One example: AFC Enterprises, Inc. (AFCE), owner of the Popeyes Chicken restaurant franchise. AFCE’s HR department ran through several different kinds of software before settling on a software as a service (SaaS) vendor, a company spokesperson said at the recent International Association for Human Resources Management (IHRIM) conference in San Diego.

What is SaaS? In a nutshell, it’s a delivery model in which companies don’t own or install the software — the application is hosted by the vendor and companies pay a subscription fee to access it through the Internet.

AFCE is happy with the arrangement, as were several other companies that gave talks at the conference.

Some of the advantages of SaaS: a lower upfront cost and less burden on the company’s IT staff — the vendor handles all the maintenance and upgrades. Those factors are increasingly important as many IT departments are understaffed due to the economy.

One trade-off: flexibility. Without installing the software themselves, companies lose the opportunity to customize applications. That’s why experts recommend looking into all the options a vendor offers to determine if it can adapt to your needs.