Once upon a time, IT and tech solutions had to be built, stored, secured, upgraded, and maintained. These solutions were costly, had to be iron-clad protected and depended a lot on hardware. But today we have SaaS (Software as a Service) – a simple and efficient way we can access technology hosted somewhere on the web by paying a monthly fee.
SaaS i an answer to companies’ inclination towards a more mindful and self-aware consumerism: pay only when you use a product or a service. Using SaaS versus buying software licenses has proved to be efficient. So efficient, in fact, that using cloud computing and its implicit SaaS benefits seem to be one of the most important business trends of 2016 for big and small companies alike. But business predictions aside, SaaS is all the rage right now in the enterprise solutions’ field.
Here are ten reasons why SaaS solutions are mandatory for businesses this year:
- SaaS saves your company a lot of time
SaaS is based on cloud computing, the new standard in business solutions. In other words, your company can quickly and efficiently access software that is already installed and configured, having an application or a program ready to use in seconds. Buying your own software licenses is just the tip of the iceberg: complex corporate software systems can take months of implementation, configuration, and maintenance.
- SaaS is easy to access and use
SaaS needs only a reliable internet connection. And since it doesn’t require you to buy supportive software or hardware for your location, this means you can deploy it anytime you wish. In terms of business efficiency, this is perhaps one of the most “visible” advantages: it helps you cut a lot of costs in a very short period of time.
- SaaS is very affordable
If you analyze the cost-efficiency scale of SaaS, you will realize that “renting” software is more profitable for the long haul. Most available SaaS are operated through monthly or yearly subscriptions and don’t require upfront costs. You will also cut back on maintenance costs as the SaaS dwells in the business cloud provider’s environment, so you don’t have to buy servers, storage space or pay technicians to tweak and fine tune the software in order to use it efficiently.
- SaaS doesn’t require much commitment
Say you are in need for a specific type of software and you decide to buy licenses. Businesses today are shaped and reshaped by economic, social, political, and even technological factors. Two years from now, you might not need that specific software at all. When it comes to SaaS, you pay for exactly what you need. When you don’t use that specific set of programs, you simply stop paying your monthly fee. Surely, there are some sunk costs you need to deal with, but they will be significantly lower than if you bought and managed a tech solution that no longer proves effective.
- SaaS doesn’t pressure your workforce
Building a tech solution for your company or having your people install it, learn it and use it, maintain it and scale it takes time and money. Sometimes it can be detrimental to your employees as they have to neglect their duties in order to adapt to the new software. SaaS comes with an offer you can’t refuse: maintenance and upgrading are the vendor’s responsibility, and your team can learn how to operate the software while they are operating it. This helps them focus on their daily work without being permanently stressed to test and re-test, maintain or upgrade the apps.
- SaaS helps your business grow
As a beginner, you will have to spend enormous amounts of money to make your company viable and keep it running. SaaS allows you to be flexible with your investments and gives you room to grow. What is absolutely necessary to know is that there are plenty of SaaS solutions you can employ to grow your customer database and your product/service portfolio without spending too much money or resources. Thus, it allows you progressive growth with a good control of your investments and revenues.
- SaaS comes together with much-needed security
The Internet Security Threat Report for the first half of 2016 warns us that cybercrime is one of the highest dangers companies all over the world need to tackle before they fall victim to it. It is true that some cloud-stored data has been accessed by hackers, but experts in the field say that SaaS is safer than on-premise software. SaaS providers do indeed maintain and upgrade their firewalls and servers in order to protect their clients’ data, so feeling safer and more protected in a world where cybercrime is daily news will help you grow your company in an efficient manner.
- SaaS offers high levels of novelty
Since your workers are no longer bound to a specific PC using a specific software license, they can work from home or from anywhere in the world. Since everybody has access to the same cloud and SaaS, you can:
- implement flexible working hours;
- reach newer pools of potential employees (staying home parents, students, freelancers);
- have control over the working tasks in real time;
- save money with office space and access the information you need any time any place; and
- engage in projects you have never thought about before.
- SaaS allows you to improve collaboration
Having your different employees work from different places on common projects while sharing the same cloud data allows you to build stronger corporate collaboration. Your dispersed employees, project managers, providers and distributors, accountants and department chiefs of operations can all work together in real time, meeting virtually and transferring knowledge and skills. This is a terrific opportunity to bring different professionals to work on a new project that requires a specific set of professional and personal abilities. This also allows a better implementation of product development strategies and customer care.
- SaaS helps you get ahead of your competitors
This is ultimately the main goal of any business:
- you can save money with IT solutions and technicians without jeopardizing your IT capabilities;
- you can progressively invest and control your budget so you will benefit from a more efficient OpEx business model than a CapEx one;
- you have the freedom to bring in experts from different fields to work together in real time and thus develop innovative and complex projects;
- you can have access to high-class cloud software that saves you time, makes you money and keeps you ahead.
In today’s world, surely not all companies find it useful to move to the cloud and embrace SaaS. There are many things to consider implementing SaaS, but if you find that it is worth it in the context of your company, don’t have second thoughts. SaaS is the future for businesses this year and probably the years to come.
About the author
Cristopher Burge is a full-time writer, passionate about technology and business related articles. He is very focused on everything that involves cloud computing in one way or another. He is the editor of CloudStorage101.
