Until very recently, investing in an IT solution to support business operations meant spending thousands – sometimes even millions – on infrastructure, software, implementation, and other cost elements. Today, transforming into a digitalized business is easier than ever thanks to solutions being offered as services.
Software as a Service or SaaS has been around for a couple of years, but the approach is gaining traction among small businesses of today for a number of advantages it offers. We are going to take a closer look at the top three advantages of using SaaS in this article.
Low Entry Barrier
For years, the high costs of implementation have always been one of the toughest entry barriers to break for small businesses. Sure, solution providers are making SME-specific solutions more available. SAP, for instance, introduced Business One to cater to the needs of small and medium enterprises. Nevertheless, these solutions are still too expensive in certain situations.
SaaS completely eliminates the need for hefty investments at the beginning of the implementation process. Businesses can pick and choose the features they need the most, have a customised solution implemented into the different parts of operations, and pay a single, affordable service fee from the start. Some services are even offered for a monthly service charge with no long-term contracts, making them perfect for home businesses and companies with a limited IT budget.
A Solution for Everything
The SaaS business model forms a mutually rewarding relationship between solutions providers and businesses. From the service providers’ point of view, SaaS allows them to connect with more potential customers and reach market segments that were normally unreachable. The opportunities are too good to miss, which is why more service providers are offering their own solutions to the market.
The benefit for business is obvious: there is no software that you can’t get as a service regardless of your needs and personal preferences. Larger companies such as Microsoft and Adobe are offering their expensive software suites as services. Specificsolutions, such as identity management, are now available as IDaaS services.
Painless Upgrade
By relying on SaaS, businesses also no longer have to worry about updates and upgrades. The entire service will offer the latest solutions powered by the greatest infrastructure available. The lack of complicated – and often expensive – upgrade needs is among the many advantages that are helping businesses stay lean and efficient in the long run.
It is also worth noting that seamless upgrades are not the only long-term advantage of using SaaS as opposed to conventional software. Integration with existing and future systems will also be possible due to the fluidity of the SaaS environment. To make it even better, the entire solutions can be made completely scalable, allowing businesses to keep their IT expenditures in check.
These benefits of using SaaS to power businesses are just the beginning. The best solutions available on the market today are offering their own unique sets of advantages, from easy integration with multiple solutions to advanced security features and more. Not taking advantage of these SaaS solutions would be such a waste.
Tech Talk 