SaaS - All Hype and No Play?

One of my friends after reading my blog asked me to outline some of the primary benefits of SaaS. While some of the the benefits may resonate more than others with the readers, to me the primary benefits of SaaS t(real and Perceived) to the end user include:

• Lower Operational Cost: due to scale advantage that provider is able to leverage and distribute across multiple customers
• Lower Cost of Customization & Software Maintenance
• Faster Initial Deployment & Upgrades
• Up-to-date Features provided by Specialist (do not have to wait for patch)
• Access to Industry-wide Best Practices (software user does not have to hire in-house industry expert)
• Strategic Benefits: Ability to Focus on Company’s Core Competencies (as opposed to IT)
• Balance Sheet Management; Fixed to Variable Cost Conversion

If some of the readers have additional benefits that they can list, please comment on it. Also, i would love to hear more about how different vendors are innovating with SaaS to provide new applications to the end-user, so send me your favorites or nominees.