Jun
What is the Next Wave of SaaS Development
SaaS or Software-as-a-Service has gathered great attention in recent years as businesses are turning to the technology to take the benefits of the inherent economies of different scales. The ground reality is that businesses are now starting to leveraging the potential of SaaS in order to transform the method of their work, competition and survival.
Thousands of businesses utilizing the same solution on a daily basis, the different SaaS companies can now develop intelligence solutions and new applications which would have been impossible to deliver in managed service or software environment.
In case of the typical on-premise software environment, the software vendor is now far removed from the current customers and has very little insights into the daily challenges. They can’t foresee the major shifts in the client businesses which will foretell the future requirements and remain in the dark about how they can actually add value for clients.
It results in much-required functionality which doesn’t emerge until there is a dire need. This inherent lack of agility can result in irreparable harm to the competitive position of the client. Also, if the customer isn’t the major player, it doesn’t have enough clout when it comes to the demanding changes from the SaaS development company.
The Present and Future of SaaS Development
In case of SaaS environment, the providers of the SaaS are intricately tied to the customers’ success. They are constantly working with the customers each day and also gaining the important real-time feedback regarding who the functionality of the software is inherently being applied to different real-world settings. They are now learning the basics of the business of the clients and now shifting their support and service accordingly.
At present, the SaaS providers, as well as the customers, are beginning to completely recognize the strategic advantage of the SaaS relationship which is much more than cost-cutting measures. According to a traditional software model, in case one customer innovates, then no other customer can truly benefit from it. In case of model of SaaS application development, all the new features and capabilities are now immediately accessible to all of the customers.
This includes taking the benefits of existing integrations which are being built by the different SaaS providers or any new functionality being developed for one particular client and being extended to the larger customer community.
Also Read: What Security Roles Should SaaS Providers have on Their Teams?
The Waves of SaaS Development
As the SaaS is maturing, there are three waves which the providers are evolving to.
- 1st Wave: Replacing the single, mature tenant software applications. The previous players in SaaS web application development, started by finding applications which were ripe to be actually delivered as a major business service in a distinct multi-tenant environment. The earlier success among the SaaS providers was taking an existing individual piece of the software and finding a much better way in order to deliver it.
- 2nd Wave: Applying SaaS model to solve the recent problems which were impractical for different existing single and mature software applications. Once these different firms have created an initial foothold, most of them realized that the SaaS model had many inherent benefits of solving the problems which couldn’t be handled in the age-old and traditional software model.
They are actually leveraging the centrally hosted and common architecture in order to get different companies to work together to solve any particular business process.
- 3rd Wave: Leveraging the by-products of different SaaS business to launch the higher and new value services. Now the SaaS companies currently realize that their entire business model actually creates assets which are quite valuable. The SaaS providers now have a clear image of how their own software is being used.
Over the period of time, they can essentially aggregate the data collected via these interactions and then report back to the clients, providing them with great insights into the individual performance as well as industry-specific benchmarks. By leveraging the different information assets which are produced as the by-product of the business of SaaS provider, the customers of SaaS can now actually gain access to huge amount of knowledge which wasn’t available in the past.
If it is leveraged wisely, this particular information is very potent for development of new functionalities which provides greater efficiencies as well as adapting to the most recent and emerging needs.
Also Read: Factors That Define the Fate of Your SaaS Application Development
Conclusion
SaaS makes sure that the providers are hugely connected to the customers’ success. For the very first time, the customers are now on the table in directing the road map of the software. They are now capable of capitalizing on the wealth of different new functionalities as well as gaining access to extensive information assets which will prove quite beneficial for the strategic planning.
