Getting on SaaS – Why it makes sense for your business

Making your business processes more efficient and generating more revenue are top of the agenda for any business owner. There is also a lot of talk around digital transformation and leveraging the power of digital tools to make your businesses better.

If you’re a business owner looking for enterprise software that you need to adopt for your business processes, you have a few choices. Developing something on your own, buying software from a service provider or using a SaaS platform are probably the options you have at hand.

SaaS is hardly a new kid on the block. The global SaaS market is projected to reach over USD 307 billion in market size by 2026 from USD 158 Billion in 2020. This is hardly surprising because SaaS is a truly versatile delivery model for software applications and offers some very distinct advantages.

Let’s take a look at why SaaS makes the most sense for you!

1. Lower costs

SaaS platforms usually work on a modular pay-as-you-go model which gives you an instant advantage over the huge up-front investment you’ll have to make for developing something on your own or buying a whole software and setting it up on your servers. This also gives you the option to pay only for the number of users that uses the software and gives you much greater flexibility in choosing the platform.

According to a Giva white paper, conventional on-premise IT solutions can are up as much as 75 per cent of a business’s IT budget. Worse, the human resource cost of running and maintaining a conventional on-premise system can be as high as 85 per cent of TCO, a cost that’s trivial with SaaS.

2. Lower implementation time

SaaS platforms are usually very easily configured for use and you can start using it within a few hours. It may take a bit of configuration which can be quite easily managed and is often done by the provider. For example, a SaaS solution for accounting will take between 2-3 months to set up, as compared to an on-premises system that can take as much as a year to properly configure.

Compared to the time it takes for development or implementing a legacy system, this is quite miniscule. It also gives you the advantage of making quicker decisions. Most of the systems work on a modular structure which means it’s easy for you to pick and choose the parts you need and not bother with the rest!

3. Security

Most of the cloud platforms come with advanced security features that are designed to prevent cyber-attacks and data theft. You don’t have to worry about the security of your servers. According to an Aptean white paper, 2/3 of IT professionals cited security as a key determined when picking a cloud-based SaaS solution. This strongly incentivizes SaaS vendors to ensure cyber security and compliance with standards like NIST framework and ISO 27001.

Most of the SaaS providers do give an option for on-premise implementation, which means you, can configure to run these programs on your servers if you’re still concerned about security or you deal with extremely sensitive data that can’t be hosted on a cloud platform.

4. Features and Upgrades

The best advantage that SaaS platforms offer is that they have been developed by experts from particular domains. This means that they have already done the thinking for you in terms of the features you may need and have already included them in those platforms.

There is also a team that is focused on the task of making the software better every day. This is a great benefit as you don’t have to spend your time and energy in updating and maintaining the system constantly.  5. Upgrades and Scalability

Scalability is another benefit of SaaS platforms. Most of these platforms give you the option to start small and then add more users or modules as you grow which means there is a huge amount of scalability. This is great for small businesses and entrepreneurs beginning on their digital transformation journeys.

The modular and pay-as-you-go models make sure that you have the option of running trials of the software and seeing how it works for you in a smaller group before committing large sums of investments for on-boarding more people on these platforms.

Final Takeaways

There are definite reasons for the success of SaaS as a model. The benefits it offers businesses are unmatched compared to other models. SaaS platforms save costs on not just development but also in terms of infrastructure, security, and time.

SaaS is an opportunity for you to drive more efficiency in your business and chase those revenue goals you’ve set for yourselves with minimal investments and the advantage of the best in class systems that run with minimal investments and infrastructure.

By Vaibhav Vasa, Director, Biz Analyst