I just don't think it's at all accurate to say or to imply that the many companies who made the decision to use salesforce.com or other SaaS solutions all made the wrong decision or made some shortsighted decision. And no, I'm not affiliated with salesforce.com in any way either - they are just a convenient reference since they are so well-known.

I'm sure that the vast majority of the decision-makers in these thousands of companies are intelligent profesisonals who went through a valid decision-making process that took into account the salient factors for their companies, and were not merely hoodwinked or mesmerized by some slick brochures or fast-talking sales reps. Let's face it, the SaaS companies don't have any monopoly on slick marketing or salespeople. There have to be other reasons for the success of SaaS offerings, and since they have already been mentioned in this thread I won't repeat them, but they are real and although SaaS may not be for every company or every application, it obviously works for many.