Software as a Service, often called ‘SaaS,’ is an important choice and alternative for organizations seeking accessibility, functionality and versatility in today’s market. It is a cloud computing model where software products are developed and provided over the Internet as a core service to various companies and businesses. As such, instead of having to install a new software solution in its entirety on their computers or servers and then further maintain them, users opting for SaaS services access the software they need through either their computer’s web browser or use a dedicated application for it.
70% of the business apps companies use from various industries are SaaS-based. According to a State of SaaS operations report by Better Cloud, this would increase to about 85% by 2025. With SaaS software development allowing businesses to bring new capabilities to the market faster than ever, the impact of providing software to various industries has been significant and widely felt. And advantages like scalability, security, easier updates and maintenance, rapid deployment, monitoring, integration and analytics have set SaaS-based products apart in the public cloud market segment.
Industries Leading the Way in Adopting SaaS Solutions for Growth
SaaS applications and solutions allow businesses to focus on their core competencies. They gain the opportunity to offload their software development and maintenance needs to specialized providers. This enables them to work towards their strategic goals or initiatives instead of having to divert resources towards software and IT infrastructure. Here are some ways through which industries benefit from using a SaaS software development company:
- Customer Relationship Management (CRM):
Using SaaS for CRM, businesses can manage how they handle customer relationships and their sales pipelines more effectively. And channel their marketing efforts towards greater productivity. Popular examples include Salesforce, Zoho CRM, and HubSpot.
- Communication and Collaborations:
Tools developed for collaborations and communication under SaaS services enhance team productivity owing to features like project management, instant messaging, sharing documents and video conferencing. For example, Microsoft Teams, Google Workspace and Slack.
- Financial Services:
SaaS platforms regularly cater to financial institutions, and it involves dealing with financial planning, wealth management, invoicing and accounting, among other services. Examples include Xero, QuickBooks and Bloomberg Terminal.
- Human Resources (HR):
Industries routinely rely on SaaS HR solutions to streamline the HR processes in their departments, ranging from employee onboarding to payroll management, recruitment or performance reviews. Popular examples include Bamboo HR, Workday, Zoho and ADP.
- E-commerce and Retail:
SaaS solutions also upgrade companies in the E-commerce industry with software and tools to run online storefronts, process orders, manage inventories and analyze customer buying patterns or choices. Examples include Magento, Shopify and Big Commerce.
According to a report by McKinsey, companies using cloud platforms and SaaS products are about 20% to 40% faster in reaching the markets. These industries, among others like Healthcare and Resource Planning – leverage SaaS software development for their businesses. They use it to fuel their growth by improving customer experiences and enhancing operations.
What New Trends are Improving SaaS Software Development and Growth?
According to a report by Battery Ventures on the rise of Cloud Services and Software, the median valuation of SaaS companies today is more than 15 times forward revenue. One of the reasons lies in the fact that today, there’s a better understanding of the SaaS business model than it was nearly a decade ago. Another reason is that there have been several trends that have influenced SaaS software development. Let’s take a look at some of the notable ones:
- Serverless Computing:
Cloud providers like Azure Functions, AWS Lambda or even Google Cloud Functions have simplified how SaaS products and services get developed. They have introduced server less architectures where virtual machines and server less computing enables developers to code and develop effortlessly. They no longer require to manage or provision new servers for their tasks. This enables them to optimize their costs, scale automatically whenever needed and reduce their operational overhead for an easier time in development.
- DevOps and Continuous Delivery:
The use of continuous delivery methods and DevOps practices have become quite important quite quickly for SaaS software development. DevOps enhances efficiency by combining the efforts of the teams involved in development and operations. It places a special emphasis on communication and collaboration between the two, allowing for the automation of many processes with new solutions being rapidly integrated and deployed. As a result of DevOps practices in software development, product releases and services are faster and more reliable, with the added bonus of a streamlined maintenance process for the SaaS applications.
- AI and Machine Learning:
Emerging tech like artificial intelligence and ML technologies in recent years have also proven to be equally important for developing SaaS products and applications. They have been useful in enabling intelligent features in the development process and software solutions such as predictive analytics, personalized recommendations, data-driven insights and natural language processing. Additionally, SaaS developers have also begun to leverage the frameworks enabled by AI and machine learning to improve user experiences and deliver varying levels of functionality.
When it comes to SaaS software development and growth, it is the trends and technologies like these that have changed the SaaS landscape for businesses and developers. Today, there are more than 40 public SaaS companies that are each generating more than $500 million in revenues every year. And the convergence of these trends drives the industry forward by transforming SaaS software development and boosting growth.
