More and more, we are making use of the Internet as a valuable productivity and communication tool. The evolution of more complex web technologies and faster broadband has seen an (unsuprising) increase in the amount of web-based applications - both on a consumer and enterprise scale.

These applications can range in size and complexity - from simple calculators or music players embedded into a webpage, right through to highly-developed websites as a complete desktop application replacement. In the corporate world, the latter is known as "Software as a Service" (SaaS).

The immediate benefit of a web-based application is not only its portability (it can be used on any computer with a web broswer and Internet connection), but how the infrastructure and administration overheads are all but eliminated. As nothing additional needs installing from the customer end, all software, hardware, respective upgrades and data back-up are taken care of by the SaaS provider. This places minimal extra load or reliance on a customer's corporate IT team - often ideal for small businesses which may have no IT department at hand, or a large corporate adopting a best-of-breed approach.

Additionally, the web-based software allows for constant upgrades and improvements to be undertaken by the provider invisibly, without the user needing to download or install any new software - it will simply 'be there' when released.

With all our Freight Rating, Invoice Reconciliation, Shipping Schedule Management & Reporting now fully web based, eCargo is well down the road to offering a completely integrated SaaS solution. We are currently migrating our windows based dispatch application onto the web as we speak.