Category: SaaS

How SaaS Products Can Expand Your Dream Business

Posted on by Debanjana Ghosh

Want To Gain Huge Revenues With Less Investment?

Investing in SaaS products is a great idea if you want to grow your business quickly without spending too much money on manufacturing, operations, and IT departments.

Implementation of SaaS products in organizations serve for versatile purposes to expand your business at its optimum level.

What Is SaaS?

Software as a service is the program integrated into the cloud-based infrastructure to store data in the servers that can be accessed online.

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Hence, the third-party vendor provides the cloud servers to store the data from where the consumers can retrieve the online data from their computer systems.

The SaaS provider distributes the software integrated to the cloud servers to the businesses purchasing the SaaS products.

Why SaaS?

SaaS Products are gaining huge attention due to low cost as compared to the traditional setup.

1. Flexible Deployment

The deployment of cloud-based software is extremely convenient as it does not require any prior hardware setup. Hence, no need to invest in workforce and maintenance charges to set up the software. A sustainable and effective solution to deploy IT software into the systems.

2. Subscription Payment Model

No need to worry about purchasing a license by paying a huge sum of money. All you need to do is subscribe to the SaaS products on a monthly or yearly basis. Hence, extremely cost-effective by paying only a nominal amount as per your requirement.

3. Customization

Cloud computing has made it possible to customize software at ease. Tweak your dashboard with the information required to be displayed. Avail the features with different levels of payment. Hence, highly customizable to meet the organization’s requirements.

4. Scalable And Reliable

The extensive data and activity reports are stored in cloud servers, hence highly scalable to handle huge volumes of data in the server.

SaaS vendors accept to protect the privacy of the client. Hence, the client’s data and information are extremely protected and confined to prevent any data leakage.

5. Trouble-Free Setup

The easy setup of the software is hassle-free and user-friendly. All you need is a good and reliable internet connection to access your data from the cloud.

6. Cost-Effective

Deployment of SaaS products gets rid of manufacturing and maintenance costs, hereby no need for technical employees to set-up software. Hence, extremely cost-effective due to low investment.

Transition To SaaS Products

In the emergence of the digital world, the evolution of SaaS products is happening at an accelerating rate. Industries across the world are demanding SaaS tools to manage and expand the businesses.

Source: BetterCloud

According to Better Cloud March 2015 poll, the average number of SaaS applications used by IT is almost double of 2015. Hence, a dramatic increase in the usage of SaaS applications was observed in 2 years.

Hence, SaaS applications are becoming the driving force to boost productivity.

According to the 2017 research report of BetterCloud, nearly 73% of companies will completely adopt SaaS-based technologies by the year 2020.

Moreover, 86% of end-users have believed that SaaS-based applications have generated higher success rates than desktop technologies.

Therefore, SaaS technologies are no longer alternative solutions for business processes. However, it has become the integral core to carry out all the business operations at its optimum level.

Hence, the potential of SaaS technologies is increasing with the evolution of digital space.

How Do SaaS Products Grow Businesses?

The prerequisites of a successful business are engaging workforce and efficient management.

A business will grow in real terms when more revenue is generated with lower investments. In other words, more clients are generating and retaining.

You have a fixed budget to set up a business, imagine if you are spending a huge proportion of the amount to the development and maintenance of the software with a skilled workforce. This leads to the investment at three levels, manufacturing, maintenance, and labor.

But if you are integrating SaaS-based technologies in your business operations, you can bypass the multi-levels of investment. Hence, a one-time investment in SaaS products saves the company’s resources.

Top SaaS Tools To Grow Business

The SaaS Products has lots of potential applications serving different purposes for different teams to effectively run the business operations.

You don’t have to be a techie expert to choose the SaaS tool for your company. Just focus on the features required to meet your company’s requirements.

Here, we are outlining the important SaaS Products to run and grow your business effectively.

Project Management

Project management tools are important to track your tasks to accomplish the projects and deliver them on time.

Proofhub is an easy to use project management software integrated with collaboration chat, organized files, and feedback platforms to facilitate a simplified and coordinated work approach.

Human Resource Management

HR management software is predominantly used in all organizations to hire the right talent and manage employees’ requirements.

BambooHR provides a user-friendly dashboard displaying insight reports on employee’s activities. The effective tool to manage employees starting from hiring the right talent, on-boarding, fulfilling compensation, and promoting friendly culture.

Team Collaboration

Setting up meetings and to get ready for video chat, communication with your team and manager is critical to gain better clarity on work progress and to discuss the solutions to challenges elaborately and effectively.

I’ve worked with the team at Andolasoft on multiple websites. They are professional, responsive, & easy to work with. I’ve had great experiences & would recommend their services to anyone.

Ruthie Miller, Sr. Mktg. Specialist

Salesforce, Houston, Texas

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Zoom is the perfect tool to communicate with remote teams. Zoom allows video conferencing along with the options to share screen, file share, and messaging.

Employee Monitoring Management

When it comes to managing employees, employee monitoring tools are important to track your employees’ daily productivity.

WorkTrak is an effective SaaS tool that generates insight reports of employee’s daily productivity. Get acquainted with your employees’ performance, attendance, idle and active times and protect your company’s valuable data from insider theft. The best part is the tool comes with a load of premium features at extremely competitive prices.

Conclusion

The broad spectrum of SaaS products available can grow your business at an accelerating rate with less investment. Beat your competitors by integrating the SaaS tools into your daily operations.

Make The Best Use Of SaaS Development Services

Posted on by Jay

Let’s start with What is Software as a Service (SaaS)?

Gartner describes “Software as a service (SaaS) is software that is owned, delivered and managed remotely by one or more providers. The provider delivers software based on one set of common code and data definitions that is consumed in a one-to-many model by all contracted customers at anytime on a pay-for-use basis or as a subscription based on use metrics.”.

In other words, the application that you can use to deliver and managed remotely, and you can access it via your web browser (and mobile device).

All verified end users can connect to it over the internet at any point in time on a subscription basis or pay as you go basis.

As these Cloud-based SaaS solution which can be accessed from various devices like laptop, tablets, and smartphones. It is more important for workers as they can work from anywhere and at any time. Particularly, on this Covid19 Pandemic situation.

What is SaaS Development

Source: Cleveroad.com

SaaS platforms are ever showing smug with their current growth arrow or customer churn rates, even they are the peak of their performance.

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In 2022, you need to take a deep dive to assess the productiveness of your SaaS marketing and engagement strategies to find prospective adoptions.

“52% of SaaS companies increased their spending on customer retention last year.”

“55% of SAAS companies rate Customer Retention Cost as the key metric to measure. (Totango)”

Chris Lean – 310creative.com

SaaS And Andolasoft

SaaS application models are only continuing to grow in popularity, thanks to their scalability, flexibility, license cost reduction, and automatic updates.

Yet while it offers many advantages over on-premise solutions, SaaS also present certain unique challenges that companies need to keep in mind.

This infographic shares the core benefits for adapting the SaaS Solution and how Andolasoft can make your development journey clean and clear.

Let’s get started:

Make the Best Use of SaaS Development Services

Conclusion

By choosing the right approach, you will obtain the ability to maintain, distribute, license your product in the most convenient ways.

But while switching to the SaaS model, you must consider your business strategy that will vastly increase your odds of long-term success.

So, do not hesitate to ask your question and seek clarification from our technical gurus. Let’s talk!

How To Launch Your SaaS Product With a Bang? The Checklist

Posted on by Jay

You have a SaaS idea, and your developers have enough courage to deliver it. But you also have to remember, the market you are willing to enter with your SaaS business is likely to be populated by other SaaS companies. And those are more established and better-funded than yours.

So, standing out in the competition, you have to understand how you can fit your idea and business into the overall picture that makes you different and unique.

I have shared my 8-steps SaaS Development idea that could help even the most desperate entrepreneur.

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If you’ve applied this framework, you can validate your idea and even have some pre-orders in your bank account.

As you are launching your product at the web market, you’re probably not rich enough to run off to the Bahamas directly.

But you have enough fuel to push your product to the next milestone of your startup journey i.e. building and launching the real product.

Here I come with the pre-launch checklist and I am going to discuss:

  • How to create a Go-To Marketing Roadmap
  • Build a successful landing page
  • Start conversations with your pre-launch audiences
  • Get traffic to your landing page

So, let’s get rocking!

1. The Go-To Marketing Roadmap

Here is the Go-To Marketing Roadmap (GTMR) that must be followed before launching the SaaS products.

Go-To Marketing RoadmapThe Go-To Marketing Roadmap which includes the Pre-launch marketing stage
Source: Encharge

The above GTMR can be used for launching the New SaaS products as well as launching new features and releases.

The main purpose of the GTMR is to:

  • To Provide an actionable plan of action that shows the possible ways of SaaS product development and marketing are likely to evolve.
  • To align your product development team and marketing team.
  • It helps to prioritize the marketing activities and provides a general continuity of purpose.

The Out Come of GTMR:

So, what can you produce through this roadmap?

Well, there are both quantitative and qualitative goals that you are in control of. While it is difficult to forecast the outcome but still it will give the outputs or the opportunity to be disciplined and achieve your goals.

2. Build a successful landing page

Actually, it depends.

The landing page depends on “how far are you with your SaaS product development?” On whether you have to show any screens, and whether you’ve to validate your idea or not.

Here I could tell you that letters matter more than pixels.

The main motto is “How” you can communicate the story and the “Why” your product can have a way of a bigger impact for a customer. You must consider your pre-launch success more than the look of your page.

Still, to increase the conversion rates, the landing page design must inspire trust. And forget the quick, unpolished landing pages.

Ideally, by the time you launch your SaaS, you’d have both a raving email list and people that have passed the walled test.

So, the target customer can easily understand what your product is all about.

I’ve worked with the team at AndolaSoft on multiple websites. They are professional, responsive, & easy to work with. I’ve had great experiences & would recommend their services to anyone.

Ruthie Miller, Sr. Mktg. Specialist

Salesforce, Houston, Texas

LEARN MORE

Clear CTA

A single and clear call-to-action immediately visible above the fold

Yes, you can use only a single call-to-action (CTA) on your SaaS landing page.

Whatever goal you set for the landing page, it’s important to have it mentioned in your Go-To Marketing Roadmap.

Next thing – putting the landing page together.

3. Start a conversation with your pre-launch audience

There is just one last thing you need to do before you start marketing your SaaS product.

And this is to set-up basic Welcome email automation that you got from your pre-launching marketing.

The main goal of this workflow is to start the conversation with your potential audience.

It’s also an opportunity to learn more about your subscribers.

On the conversation, you can use the following terms like:

  • We would love to learn more about you
  • Click “reply” to this email and let us know
  • What you are currently looking more?
  • What is the biggest challenge you are facing in your business?

And finish by setting-up the presumption for the following follow-ups like:

  • I am going to despatch one or two weekly updates with content about SaaS marketing, automation, and marketing news.

However, engaging first communication with the new subscribers or visitors’ expectations is vital. So getting them excited is the key.

4. Focus to get traffic at your landing page

It’s time to put our growth hacking tricks on and get some return with it!

Now you have the product landing page up and running.

Now it’s the part “driving traffic to your landing page and growing your list of sign up, orders whichever is your goal.

Many SaaS businesses have managed to gain hundreds or thousands of valid web traffic, so they must be doing something right.

And why do they generally?

Content Marketing: Start writing on Medium (the content marketing site) by using of “how-to” guides that are specific to the pain points of the targeted audience.

Social Media Promotion: Create audiences on Facebook/LinkedIn that match with your product’s interests. And post/boost articles on the Facebook page to reach these audiences.

Do Webinar: Do few webinars with describing the pain point solving pieces of stuff of the SaaS product and promote the same webinar on different social media platforms.

SEO: An obvious advice to do so. You should cover the basics and optimize the SaaS landing (website) page.

Warping up

There you have it! Now you have everything you need to create a successful pre-launch marketing campaign. Is there anything we missed? Let us know in the comments.

Hope you enjoyed reading this and already have some tactical tips for your SaaS launching road map!

Planning to launch your SaaS Product? Let’s Discuss!

How to keep your SaaS Startup Revenue on Track

Posted on by Jay

After an unprecedented bull run for 11 years, SaaS businesses are faced with a lot of uncertainty as they overcome the business impact of the global pandemic.

There is no fixed path ahead. The truths of each Monday are re-calibrated by next Friday. In the current scenario, agility is critical. You must look at the right leading indicators to make decisions quickly or risk getting buried under loads of data.

While revenue metrics like LTV, CAC, NRR, and Quick Ratio are solid ways to diagnose long-term trends with respect to how the business is performing, it is important to look at the leading indicators of your revenue health, and act on them before they significantly impact growth and cash flows.

Let’s dig into some metrics you should consider.

Cash Burn

Cash burn, the rate at which companies use up their cash balance or reserves, can be impacted by both revenue (inflows) and expenditure (outflows). It’s always good to conservatively assume a higher burn rate unless your business is accelerating.

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Even though there are multiple variables impacting your revenue, the key lies in being flexible and reacting wisely from an expenditure standpoint. It’s good to plan for all outcomes, and not assume you’re going to have a V-shaped recovery.

Practice conservatism and have one to three months of a runaway. This is impactful if the current situation is going to linger longer.

If your vendors are affected, reach out. You could prepay some of these expenses and probably negotiate a discount as well. A 10 to 20% discount means cash sitting on your balance sheet, which eases your expense burdens in the future

Sales Outstanding

At Andolasoft, we are seeing the DSO ratio increasing across all our clients as end customers are slow to pay in recent months.

Sales outstanding is basically calculating the time it takes for you to collect an invoice. This metric is one of the few things you can control.

If you received payment in 20 days pre-crisis, depending on the business you’re collecting from, it might take 30 to 40 days moving forward.

This could have a huge impact on your working capital. When forecasting for the next three to six months, take a closer look at the day sales outstanding ratio.

Accounts Receivables Aging Report

Given that most customers might be freezing their budgets, you may want to close payments on your receivables sooner than later.

On the other side, we’re also seeing businesses with stronger cashflow positions offering more lenient payment terms up to net-60 and net-90 days to build a stronger rapport with their customers.

A real-time accounts receivable aging report lets you see how much money your customers have paid, any outstanding payments, and current debt.

Aging reports help identify customers who aren’t paying, which makes it easier for you to reach out and negotiate payment terms.

Lifetime Value

The next thing you need to focus on is your growth sustainability. Growth should never come at the cost of profitability.

If you acquire a customer with a higher customer acquisition cost (CAC) and low lifetime value (LTV), it means you’re scaling but not profitably.

One way to balance growth and profitability is by the rule of 40. If your growth rate plus EBITDA equals 40%, it means you’re growing profitably.

In this scenario, you should ensure you’re bringing in the right kind of customers and make sure that your retention is high.

I’ve worked with the team at Andolasoft on multiple websites. They are professional, responsive, & easy to work with. I’ve had great experiences & would recommend their services to anyone.

Ruthie Miller, Sr. Mktg. Specialist

Salesforce, Houston, Texas

LEARN MORE

The advantage of an LTV metric is that it gives you an idea of your customers’ quality. It also shows how well you’re able to retain them, which in turn, helps your team prioritize the accounts that are more likely to last longer than a free-trial period.

Total Credit Notes

Finally, you should be closely watching the leakage points in your revenue cycle.

The total credit notes report shows you the impact of credits and refunds you’ve offered to customers. While churn is bad news in itself, full refunds are even worse as they impact cash already in the bank.

I see some businesses restructuring their refund policies to only offer credits at this time, but it might have a significant hit on the brand. An option can be setting up internal policies, to look into the merits of each refund, then process it on a case-by-case basis.

On the other hand, acquisition teams are starting to use more coupons and discounts to close more deals.

While discounts are a great way to retain customers and continue running the sales machine, you need to watch its impact on revenue and ensure you are reporting on monthly recurring revenue (MRR) and leakages correctly.

This way, you wouldn’t be pushed to a scenario where sales continues to close seemingly big numbers, but with all the heavy discounts you don’t even see its impact downstream on total MRR.

Everything you knew about growing a startup or SaaS business has been upended. You’ll be faced with making tough decisions and your commitment will definitely be tested.

But with a clear understanding of your startup’s health and how your finances are changing on a daily basis, you can navigate these choppy waters.

Planning to launch your SaaS startup? Let’s Discuss!

How To Implement B2B Customer Retention Strategies In SaaS

Posted on by Jay

B2B software companies have to spend time and money on customer retention strategy. It is not easy to retain your existing customers and get new ones as well. However, it is essential to stay in the game. If your company’s software is not getting traction with customers, you will soon lose them and see a gradual decline in business. SaaS companies have a much easier time with retention strategy than B2B software companies.

Wondering what strategies are working out best for SaaS companies? Read on for 10 of the best strategies for B2B customer retention. But first:

Why Do SaaS Businesses Need A B2B Customer Retention Strategy?

Customer churn has the power to rip a hole in any business. In fact, a recent CallMiner study found that avoidable customer churn costs companies $136 billion a year.

Unfortunately, that effect is amplified when your customers are businesses because chances are, they’ll replace your product with one of your competitors’. That can be devastating if you’re running a SaaS company that relies on customer loyalty or long-term subscriptions to turn a profit.

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Still, the best B2B customer retention strategies aren’t just about playing defense. A mediocre customer retention strategy will keep clients from leaving, but a stellar strategy will excite your customer base, fortify customer loyalty, and inspire clients to recommend your product to everyone they know.

Here are 10 strategies to take your B2B customer retention to the next level:

1. Give B2B Clients Engaging Resources

Especially in the SaaS world, customers will have questions about your product. When problems pop up, they want to solve them right away—while they’re experiencing them.

If you want to increase customer retention, give them the resources to solve problems on their own. Start by crafting quality inbound content that answers their potential questions, and give them access to it 24/7.

When you assemble a knowledge base full of webinars, blogs, e-books, white papers, and other useful content, your customers will be able to answer questions on their own time. As they learn more about your product, their bond to your brand will solidify.

2. Educate Customers Right Away

As a SaaS marketer, you know a customer’s experience doesn’t stop at the sale. If your customer starts using your product without knowing how to use it, that’s a recipe for frustration and churn. That’s why education during the on-boarding process is at the heart of B2B customer retention.

Give customers video tutorials, shower them with welcome emails, and send out newsletters to keep them engaged. These little educational guides will show them how to get the most out of your product. In turn, they’ll reward you with their loyalty.

3. Use Customer Feedback To Improve

It’s easy to get defensive when customers give constructive feedback, but feedback is invaluable if you want to retain customers. Treat it like gold.

Use Customer Feedback To Improve

Of course, you should learn everything you can from feedback and use it to improve your efforts, but don’t stop there. Be sure to let your customers know their voices are being heard, and show them how you’re using their suggestions. Showcasing this give-and-take relationship will strengthen your partnership and encourage them to keep working with you.

4. Keep Your Finger On Your Customer’s Pulse

Customer churn doesn’t have to be a surprise. And if you watch for red flags, you can address issues before customers go quietly into the night. Here are some things to watch out for:

  • They haven’t logged on to your platform in a while.
  • They’re searching your website for cancellation info.
  • They’re less engaged or using your product less.

When a customer throws up a red flag, reach out and see how your company can help. A simple follow-up call or email could be enough to pull them back in.

5. Make Business Personal

More and more, customers want to build a connection with the brands they use. And the more they interact with your brand, the more loyal they’ll become.

Make Business Personal

That’s why excellent customer retention strategies rely on personalized content. Set up loyalty programs, send personalized emails, and keep B2B clients engaged with content that answers their questions. It all adds value to their experience and makes them want to stick with you.

6. Treat Loyal Customers To A Surprise

Especially in B2B relationships, emotions are on high alert. Nobody wants their business to fail, so owners naturally have high expectations for the companies they work with. That’s what makes pleasant surprises so powerful.

Every business relationship is a chance to delight, impress, and deliver outstanding service. By surprising loyal customers with a simple thank you card, small gift, or free upgrade, you’ll remind them how much you value their patronage. They’ll reward you with their ongoing business.

7. Communicate Non-Stop

Communication is the glue that bonds B2B relationships. And a proactive communication strategy can solidify your customer retention plans. Even if your customers are perfectly happy, it’s smart to carve out space on your calendar to connect.

Beyond setting regular meetings, you can beef up communication by sending out newsletters or launching a full-on automated email marketing campaign. All the while, keep track of customer engagement and reach out to them when communication drops off.

I’ve worked with the team at Andolasoft on multiple websites. They are professional, responsive, & easy to work with. I’ve had great experiences & would recommend their services to anyone.

Ruthie Miller, Sr. Mktg. Specialist

Salesforce, Houston, Texas

LEARN MORE

For SaaS companies, uninterrupted communication doesn’t just lift retention. It creates new up-sell and cross-sell opportunities that feed your business’s bottom line.

8. Build Trust With Social Proof

Trust is at the center of any relationship—and that goes for B2B partnerships as well. That’s why some of the best SaaS customer retention strategies out there rely on social proof.

By sharing testimonials, case studies, and customer stories with your clients, you can show them new ways your product can help them. At the same time, don’t hesitate to reach out to happy clients for a quote or interview about their experience with your company. This will remind them of everything you’re doing for them, and it will help them see that they’re an asset to your team.

9. Wring Out Everything You Can From Exit Interviews

It can be heart-wrenching when a customer ultimately cuts the cord, but that’s no reason to skimp on exit interviews. Exit interviews are a chance to crawl into the head of a dissatisfied customer and find those little nuggets of information that will improve your marketing efforts. By learning everything you can from those customers that churn, you can make little tweaks to boost retention.

10. Elevate Experiences With Better Customer Service And UX

B2B customers can’t afford to muddle through poor experiences. If they can’t find a product or solution to their problems right away, there’s a good chance they’ll look somewhere else. In fact, one Accenture survey found poor experiences caused nearly one in two customers to give up on a company’s website and conduct business elsewhere.

That’s why it pays to invest in customer service and your website’s user experience (UX). The more seamless a client’s experience is, the more likely they’ll be to stick with you for the long run.

These retention strategies should help you keep your B2B customers for the long haul, but when it comes to SaaS marketing, they’re just the tip of the iceberg.

Want to make your SaaS product invincible? Let’s Discuss!

How to Implement and Apply SaaS IoT

Posted on by Jay

Organizations must figure out how to implement and apply IoT, how long it takes to get started, and what it will cost. Questions like these often have discouraging answers, especially for smaller companies with little in-house infrastructure.

The cloud, like the internet before it, changed the IT game and became the great equalizer for organizations of all kinds and sizes.

With the cloud, smaller companies could deploy enterprise-scale applications by renting, rather than buying, infrastructure.

IoT isn’t as clear-cut as cloud technology, either in form or substance, which means organizations must rethink their strategy and architecture.

IoT is hardware-intensive and its applications are difficult to design, which sets smaller companies up for the same difficulty as they encountered before cloud offerings.

3-IoT-Connected-Devices

It should surprise no one that vendors have deployed SaaS IoT platforms to address the problem of adapting the enterprise for IoT-based applications, as well as many of IoT’s hardware and infrastructure challenges.

How to implement and apply SaaS IoT - Infographic

Considering all the points, it’s apparent that IoT is one of the biggest digital revolutions in the technology industry.

It is an advanced technology that understands their needs and increases its convenience. And there is no doubt that the SaaS IoT has seen a rise in all sectors.

Looking to Develop your own SaaS? Let’s Discuss!