Have you ever spared a thought over the ever-widening divide that is ripping apart businesses across industries- the thriving ones on one end, and the starving ones on the other? While some businesses in the digital age are going strong, others are just running amok. This leaves us interrogating- Is SaaS the game changer?

Rampant use of technology- found in the former one, but missing in the latter is ideally the root cause of all good and evil that exists for businesses. Businesses effectively and extensively use automation, robots, drones, machine learning, NLP, real-time analytics, etc., which contribute to their differentiation, prosperity, and adversity.

SaaS, which translates into software-as-a-service, is just a brainchild of technology. It is aimed at providing the much-needed ambo to the businesses of the modern era. Needless to say, twenty-first-century businesses, characterized by unbridled technological advancements, are more demanding and competitive than they were roughly two and a half decades back. Had it not been for SaaS at the helm of contemporary business operations, scores of businesses would have floundered, in addition to how many have already succumbed owing to inadequate liquidity.

Things like digitalization, automation, and the rapidly growing use of AI have transformed the outlook of businesses- from setting up a business to dealing with logistics and operations, and from marketing it to taking it strategically ahead to building a brand- it involves pretty much everything. What was considered a hassle a few years back is now a thing of convenience. Digital media now easily realizes a need that could never have been satisfied without physical presence a decade or two ago. Sounds strange? Living in this era of the twenty-first century, perhaps not.

The current SaaS scenario

Fast forward to the modern-day business landscape, SaaS has been extremely revolutionary. It has helped market followers become market leaders in quick time and has pumped life into many crashing and failing businesses.

Efficient client management software to manage your business’s clients, robust multi-vendor marketplace software to manage a diversified portfolio of any business, and some of the best AI-backed stock trading software — all have been known to bring sellers and buyers closer.

This is the reason why SaaS platforms are growing by leaps and bounds. Practically every business segment today involves SaaS in marketing and customer acquisition, operations, delivery, and multi-cloud software. If data from an article in McKinsey is to be held in faith, the global SaaS market is currently worth about $3 trillion. The estimates further indicate it could surge to $10 trillion by 2030.

A deeper look into SaaS platforms reveals that it is galloping for some obvious reasons. It has not just brought businesses and consumers closer to each other. Still, it has provided numerous reasons for businesses to stay hopeful and agog in the face of impending competition. Following are the benefits of SaaS that businesses can utilize to their advantage and become leaders in their respective industries.

• Cost-effectiveness

Well! One of the most concerning and primary aspects of a business wanting to thrive is ‘cost’. As long as modern-day businesses can economize on their cost, they are absolutely good to go.

By using a SaaS platform, they can easily eliminate the need for upfront hardware and software investments. This helps in bringing down the overall capital expenses. Were it not for SaaS’s feature of allowing businesses a subscription fee based on usage, businesses would have experienced escalated costs. Moreover, a robust SaaS platform ensures continuous maintenance of the website, timely updates and support, etc. This further slashes the IT costs, making it financially viable for businesses. Ka-ching! There you go.

• Flexible and scalable infrastructure

Contemporary businesses unanimously hail SaaS solutions for their ability to scale based on business needs. This eases a business’s worry about the trajectory of its growth. It can quickly get going once it hits the right chord with its audience.

As the business grows and experiences fluctuations in demand, SaaS can easily accommodate increased or decreased usage requirements. This is done without any significant investments in infrastructure. It also eases businesses of any upheaval and turmoil and relays the cost advantages to them. This level of scalability and flexibility allows present-day businesses to adapt to highly volatile and unprecedented circumstances efficiently.

• Rapid deployment function

SaaS applications are highly efficient. They enable lightning-quick and straightforward deployment, owing to their cloud-based infrastructure. With the most minor hassles and minimal software installation and configuration needs, contemporary businesses can operate swiftly. They achieve all this without undergoing tedious and lengthy implementation processes or setting up infrastructure.

• Accessibility and collaboration

Modern-day businesses have an urgent need to collaborate strongly. SaaS applications are the best bet to this need as they are accessible from anywhere in the world. SaaS helps employees work remotely and collaborate easily. This accessibility enhances productivity and collaboration across distributed teams, fostering a highly flexible and agile work environment.

• Automatic updates and maintenance

The absence of consistent updates and regular maintenance can render an online business incompetent and highly inefficient. SaaS overcomes this shortcoming pretty effectively. SaaS providers handle regular software updates and maintenance. This ensures that businesses get access to the latest features, security patches, and improvements occasionally. This also relieves the onboard businesses from the unwanted burden of managing the software updates internally, freeing up resources and ensuring that the software remains secure and in tune with present-day needs. Well! That’s some respite. No?

• Integration and compatibility

SaaS applications are so designed that they can easily integrate with other systems and tools. This allows for seamless data exchange and interoperability. It also produces synergistic effects for the business by enabling it to streamline workflows, centralize data, and leverage the collective power of various software applications.

• Enhanced security and improved data protection

Not all though, but several software providers invest handsomely in securing their SaaS applications. Reliable and robust SaaS providers always prioritize data security and invest in foolproof security measures. They do so by implementing proper encrypted processes, accessing controls, building regular backups, and complying with the standards meant to safeguard customer data. By partnering with a SaaS platform, businesses can benefit from enterprise-grade security measures without the need for extensive in-house security infrastructure.

• Focus on core competencies

SaaS applications are a great responsibility for owners. They own the responsibility of businesses and let them offload IT-related tasks. This parting from IT-related tasks creates a lot of ways for them to focus on their core competencies. By teaming up with efficient SaaS platforms, businesses can freely allocate resources to strategic initiatives, innovation, and expansion decisions.

Wrapping up

Existing in this highly tech-dominated era, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the SaaS model is growing at a fast rate. There is little doubt that it will only ascend strongly as more businesses jump on the bandwagon. An article reports that the fastest-growing SaaS companies manage to grow their teams by an average of 56 percent every year (inspirationfeed dotcom/metrics for building saas). What does that symbolize?

It implies the advantages of running your business through a SaaS platform are myriad. The cloud-based infrastructure platform provides present-day businesses with many reasons to rejoice. They include ascending sales, galloping profits, greater scalability prospects, boosted brand image, rapid deployment, and excellent integration capabilities, among others.

As competition intensifies with subsequent advancements in technology, businesses that stay close to SaaS will reap its benefits. For others who choose to operate without SaaS applications, the journey ahead would surely be extravagant, unworthy, and daunting. This, in all likelihood, will render the business ineffective and incompetent.

Having said this, many prudent businesses of the modern era have assessed their business requirements, the changing competitive landscape, and the suitability of robust SaaS solutions. Such businesses are full-fledgedly harnessing its benefits and driving growth in the highly dynamic business landscape.

This is all happening while other laggard businesses in different parts of the world are still pondering over and procrastinating.

Featured Image Credit: Photo by Markus Spiske; Pexels; Thank you!

Dr Shamael Zaheer Khan

Visiting Assistant Professor and Vice President (Marketing & Strategy)

Dr. Shamael Zaheer Khan, a doctorate degree holder in digital marketing and consumer behavior from University of Lucknow, India and a distinguished academic and practitioner, brings a unique blend of theory and practice to his position as Vice President of Digital Marketing and Corporate Strategies at a leading SaaS firm. Dr. Khan’s expertise spans across Academia, Content Writing, Digital Marketing, Corporate and Business Strategies, SEO and tech articles. This unique blend of skills allows him to create a lasting impact and be widely recognized not only in the academic and SaaS industry but also in the broader professional landscape. Additionally, Dr. Khan has also been an expert contributor of several esteemed platforms and continues to write extensively on technology, IoT, automation, real time analysis, hyperlocal e-commerce, and digitalization, besides others.

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