SaaS revolution in the SME space
Posted on | November 26, 2009 | 1 Comment
Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are increasingly embracing hosted applications and there is a plethora of research out there to back this up.
One such survey was conducted recently in the UK, on behalf of Really Simple Systems, covering some 700 companies (the majority with less than 50 employees).
What did it identify?
• Over half (58%) reported increased confidence in hosted applications
• A significant number (83%) agreed that hosted applications require less internal IT support and maintenance than in-house systems.
So what does this mean?
From the anecdotal evidence, businesses are moving towards SaaS based software and effectively freeing themselves from the traditional pains and expense of technology and more importantly making better use of their precious time to focus on building their business. We are seeing real enthusiasm for new ways of delivering technology that is low entry cost, secure and relatively quick to implement.
Business users are also saying that when it comes to other needs such as reliability, speed, data safety and functionality they have as much confidence in SaaS applications as they have with in-house application. This is a seismic change in attitude from only a few years ago!
Hosted CRM applications are proving to be the most popular in the market. The recent survey showed 60% of respondents confident with the concept of hosted CRM with around 36% actively using such an application. Confidence and active use will vary significantly between industry and business location.
The affordability and pricing structure of SaaS applications is extremely competitive and in the current economic climate this has been a significant force in changing perceptions and encouraging more businesses towards hosted applications in order to achieve capability whilst saving costs.
The nature of SaaS ensures that business critical information is readily available at all times, from any computer with a decent web connection. This feature alone supports the growing movement towards flexible working practices. Many are predicting that SaaS CRM applications will overtake in-house offerings in the next twelve months. We are not convinced it will be quite this dramatic but it will be significant.
So what does all this mean for SMEs?
Well, SMEs no longer have to wait until their business achieves growth and reserves to deploy leading technology. The new financial reality of SaaS technology is that the critical applications are available now for a monthly user fee. Effectively the stressful decision making on technology has diminished as the up front purchase has been removed.
SaaS technology is at the “sexy” end of ‘pay as you go’ services with the providers taking the financial risk because they are confident in their innovation and their product.
So why are companies still not getting on board? In our experience there are a few reasons:
1. Many businesses still don’t know what SaaS is or what it can do for them
2. Technology is still viewed as a “big spend”
3. Inertia towards technology as businesses are fixated (and rightly so) with survival
4. IT managers acting as a barrier because they see SaaS as a threat to their existence.
How can the SaaS community cross these hurdles?
1. Preach the message of SaaS and convert those in need of technical salvation
2. Explain that SaaS is not “big spend”, in fact businesses should ‘try it and see’ because the initial outlay is so low
3. Show that SaaS products can aid survival rather than get in the way
4. Convince IT managers that the world is changing and they adapt or die – think British Motorbikes and don’t repeat the mistakes of the past!
The revolution is here – long live the revolution!!!
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One Response to “SaaS revolution in the SME space”
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November 27th, 2009 @ 12:21 pm
I would just like to back up what SaaS Intelligence are saying here. Since we moved to their CRM system we haven’t looked back and we cant believe we managed so long without it.
What I would say is that many people are still not familiar with the term SAAS or software as a service, and when we talk positively about our CRM and mention saas we still get a few blank looks.
What I would like people to do is accept the advice that; it is simple, it is low cost, and that they should speak to the experts at SaaS Intelligence.
The way it was explained meant that even the non technicallly minded people in our business could understand the concept and importantly found it very easy to use after their training.
Well done and keep up the good work.