profitability is very different indeed as is how to value multi-year contract backlog. 

But what about enterprise customer fatigue with the old model where swallowing such a huge capital investment for software and then hoping for the payback often led to disappointment?  Hasn't doing what is most appealing to the software provider given way to what makes the most sense to the enterprise and allowing them to consume software on their own terms?  Maybe SaaS is a passing fad but enterprise software consumption and delivery models are changing and will continue to evolve.