Five Reasons to Consider SaaS for Your Business
Are you thinking about making the switch from on-premise solutions to SaaS in 2015?
There’s a long list of reasons to make the switch to SaaS from on-premise solutions, but there are a few reasons that stand out most. We’ve compiled a list of our top five ways SaaS can improve your business and save costs over traditional on-premise solutions, but first, we’re going to answer a couple of burning questions you might have.
What is SaaS? Who uses it?
SaaS, or Software-as-a-Service, is a model of software distribution, in which software and applications are hosted on a network (the internet, usually) by a vendor or service provider for use by their customers. Contrarily, On-premise software is software that is installed and run locally within your business or organization.
With SaaS, the user doesn’t buy the software; it’s more like a rental. The idea of paying a monthly subscription fee may seem costly at first, but in reality it’s a model that can save loads of time and money… we’ll get to that later.
According to a Forrester report, the leading adopters of SaaS have so far been customer relationship management (CRM) , human resource management (HRM), collaboration software ( ie. Email), and procurement solutions, but the market is growing.
OK, now that that’s out of the way here are our top five reasons to consider SaaS for your business:
1. Low Up-front Cost
Unlike traditional on-premise solutions, SaaS solutions have a very low up-front cost. There’s no big software license fee, only a monthly subscription, and time and money spent on customization and implementation is drastically reduced, which leads to…
2. Reduced Time to Benefit
With SaaS your application is installed as soon as you sign up. There’s little time spent installing software on your systems, which means very little downtime from purchase to use. Your SaaS vendor should provide APIs and will perform most of the work to get their product working. Thus, the time and cost associated with large scale software deployment is greatly reduced, as time once spent installing and configuring your new software can now be used putting that software to work.
3. Hassle Free Upgrades
One of the biggest recurring costs of on-premise solutions is the need to purchase upgrades and new versions of your software in order to access new features and services. SaaS users don’t need to worry about that– the vendor is responsible for fixes, patches, and upgrades, and the cost of those services should be included in the monthly subscription fee. In most cases, those subscription fees add up to far less cost than frequent full-package upgrades. With built-in upgrades and maintenance, you benefit from reduced downtime and IT costs, as your vendor, not your IT, is responsible for maintaining reliability and keeping to the agree-upon service level. As an added bonus, SaaS saves you the annoyance of constant software update checks.
4. Scalabilty
SaaS grows with your business. Any technical problems caused by increased software usage on your end are the responsibility of the vendor. If you’re up-scaling and need more servers all you need to do is contact your vendor and adjust your subscription.
5. Accessibility
Because the software is accessible through a single delivery model: the internet, it’s available at any time, in any place, and, as vendors add mobile support, on any platform. Most importantly, it’s available through a tool that’s familiar to any user: their web browser. There’s no need for multiple builds of the same software for functionality across platforms, which means no learning curve for cross-platform users.
For information on popular cloud platform providers please check out our 2015 Buyer’s Guide, and our solutions directory.