Every major industry today is undergoing some form of digital transformation. Some, like legal technology and certain areas of the supply chain, are much less established than, say fintech or consumer-facing ecommerce apps. For many executives and others responsible for purchasing decisions, the sheer amount of technology options available to them can, ironically, slow the process of digital transformation.
Understanding the right technology to implement is key to mitigating operational expenses, enhancing economies of scale and preparing for a future even more dependent on technology. That’s why Software-as-a-service (SaaS) has become one of the most trusted and efficient technologies in business.
Organizations use SaaS and cloud computing for a variety of reasons. The shift away from on-premise technology inherently gives them more flexibility to sell products but it also stabilizes business models in the form of recurring revenues, making cash flow, profits and projections more predictable. It’s also, of course, easier to deploy and, more often than not, a more attractive option to potential customers. Although SaaS impacts businesses in various industries differently, it has become an alternative, cost-effective IT option where businesses are only required to build or outsource infrastructure for operations.
How SaaS Can Impact Your Business
Both small and large businesses have a chance to compete effectively in a market—cloud-based technologies only enhance that ability. You don’t have to own infrastructure to provide services to your clients. Therefore, corporate investments in SaaS have increased significantly over the past decade. Some of the business-centric SaaS adopted include:
- SAP Analytics Cloud
- Sales customer relationship management (CRM)
- Oracle Resource Planning Cloud
SaaS accounted for the largest part of the cloud market and was estimated by Gartner, to total up to $117.1 billion in revenue last year. Scale suddenly becomes less about brute force and more about smart, effective implementations.
Expand the Opportunity to Compete
SaaS can allow your business to compete with others with a larger infrastructure base. SaaS provides an equal opportunity for businesses in all industries to scale their operations while maintaining low resource costs and minimizing barriers to entry like massive capital costs.
It also eliminates the conventional monopoly of large organizations dominating markets and customers due to vast resources. Setting the stage for all sized businesses to capture market share and win customers on a more consistent level.
Remote Access
Remote access technology has been one of the most important elements of digital transformation and cloud migration in the past three years. While many organizations implemented remote access in the pre-pandemic period, it has become an essential element to business success and growth in the time since.
Not having to install hardware or software to offer services—and value—to your clients makes acquiring customers a little easier. With SaaS applications, you can outsource services and start your services immediately. All you need is to sign up for the service and allow access to relevant clients. From there, you can run your services on a SaaS application.
You can integrate your organizational departments to enhance efficiency and remote access to all corporate data on one platform.
You can also integrate business websites, reports, and files into the SaaS ecosystem. This promotes your business efficiency through information sharing between management, departments and clients.
Data Security
For customers and businesses alike, data security is often the biggest concern when operating in the cloud. In fact, many businesses have already suffered from a data breach.
Flexibility
Saas applications allow seamless new user addition, customizable features, and new business solutions. You don’t have to worry about application updates or customization with SaaS. Instead, the service provider can always ensure your application is up-to-date.
How to Scale Your SaaS Startups
An effective growth journey for SaaS startups is grounded on a robust, comprehensive foundation. Improving business economies of scale depends on multiple elements rather than one aspect of the business.
Establishing a strong SaaS business plan is essential in enhancing your application scale and attain significant growth for all startups. When growth occurs, your business strategy needs to be ready to accommodate it.
But, how can your business achieve the optimum benefits of your SaaS application?
Set Realistic Growth Targets
There is a common perception that SaaS companies experience soaring growth rates after adopting cloud applications. But, according to a McKinsey research, only businesses with strategic growth targets attain more than a 40% growth rate. Yet, many SaaS businesses continue to set inflated growth strategies while investing in projects that don’t materialize. To attain a growth rate above 50%, you need to be among leaders in making strategic goals.
Capitalize Go-To-Market Spend
Sales and marketing are one of the most lucrative aspects of SaaS organizations. Optimizing in this area can amount to 50% increases in revenue or more for high-growth businesses. If you establish a strong SaaS foundation, your business can recover customer acquisition costs within a shorter duration.
You can optimize your sales and marketing strategies through:
- Allocating sales and marketing resources based on future opportunities.
- Using advanced analytics and machine learning to predict market trends.
- Innovating sales and marketing proposition to enhance efficiency.
Establish Your Price Point
Pricing can be complex for any SaaS business. However, if you miscalculate, this element can devastate your business.
If your service or product price is too high, your competitors can win over the market. On the other hand, if you price your products or services lower than the market price, you may not realize the target revenues. Instead, you may run your business at a loss.
Finding the right pricing point requires adequate knowledge of the market and the value of your services/products compared to your competitors.
Strategic Expansion Decisions
There are various things to consider before expanding your SaaS business. For instance, if you decide it is time to go international, you must analyze what risks are worth taking and which aren’t.
Selling your services globally is a big milestone for any business but can involve multiple hitches. You must analyze customer behavior in every market you intend to venture into and ensure your business aligns with the laws and regulations of those regions.
To effectively understand how SaaS can impact your business and facilitate economies of scale, you need the services of a professional agency.
Why Choose Red Fan Communications
Red Fan Communications is a public relations and marketing communications agency that can help you establish how your business can benefit from SaaS. Our services range from brand positioning, corporate communication, and content marketing to data-driven reporting.
Contact us today for more information on how cloud services can help you improve your business economies of scale.
