Why SaaS is eating the world

Elevators have changed the way people physically move through buildings. Soon enough, the landscape of most cities was dotted with skyscrapers, made possible due to elevators making top floors desirable. Elevators themselves have evolved. Cranks and levers were replaced with buttons and motion sensors, making elevator operators, redundant. The smartphones we carry around did the same to the alarm clocks, GPS, address books, landline phones, camera and watches to an extent. Software has a habit of eating into our world.

If you want to remain relevant in today’s world, it's imperative you keep reimagining your business to ensure you’re not the next local taxi service or hotel caught unaware by your equivalent of Uber or Airbnb. Today, even the traditional non-tech companies have started to imbibe a software company frame of mind. Software is eating our world. This is no longer a revelation. It’s understood. Today, we’ll discuss why Software-as-a-service (SaaS) is eating into our infrastructure.

What is Software-as-a-service (Saas)?

SaaS is a method of delivering applications through the Internet. You no longer have to install or maintain software. All you need is a net connection to access it. SaaS applications run on a SaaS vendor’s servers. Access to the application, including performance, security, and availability is maintained by the same provider.

The SaaS model works a lot like a bank. All the customers of the bank use the same systems and technology. It’s secure enough, so you don’t worry about anybody accessing personal information while providing you a reliable and scalable service. The key aspects of a SaaS model are:

• Architecture which supports multiple users: All users share a common infrastructure and code base which is centrally maintained. This saves your vendors time they previously spent on maintaining different outdated codes to focus instead on innovation.
• Customization: You can customize applications to fit your business needs without affecting the common infrastructure.
• Accessibility: You can access data from any networked site.

The Benefits

Today, we’ll discuss why Software-as-a-service (SaaS) is eating into our infrastructure. Yet many small and medium-sized businesses (SMB) aren’t taking advantage of the service as much as they should. The reason SaaS is such a favorite is the flexibility its subscription model offers you and the ease with which it lets you scale, maintain and deploy applications than your typical on-premise software. Let’s take a closer look at the advantages of a SaaS model.

Don’t have to worry about the hardware:

With SaaS, you don’t have to worry about installing and running your applications on your computers or data centers. Meaning you save the expense of hardware acquisition, maintenance, and provisioning along with installation, software licensing, upgradations and support since the software is hosted by your vendor.

Accessibility:

SaaS applications are delivered across the Net, so your users can access them from any location with any Internet-enabled device. Your SaaS vendor is responsible for upgrades, uptime, and security.

Scalability:

Cloud services like SaaS come with high scalability, giving you the freedom to access more, or fewer features, according to your business needs.

Upgradation:

You can rely on your SaaS vendor to handle upgradations and patch management. This will further reduce the burden on your in-house IT staff.

Specialization:

SaaS tools are increasingly becoming dedicated to focusing on a single problem and not merely blanket solutions for all. This approach means there are more products out there focusing on specific business needs like accounting, CRM, marketing, procurement, HR and more.

Rapid prototyping:

In the SaaS model, your application is already installed and configured. You can provision the server for the cloud and have the application ready for use. Many SaaS companies also come with free trials, leading to a painless proof of concept.

High Adoption:

SaaS applications are available at any location, from any device with a net connection. Most of your users on the net will be more comfortable using the Internet to find what they need. This is why SaaS apps tend to have higher adoption rates.

Flexible payment methods:

SaaS gives you the advantage of predicting the cost, both for the subscription and to an extent, the administration. As you scale, you’ll have a clear understanding of how much it’ll cost you. This makes it easier to budget accurately. You’ll find a lot of packages out there. You can choose the one which suits you best. You pay for this service on a monthly basis using a pay-as-you-go model. You can discontinue SaaS offerings anytime. See, Small and medium sized businesses do not need the power of an enterprise SaaS platform, neither do they need the expensive price tag coming with it. Instead, you can go for the flexible options SMB SaaS market provides you with.

Hope this proves useful.