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When competition reaches fever pitch, companies are looking for ways to expand their customer base while enhancing the operation's efficiency. SaaS software as a service becomes a veritable tool in this respect, breaking these barriers.
Why is SaaS necessary? First, easy availability of state-of-the-art tools without heavy investment into some complicated infrastructure means cost-cutting and flexibility in scaling the company.
The SaaS market grows fast. As per the forecasts, global revenues from this segment might reach $1.23 trillion by 2032, thus testifying its exponential growth. Every year, new technologies, novel features, and new integrations keep coming to the fore which have the potential of radical transformation in business operation and making them increasingly competitive.
The article elaborates on five great trends shaping the future of SaaS that help these companies not only in maintaining their market position but also to stay ahead of competitors.
Today, SaaS platforms have moved beyond conventional features and are becoming part and parcel of various business processes. The platforms reap the benefits of such integration with other systems-crm, erp, project management tools, marketing platforms, among others.
The productivity gains will probably be one of the driving forces: with continuous data flowing from one system to another, the speed of work and manual errors are minimized. Users no longer must deal with juggling platforms or transferring information manually from one app to another. All systems will work together in an integrated way to provide a seamless experience to the teams and clients alike.
The other good thing is that SaaS solutions tend to need minimal resources for implementation, as they require little effort and cost to integrate with existing systems. Most SaaS applications are designed to harmoniously supplement the existing infrastructure with little interruption to the functioning of business operations. Companies can, therefore, implement automation and analytics capabilities without any drastic changes to their internal processes or making radical changes to already functioning systems. As a result, those companies that integrate multiple platforms based on SaaS will ultimately create an organization that not only generates process improvement but also expedites the realization of business objectives and avoids unnecessary risks and costs.
Still, the SaaS marketplace is alive and well. Right now, there are well over 30,000 global providers that include industry heavyweights like Salesforce, Microsoft, and Google.
Significantly over 52% of SaaS companies today have integrated AI into their solutions by 2024. This dramatic upsurge indicates quick growth in this aspect. The introduction and application of these technologies would also allow platforms to collect heaps and heaps of data, analyze them, automate applications, and customize solutions to specific user needs, thus efficiently improving overall efficiency. However, can companies that do not embrace artificial intelligence and machine learning in their platforms still stay afloat in a rapidly transforming market altogether? In answer to this question, the answer is succinct: great innovations are the keys to holding a business afloat.
Artificial intelligence and machine learning have also become the driving engines propelling forward SaaS platforms. Automation of such repetitive processes brings about turns around execution time and at the same time provides personalized and predictive solutions to the users. But what is their real worth? They allow platforms not only to react to changes but also to anticipate future customer needs, refine offerings, and, most importantly, adapt.
Almost all (99%) companies worldwide already use at least one SaaS solution. Cloud technologies now have become a norm rather than just one of those passing trends.
Confidential information is stashed deep in SaaS systems without most people ever thinking of how much it is. Anything that range from financial to corporate documents is potential target material on cybercriminal agendas. Cybercrime has really moved in leaps and bounds into ever sophisticated attacks and well-honed fraud methods. Platforms are not new to the reason that security measures should increasingly put forth more MFA, end-to-end encryption, data leak protection, etc. Such punctuations have long stopped being ones that are optional but have turned imperative features. All systems can gamble not to have them.
Every year, the move maintains that there are degrees of cybersecurity that keep increasing. Risks can also be defined for corporate clients and customers for the case of the brand's commitment to bridging the gap between the customer and brand employees. Such a breach risks potential millions lost and compromised reputations due to lapses of information safety. Instead, firms came to a point where the newer SaaS offered data safety but proactive issues such as automatic threat detection, user behavior tracking, and on-the-spot attacks-in-responsiveness. Customer trust amounts to currency, spending years in formations as it could be erased from memory in seconds. In an increasingly digital environment, security becomes not fashionable; it becomes survival.
The average business uses well over 100 SaaS apps. This number was below 10 in 2015, illustrating the relatively sudden growth of cloud services: from none to hundreds.
A few years ago, with investments in hardware itself being the first roadblock to success, it was difficult for small-to-medium enterprises to adopt software. Today, the subscription model allows the acquisition of tools required without huge amounts of cash up front, and therefore makes SaaS more affordable for all. Flexible pricing allows companies to choose whatever features and capabilities they deem necessary to their business needs without the disadvantage of paying for too many things they don't desire. Small businesses can now try out new solutions with very little risk, as they are free to change their plan or terminate their subscription any time they wish. In the same way, classically the other half is that scaling with medium businesses is made possible without any of the huge investments typical of other options for this class of software; rather it is one with stepwise rollouts of features as required.
Thus, with the demand soaring sky-high for SaaS solutions, so are prices: with the current annual growth rate of SaaS products cost at 8.7%, unfortunately, now companies are forced to become more discriminate in choosing their plans and features to manage costs. Nonetheless, different subscription models offer flexibility for an organization to align its expenditures based on requirements because, despite the price increase, there are several ways in which businesses can choose to work around it. An array of pricing methods gives companies the latitude to select terms that reduce costs and ensure access to the tools they need.
Pricing flexibility helps companies optimize the features for which they pay. This changes the operational logic of those companies, permitting them to experiment with the tool sets and respond quickly to market demands. Renting software rather than buying has become one of the most practical expenditures in terms of agility towards trends and competitive advantage in the digital transformation era.
A core reason for SaaS's acceptance is that over 70% of the companies considered report dramatic enhancements in productivity as a direct result of new technologies.
The growth of SaaS use in mobile applications and cloud technologies is changing the ways that businesses connect with their customers and partners. Why is this of consequence? In the past, software was really confined to computers; now, the convenience of mobile apps and cloud solutions has made the platforms equally accessible. Customers can now use their tools almost anywhere and anytime they like. This not only widens the horizon of targeting new customers but also creates an opportunity for the business itself.
When SaaS has a competitive edge, such as working through mobile apps and cloud services, one could wonder if that is among the most significant reasons that sway customers to choose one solution over another. Today, the aforementioned applies, as most users would prefer SaaS solutions that gain convenience over other platforms. Another significant boost to customer loyalty is a platform, which is easy to use. The access through several channels allows SaaS platforms to increase their interactions with clients. If a customer can manage their account from a phone at home, from a tablet at the office, or with a laptop during a meeting, this reinforces the idea that the business cares about user needs and is providing comfort. This tells a great story to grow the market but is also very interesting to those users who, in turn, would very much appreciate variety and accessibility considerations in all aspects of business.
Approximately 80% of businesses are planning to increase their use of SaaS for IT-enabled functions, including security, analytics, and data management.
Currently, Lab42 is changing the face of the SaaS industry with the introduction of its delivery solution PandaBox in a SaaS version. The company intends to not only serve the actual market demands but to anticipate them and continually adapt their product to the new necessities and opportunities that develop in this business domain. Learn about our other developments here.
So what is the future for SaaS? We foresee that the coming years will witness many more instances of automation through integrations with smart business tools. More particularly, we expect to see an increase in the automatic analytics platform that will provide a business with insight and quick response to the ever-changing market. On the other hand, the focus of SaaS solutions will shift more and more in the direction of personalization, with particular solutions designed for specific industries or even specific clientele. These trends are already in sight, while the future of SaaS will most probably bring more innovations to maximize efficient business processes and meet customers needs.
