Software-as-a-service platform developer OpSource (opsource.net) is working to make application delivery simpler and more affordable, most recently by introducing its Optimal On-Demand 2.0.

The solution enhances the way SaaS and Web companies develop and deploy applications, further eliminating the need to invest the time and resources into building non-core functionality into these applications. According to CEO Treb Ryan, the solution is pursuing an innovate approach to SaaS delivery.

"With Optimal On-Demand 2.0, we really are taking it to the next level for our customers," says Ryan. "We looked at what a good SaaS company does in terms of how they go after the customer base and how they integrate those types of tools."

Companies can now concentrate on their core responsibilities in creating their solutions while using an expanding list of mission-critical but non-strategic application components provided by OpSource and its partners.

Optimal On-Demand 2.0 includes three components - Optimal Insight, Optimal Billing and Optimal Research - while the Optimal Services Bus acts as the solution's backbone, enabling the delivery of these new capabilities, and additonal ones in the future.

"We realize most good SaaS companies are really Web companies for business companies," says Ryan, "so they focus on being a Web site, making it easy for people to sign up, giving the tools in terms of tracking the users and making it easier to integrate those pieces."

The first component to be released, Optimal Insight, provides SaaS service providers with an integrated real-time view into the business and operational status of their applications. It enables customers to analyze key indicators of their applications' performance, including units consumed, sign-on rates, customer churn, growth rates, advertising spend correlation, feature utilization and daily revenue run rates.

Later this month, OpSource will introduce Optimal Billing, an on-demand end-user billing service that will integrate through the OSB with any application running on Optimal On-Demand. The application offers a complete, end-to-end payment and collections processing capability and the flexibility to dynamically create and price sales promotions.

And later this year, OpSource will release a market research application, Optimal Research. The application enables customers to conduct user surveys, measure their products' success and test marketing and sales promotions.

Optimal On-Demand 2.0 will include Optimal Insight, Optimal Billing and Optimal Research, as well as other application components. Optimal Insight is included free-of-charge with the Optimal On-Demand platform and uses standard Web services application programming interfaces designed to make it easy to integrate with existing applications.

With positive feedback from the customers who have been using the solution for the past few weeks, Ryan is optimistic about Optimal On-Demand 2.0 becoming a platform for SaaS application development.

"We get to a point," says Ryan, "where these types of tools are available through the actual programming application, and eventually people are just going to be writing their apps directly onto these systems. We're very excited about that. We think it makes it much easier for software companies to focus on what makes them successful, which of course will mean our success as well."