Tag: saas application developer

How To Build A Successful Software Development Business

Posted on by Jay

In this age of computers and smartphones, we’ve started to rely a lot upon the software programs that give them life. Since computers started becoming prominent, there has been a boom in the software development business.

The software has made life easier for everyone, from education, entertainment, business, or the day-to-day issues, the software has brought the solutions of almost all of them at the fingertips.

The convenience that the software programs have brought to the lives of the people has increased their demands. An increase in demands naturally leads to an increase in production and the same happened with the software market.

Software businesses are growing and new startups are emerging, seeing these businesses grow, everyone at least once wishes to start a software startup. The catch is to do the right things to make it a successful one.

Here are some suggestions that could help you make your software startup a success-:

1. Be Customer-Centric

A business thrives by the efforts they put to satisfy their clients/customers. Making money might be the dream that brings people to start a business but an important key to success is to satisfy the customer.

A customer-centric business thrives over the motivation of solving the problems incurred by the customers rather than just focusing on converting them and making them pay.

Make sure the customer service is responsive, efficient, and welcoming, and you’ll retain the customers and bring in new ones.

2. Minimum Viable Product

For any business, especially for a startup, the efficient use of capital is always an issue. Businesses face risks during several stages of production and distribution, and a faulty decision can deplete a lot of money.

Minimizing risk makes business much more smooth. For a software-based company, this can be done by introducing an MVP (Minimum Viable Product).

An MVP is the most basic version of the product with only the essential features of the product. After introducing the MVP, enhancements and upgrades can be done as per the feedback of the user-base.

This way, businesses avoid scenarios where they incur losses because certain features or the software is badly received by the public.

3. Collaborative Marketing

Marketing is an important part of business development and the interesting thing is that the field of marketing is open to lots of creative ideas, innovation, and experimentation.

Out of all the methods that software businesses use to market their product, an interesting way is to collaborate with other businesses where there is no conflict of interest.

The Co-Marketing model which is used by companies to promote each other’s products helps the participating companies access the other company’s user base and thereby grow their audience.

Because of the growth in the user base at a comparatively lower expense, it is a win-win situation for all.

4. Incentivize the Employees

Efficient employees contribute substantially to a business, however, it is not easy to make them work efficiently.

Even though the employees vow to work diligently in an interview, and a lot of them keep up with their words, often an employee lacks the motivation to give it their best.

The best way to motivate an employee is to give them an incentive and appreciation for their accomplishments.

5. Solve Problems

There are a lot of startups that tend to imitate successful products and fail because people aren’t finding the product helpful. Whatever the issue is, if the product isn’t helpful to the clients, if it isn’t solving their problems, it will fail.

Before developing a software program, always do in-depth research about the demands, the issues that the people are facing, how important will your program be for them- are there any other simpler means to solve the issue, does the issue really bother them, and so on.

6. Measure, Analyze, and Improve

To improve something, you need to know its present condition, and how the outcomes are affected by changing its aspects. The same goes for businesses, you need to be aware of certain indicators that reflect how the business is performing.

saas business applicationsImage Source: Statistica

These indicators are called KPIs (Key Performance Indicators). It is necessary to monitor these indicators along with other indicators and after analyzing the situation, make proper decisions that will improve the situation.

7. Offer Packages

The main source of revenue for a software-based business is subscriptions. While it is essential to offer some free tools for a user to hang on to the software, it is important to provide some exclusive plans that offer more sets of tools.

Such extensive tools are generally used by regular subscribers and businesses who are quite reliant on these exclusive tools and readily pay for them if the standards meet their expectations.

8. Client Retention

As we discussed in the last point that subscriptions are the major sources of revenue for a software company, now if the churn rate for the software is high, the business will lose money in the form of marketing campaigns to maintain the number of subscribers.

Retaining the subscribers is the key to success for a software business especially those with a SaaS product. Proper customer support, attractive offers, and quality products are the things that can make a customer remain subscribed.

9. Third-Party Integration

People extensively use computers and smartphones these days, most of the time, they need different software programs to accomplish a particular task.

Integrating the software with third-party software programs with which it is generally used, will help the users a great deal.

Making a flexible API that can be easily integrated with different platforms and worked upon by developers will help grow the popularity of the product and increase its value.

10. Make it Simple and Intuitive

For a software program to be convenient for public use, it needs to be simple. People don’t want to go through the hassle of learning how to make use of the program to accomplish tasks.

Popular software programs have a simple interface through which people can find their way easily and find the necessary tools and paths intuitively. Make it interactive, simple, and intuitive then see its shining.

Conclusion

Software products are growing rapidly with new ideas, innovative designs, and solutions to day-to-day problems.

While the opportunity is golden and resources are abundant, the journey to success is long and a tough one. The tips that we discussed above will make sure you get across some of the hurdles with ease.

Are you looking to develop a software for your business! Lets discuss with our IT consultant

7 Powerful SaaS Marketing Strategy: A Step By Step Guide

Posted on by Jay

In the era of digitalization, the world of business has seen a drastic change. The internet has made it possible for businesses to expand their reach and target a worldwide market. However, this comes with its fair share of challenges. With the abundance of merchandise available, it’s difficult to stand out and make an impact. A marketing strategy is the key to success in the digital world. For a SaaS company, it’s important to have a solid marketing strategy. This will not only help you gain traction, but also drive your sales and monetize your business efficiently.

With the global SaaS revenue hitting $105 billion this year and then expected to cross $141 billion by 2022, it’s tempting to join the bandwagon and develop your own SaaS business.

However, the SaaS business model is quite complex and that’s why your execution needs to be on point from the very beginning.

The pandemic has hugely impacted our lives, with several business sectors barely surviving to stay afloat.

The rate of cloud adoption globally, has grown significantly this year, as many companies that were not in the cloud already, were compelled to migrate to it by enforced remote work.

In fact, the new world order has seen Software as a Service (SaaS) gaining prominence like never before.

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With limited budgets and accelerated digital growth, SaaS has become the ultimate choice for enterprise IT investments – whether big or small.

So, what makes a strong SaaS business? Here are 7 powerful SaaS marketing strategy: a step by step guide that will help you start off on the right foot from the new year.

Offer A Solution For A Problem

The first thing you need to do is ensure that you are addressing a certain problem and you are offering an effective solution for that problem.

Start by identifying a problem you’ve struggled with and think about how you can solve it in the best possible way.

Another option is to think about how you can solve a certain problem better, cheaper, or faster than your competition.

Having industry experience can also be very helpful as you will be able to identify a void that you can fill.

The bottom line is, if you don’t solve a problem, you don’t have a business.

Write A Plan

Writing a plan is the best way to put your idea onto paper.

This doesn’t mean you have to write 100 pages; you can start with a single page pitch that roughly covers the following:

Strategy section which will contain a short description of your SaaS business and your UVP, the problem you are solving, as well as your solution to that problem (i.e. your product).

This section should also identify your target audience and your competitors and say what makes you different from them.

Your tactics, i.e. the channels you will be using to sell your product, as well as the marketing strategies that you will be employing in order to attract customers.

Include a list of your core team members, as well as the resources you’re going to need.

A SaaS business model. This section will state how your SaaS business will make money. At this stage, include only your key expenses and primary revenue sources.

Once you’ve validated your idea, you’ll be able to revisit your business model and create a detailed cash flow forecast, sales forecast, and expense budget.

Make Some Market Research

Now you have your plan but at this point, it’s just a list of assumptions. In order to determine whether your assumptions are right, you need to validate your idea.

In other words, you need to find out whether your idea can be turned into a viable business that actually makes money.

The best way to do this is by talking to your prospective customers. You can get the necessary feedback by running search ads, launching a coming soon site, or launching a Kickstarter.

You can even go door to door or talk to people face-to-face to find out if they would like a product like yours.

Based on the feedback you collect, you’ll be able to revisit your idea and adjust or refine it.

Or, you might determine that there is no market for your idea and come up with an entirely different one.

Another way to validate your idea is by researching your competitors to see what solutions they’re offering for the same problem.

Is there anything that customers want but don’t get at the moment? What could you do differently and/or better than your competitors?

Get The Pricing Models Right

When it comes to your pricing models, you need to test and be ready to make changes in order for your pricing to fit what your customers are prepared to pay.

And having in mind that the competition in the industry is fierce, this might mean offering your product for less than you believe it’s worth, at least at the beginning.

Performing a thorough check on your competitors is a good place to start.

Determining their average, lowest, and highest prices will help you determine how much you should charge for your software.

Brand To Set Yourself Apart

As we mentioned earlier, the competition in the SaaS industry is fierce, so you need to figure out how to brand and set yourself apart from the others.

This means developing your own tone of voice and investing in design. You can leverage tools like Canva to workshop brand colors, logos, and designs even if you have no design knowledge.

You should also ensure that your messaging is consistent and that your partners, vendors, and clients understand who you are, what your vision is, and how you serve.

Finally, don’t forget to pay attention to your domain.

No matter how insignificant it might seem, choosing a good domain is a key part of your branding strategy, as it will give you credibility and an advantage over the competitors.

If possible, stick with a .com domain name that is short, memorable, and easy to spell.

Prepare A Solid Marketing Strategy:

Content marketing is especially important for SaaS businesses. Getting started with content marketing isn’t hard; all you need is a company blog where you will create content that will help your prospects solve their problems and share your expertise on certain topics to establish yourself as an authority.

Participate In Online Communities

Another way to establish yourself as an expert is to participate in relevant online discussions and comment on other people’s blog posts.

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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Figure out where your potential customers like hanging out online and try to get coverage in those locations. It can also be useful to get listed on all the big SaaS directories in order to get initial feedback about your product.

Final Thoughts

The most important thing you should do as a SaaS business is to get your product out there. As long as you have a working plan and a willingness to make changes, your business will stand a chance against the competitors.

The SaaS Trends You Should Watch Out For In 2021

Posted on by Jay

“Software as a service” (SaaS) is becoming an increasingly viable choice for organizations looking for the accessibility and versatility of software solutions and online data analysis tools without the need to rely on installing and running applications on their own computer systems and data centers.

Gartner predicts that the service-based cloud application industry will be worth $143.7 billion by 2022, which is a level of growth that will shape SaaS trends in 2021.

SaaS is a software distribution model that offers a lot of agility and cost-effectiveness for companies, which is why it’s such a reliable option for numerous business models and industries.

It’s also popular amongst businesses for its simplicity and user accessibility, security, and the widespread connectivity that serves to streamline business models, resulting in maximum efficiency across the board. Today, most companies are in the process of implementing various business intelligence strategies, turning to SaaS BI tools to assist them in their efforts.

2019 was a breakthrough year for the SaaS world in many ways. With a new year on the horizon, in this article, we’ll explore 10 essential SaaS trends that will stand out in 2021. But, before we do that, we will discuss the general characteristics revolving around the industry that will help put additional light on the SaaS industry trends for 2021.

Before we dig any deeper into our top ten SaaS industry trends for 2021, let’s dispel some common myths surrounding the industry.

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The Key Characteristics

Before we explore our essential software as a service trends for 2021, it’s important to consider what defines SaaS as not only a technological development, but as a working business model.

Flexible payment options: Businesses don’t have to go through the expense of purchasing software and hardware. Instead, they have the option of utilizing various pricing structures. Flexibility in payment models, where they only pay for the resource usage they need, for instance, is attractive for many organizations in today’s competitive world.

Scalability: Cloud-based SaaS enables businesses to expand with ease due to its inherent scalability. Companies can be selective about the types of features and options they want.

Updates: SaaS providers handle the necessary software updates and develop new features over time, so businesses don’t have to invest ample amounts of time in this particular area of operation.

Accessibility: With SaaS, businesses have the mobility of accessing applications from any digital device and location, making it especially convenient for mobile platforms. Additionally, it boasts ease-of-use and is user-friendly.

Increased collaboration: SaaS developments enhance a business’s ability to promote collaboration across teams and departments due to the facilitation of file sharing, in addition to a distinct ease of reading and understanding across systems.

Security: Most SaaS models are known for their enterprise-level security, which is a more holistic approach to security than many centralized, on-premise solutions. In Cloud SaaS, per-existing disaster recovery protocols are in place to manage potential system failures. This means that your business’s data is available and secure regardless of a data breach or system failure.

As businesses continue to rely on innovative data discovery tools and technologies to increase both their productivity and their efficiency, and as new software as a service trends continue to emerge, this young, groundbreaking industry can only go from strength to strength.

Even if figures diverge somewhat, the many forecasts conducted on SaaS industry trends 2021 demonstrate an obvious reality: the SaaS market is going to get bigger and bigger.

Indeed, according to Bloomberg, public cloud platforms, business services, and applications (SaaS) will all grow at a 9% CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) between 2019 and 2023, and worth $60.36 billion. A Betterbuys report reveals that the specific expenditure in the U.S. SaaS Industry is forecasted to reach $55 billion by 2026.

And according to Gartner, the global public cloud service market is projected to grow significantly in 2021 and beyond.

“Customers won’t care about any particular technology unless it solves a particular problem in a superior way.” – Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal, one of the planet’s biggest SaaS providers

All signs indicate that this coming year is going to be an interesting, trendsetting year for the trends in SaaS industry. Of all the developments currently in the pipeline, these 10 SaaS industry trends, in particular, are showing signs of standing out as the most significant in 2021:

1. Artificial Intelligence

The first of our most impactful trends in SaaS is of the autonomous, self-learning variety.

Today, Artificial Intelligence is all over the place – it made the top 3 of our list of our business intelligence trends for 2021 – and next year, it’s expected to make some serious waves. Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies are becoming more widespread; it’s becoming a game-changer worth $15.7 trillion.

AI optimizes business processes, increasing productivity and efficiency while automating repetitive tasks and supporting human capabilities.

Within business scenarios, artificial intelligence (as well as machine learning, in many cases) provides an advanced degree of responsiveness and interaction between businesses, customers, and technology, driving AI-based SaaS trends 2021 onto a new level. There are numerous features developed by modern software providers based on artificial intelligence such as data alerts.

With an AI algorithm using the most advanced neural network for anomaly detection, and a machine-learning algorithm for pattern recognition, these data alerts learn from trends and patterns and let you know as soon as something important happens.

That way, when a pre-set goal is met, or when something unexpected happens, you will be notified, enabling you to keep continuous control over your business.

Since it is often easy to lose track of what really matters when so many KPIs have to be monitored, an online reporting tool will safely keep an eye on your data and anticipate any fluctuation and change – and alert you when it veers off course.

Artificial intelligence is positioned to disrupt the SaaS landscape in a variety of ways, improving the key characteristics of the SaaS model across the board. When SaaS is combined with AI capabilities, it enables businesses to obtain better value from their data, automate and personalize services, improve security, and supplement human capacity.

How will AI improve SaaS in 2021?

  • Automation: Machine Learning, a subset of AI, is utilized in SaaS to automate responsiveness in customer service reports and applications, such as AI-powered chat operations with live chatbots.It will also automate the onboarding process of SaaS.
  • Personalization: Software is easier to use with technologies such as natural language processing (NLP), which automatically processes human speech patterns, and voice control. This can be deployed across customer service functionality to improve customization and better address client needs.
  • Speed: Artificial intelligence-enabled SaaS speeds up internal processes and operations, allowing businesses to obtain fast answers to questions, make quick forecasts, and speed up their overall level of responsiveness.
  • Security: Due to artificial intelligence-enabled automation, and the ability of machine learning to recognize patterns, SaaS security is enhanced by the quick identification and remedy of potential threats with built-in self-recovery.

Artificial intelligence-optimized SaaS solutions provide businesses with the ability to augment their internal processes with fast automation, more efficiently address customer service operations, and improve the level of personalization and responsiveness throughout their processes, which will remain one of the trends in SaaS to keep an eye for in 2021.

2. Vertical SaaS

Our second forecast for SaaS trends in 2021 is Vertical SaaS. Whereas Horizontal SaaS focuses on clients across any sector and industry, Vertical SaaS is completely customizable, targeting clients within specific industries and supply chains.

Some examples are healthcare analytics software, retail analytics, or modern logistics analytics. Companies who are looking to benefit from specialization are finding Vertical SaaS to be a cost-effective, industry-specific option that allows them to refine the customization of certain features.

Why the Vertical SaaS trends are going to have such an impact in 2021?

Vertical SaaS providers also have the ability to adapt features according to client demand and industry, and effectively address customer needs within their niche. This results in more flexibility and upselling opportunities, and lower customer acquisition costs.

Vertical SaaS also provides the following benefits:

  • Customer intelligence: Enables businesses to obtain industry-specific customer data and intelligence, which plays a critical role in gaining customer-focused insights.
  • Pre-defined metrics and KPIs: Vertical SaaS is already integrated with pre-defined metrics, KPIs, and analytics that businesses can utilize to assess and address daily and long-term processes and performance.
  • Business value: Software is designed to meet industry requirements; therefore, it provides a higher degree of business value for company operations and performance.
  • Improved data governance: Vertical SaaS is positioned to address data governance procedures via the inclusion of industry-specific compliance capabilities, which has the additional benefit of providing increased transparency.
  • A higher standard: In 2021, higher quality service from industry-specific vertical SaaS providers will emerge, as each developer aims to distinguish itself from the ever-increasing crowd.

3. The Growing Need For API Connections

The API (Application Programming Interface) has been a fundamental part of software development for years, and this is precisely what our third SaaS trend focuses on. With the explosion of SaaS solutions and adoption by the market, the need to integrate them into an existing business system appeared.

Some companies may want to migrate all their data to a cloud platform, but many actually would rather harmonize it with their already existing infrastructure in order to improve it – and this is where the problem lies.

At first, SaaS providers didn’t come with a complete integration solution. That failure served to complicate the work and caused them to disappoint their customers as a result

They would then redirect their clients to a third party to supply the specific APIs enabling the customer to integrate the cloud solution into their existing system.

It was indeed better for the SaaS developers not to reinvent the wheel, and to win some precious time and resources relying on third-party APIs. Their go-to-market time frame was shorter, and they could focus on their core capabilities to develop differentiated functionality.

However, more and more SaaS vendors tend to provide greater integration capabilities instead of redirecting their customers to third parties.

As Benoit Lheureux, vice president of research firm Gartner Inc., says to Tech Target: “redirecting your customers to a third-party for integration solutions when integration is a requirement in every IT project of substance is falling short of meeting your customer requirements.”

If you are looking to invest in a cloud vendor’s services, you should ask the following questions beforehand to ensure a seamless integration:

  • What capabilities is the provider offering me to integrate the SaaS within my existing business system?
  • Can this provider also integrate the legacy systems I use?
  • Is my data protected while the integration process is worked through?

4. Increased Thought Leadership

One of the most effective ways to serve the needs of your target audience is through equal measures of inspiration and education – and as more SaaS providers tap into this mentality, we expect thought leadership will become a prominent software as a service trend in 2021.

At present, only 24% of SaaS businesses publish content to educate or enlighten. Others are solely company-focused, and 11% of the primary players don’t even operate a blog, according to Callbox. Astonishingly low figures by all accounts.

But, as the landscape becomes competitive with more SaaS startups competing for the attention of savvy businesses like yours, there will be far more SaaS resources available in the form of videos, interactive apps, blog content, eBooks, and digestible whitepapers.

In turn, this will make software as a service even more widely accessible while offering businesses a wealth of new information about the industry, making it all the more transparent as a result.

While you’re waiting for this SaaS trend to blossom, here are two industry thought leaders you should follow:

  • Mamoon Hamid: A well-respected industry expert and board director on 16 SaaS operations, including Wave HQ and CloudOn.
  • Noah Kagan: A celebrated tech player and one of the web’s leading SaaS experts.

5) Migration To PaaS

As the software as a service industry evolves and innovation increases, many developers or providers will focus on customer retention on top of customer acquisition.

That said, in 2021, we expect to see SaaS migrating towards the realms of PaaS (platform as a service) – developments that empower businesses to build custom apps as add-ons to their original services. The likes of Salesforce and Box have recently launched PaaS-centric services in a bid to hold a strong market share in their niche, and we expect to see this SaaS trend become all the more prevalent this coming year.

To put the relevance of this trend into perspective, here are 3 key advantages of using a PaaS development:

  • The enhanced features, functionality, and ability to customize will enhance your overall business agility, giving you more time and creative space to innovate and focus on your core commercial initiatives.
  • PaaS offerings are, by their very nature, robust, flexible, and accessible which means you will be able to scale your business more easily by using a platform as a service.
  • Security is a distinct advantage of the PaaS model as the vast majority of such developments perform a host of automatic updates on a regular basis.

6. Micro-SaaS

The sixth of our software as a service trends comes in the form of a little something called micro-SaaS.

Like any innovative and invaluable industry on the rise, large numbers of players begin to enter the arena, saturating the market and intensifying the competition – which means in 2021, and beyond, SaaS companies will have to find new ways to innovate, offer value, and connect with new prospects.

In response to a new, more cutthroat climate, we expect to see more micro-SaaS innovations emerge from the woodwork this coming year.

Typically, micro-SaaS businesses are run by a small team, sometimes even by one or two people. Micro-SaaS products are usually complementary add-ons to existing platforms or developments, created with the aim of improving a missing feature or enhancing an existing SaaS product.

These more niche, more “miniature” SaaS offerings could prove increasingly valuable to businesses across industries in 2021, which means we can all expect a host of fresh micro-SaaS innovations over the next 12 or so months.

To clarify the meaning of micro-SaaS in a nutshell, here is a definition of the concept explained by Storemapper’s Tyler Tringas:

“A SaaS business targeting a niche market, run by one person or a very small team, with small costs, a narrow focus, a small but dedicated user base and no outside funding. Hence, micro-SaaS.”

7) SaaS Pricing Policy Change

The seventh in our definitive rundown of SaaS trends comes in the form of policy. Studies show that 98% of SaaS businesses earned positive results from making core changes to their pricing policy.

By reviewing every aspect of platform pricing, a host of companies across niches have grown their audience, connecting with a broader demographic of consumers. And this growing SaaS trend is set to evolve in 2021.

Traditionally, software as a service companies have built their business models based on flexible pricing structures. By offering flexible price points, it has been easy for vendors to drive revenue. But in a seismic industry shift, software-centric businesses have been forced to remold their pricing policies.

Stiffer competition, industry saturation, and the rapid development of SaaS platforms (improved features and functionality) mean that software as service players of all shapes and sizes are starting to reinvent their pricing models according to the needs of their clients or customers.

By leveraging business intelligence and analytics to drive their pricing structures, droves of service-based software businesses are developing more tailored pricing solutions, enjoying increased success as a result—a SaaS trend that is sure to shape the landscape in 2021 and beyond.

When looking for a potential SaaS service, value for money is best represented in a service that will meet your needs on a sustainable basis. Make sure you keep this in mind in 2021.

8. Platform Unbundling

One of the most disruptive SaaS trends in recent times, platform unbundling is set to dominate the landscape as we move into 2021.

Most traditional software as a service platforms are considered horizontal, offering every single feature or function imaginable in one single tool. But, as user needs become more complex, and the industry continues to evolve, platform unbundling is likely to become all the more prevalent.

Every business—depending on its size, sector, and culture—has a specific set of needs, which means that today’s vendors are beginning to realize that not all of the functionality on their platforms suits every prospective client or customer. That’s where unbundling comes in.

Unbundling is a term used in reference to the growing list of startups that provide software-based solutions packaged in the form of an API (application programming interface) rather than a typical ‘full-featured’ platform. Such businesses are on the rise and are expected to make their mark in 2021.

While this is indeed food for thought, it’s important to remember that not every solution will suit an API-based unbundling business model. For instance, when it comes to data analytics, ambitious companies across industries will look to a centralized solution that offers all of the insights, features, and functionality required for online BI in one place.

While it’s important to remain abreast of this most vital of SaaS industry trends, before looking at unbounded services or offerings, you must consider whether doing so will work for your enterprise and its ongoing commercial goals. If you’re looking to improve your data analytics processes, in particular, unbundling is unlikely to be the answer.

9. A Mobile-First Mindset

Number nine on our essential list of SaaS industry trends is centered around the topic of mobile. By the year 2022, experts project that around 72.6% of the world’s population will browse the internet using their mobile devices.

In our mobile-driven age, we’re free from the shackles of time or geographical location, meaning that people can connect with their peers and remain productive 24/7, 365 days of the year. We are in the midst of a portable age, and as more innovative software developers wise up, the mobile-first mindset will serve to shape the future of SaaS.

Increasingly, companies across sectors operate critical parts of the businesses from their tablets or smartphones. Moreover, more employees than ever feel empowered to perform their jobs better by being able to work with dynamic mobile dashboards and various tools.

More software providers will adopt a mobile-first mentality, optimizing their offerings to suit a host of mobile devices. This means we’re likely to see an even more impressive array of mobile features in 2021. Also, as we move towards a new year, increasing numbers of software as a service vendors will develop new solutions to meet this growing demand.

To cut through the noise and push yourself to the front of the pack, offering robust and reliable BI tools that work across desktop and a range of mobile devices is essential.

Mobile devices and screens require a unique set of features and functionality, and by placing their focus on mobile-first design & development, SaaS vendors are likely to enjoy a healthy return on investment (ROI) next year and long into the future.

Mobile-first is, without a doubt, one of the most integral SaaS industry trends for 2021. There will be more portable platforms available to your company’s disposal than ever before — don’t miss out.

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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Enhanced SaaS Solutions For 2021

SaaS industry trends aren’t showing any signs of slowing down, and innovative SaaS solutions will only continue to grow in the coming years. Artificial Intelligence-empowered SaaS, Vertical SaaS, the growing need for and development of API connections, increased thought leadership, a migration to PaaS, a plethora of micro-SaaS offerings, mobile-first innovations are here—and these software as a service trends are shaping the future of SaaS.

“Dreamers are mocked as impractical. The truth is they are the most practical, as their innovations lead to progress and a better way of life for all of us.” – Robin S. Sharma, author & tech advocate

Above all else, these inspiring trends in SaaS are a testament to the enduring future of the industry and our increasing societal demand for robust software-centric solutions across the board. The revolution is here, and it’s digital.

We are in the age of digital transformation. As more companies migrate towards a cloud-based, data-driven existence, the scope for offering practical software innovations will continue to rise, and rise, and rise.

As data continues to be the driving force behind smart business strategies in a digitally dependent world, SaaS options are going to be an increasingly convenient and affordable option across industries, both now and in the coming years.

By taking stock of these essential SaaS industry trends for 2021, you will win tomorrow’s digital battlefield, pushing yourself ahead of the competition.

With these 10 trends in SaaS positioned to further enhance cloud-based solutions on the cusp of 2021, organizations, like yours, will have the technological capabilities to drive their business objectives towards successful outcomes.

For more digitally-driven insights, explore our guide to getting started with big data analytics and business intelligence for small business— or talk to our SaaS expert.

This Is Why SaaS Is Getting Popular

Posted on by Akash Tripathi

60% of businesses today are online and they all use SaaS products in one way or another. SaaS is nowadays considered an important part of a company’s unhampered growth and success in the ever-changing market.

So, let us have a peek into why SaaS is getting popular and how it can help your business.

What Is SaaS?

What is SaaS?

SaaS, elaborated as Software as a Service, is software providing technology that enables users to access data stored on the cloud from any device, connected to the internet using a browser.

It helps businesses run their applications on the cloud version without having to worry about investing in their hardware.

It has been in the picture since the late 1990s and has been a proven cost-effective solution for businesses.

Further simplifying it, It is a software on demand which offers IT solutions over shared infrastructure usually deployed via the cloud network rather than owned separately by a particular business.

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If you are looking at and thinking about why SaaS is so popular with businesses these days, then let’s dig into everything you need to know.Reasons why Businesses are Preferring SaaS

Here are some of the prominent reasons why businesses are going with SaaS:

Reduced Infrastructure Costs:

While you deliver your next software/project to your client using SaaS, you do not need to worry about all the key infrastructure it will require to run properly.

All infrastructural needs for your project are completely handled by your SaaS provider.

The providers are the one who are responsible for dealing with all the necessary infrastructural needs of your project.

The SaaS provider is also responsible for all the maintenance that your infrastructure will ever require during the time it is being used by you.

Low-Cost:

SaaS services are affordable for almost all businesses because SaaS providers charge businesses as per their usage. It is a cost-effective business solution as you only pay for the infrastructure you use.

As opposed to establishing the company’s infrastructure for the project, where costs can go sky-high and the resources might not get utilized to their extreme.

Trouble Free:

Every aspect of the infrastructure is handled by the SaaS provider, ranging from installations, maintenance, and upgrades, if needed all are taken well care of.

This results in almost no infrastructure related troubles for the business and ensures smooth working of it almost all the time. SaaS vendors always take care of their promises and try to handover their solutions in the designated time frames.

Fully Scalable:

As a business, we all want a service or infrastructure which we can expand and scale as per our needs.

When we run high on projects we would usually need more infrastructure for deployment and other parts of the project, whereas when the company is a little bit low on its workload, it requires less of everything.

SaaS helps you right away with this, when the company wants to scale up its storage capacities, it can be done quickly by just opting for a bigger plan, hence, eliminating all the needs of buying and implementing our infrastructure which can result in a lengthy process in time-critical businesses.

Unlimited Updates:

SaaS vendors usually take care of your software’s updates and also suggest and do upgrades as and when necessary, introducing you with the newest features in the market which can help you score big in your business.

You will always be in front, with all the latest patches and software updates delivered to you very easily and without any underlying complexities.

Secure:

SaaS vendors earn money based on the trust people have in their company. As the trust of people in SaaS companies increases, more people opt in to use the solutions provided by a SaaS company.

SaaS companies usually set up their data servers in such a way that they are geographically scattered. Scattering servers decreases the chances of security breaches and also provides more up-time to the customers.

While SaaS was on its progress stage, many companies held back off because they thought that SaaS was not fully secure.

But as time has passed SaaS has proved everyone wrong, and has emerged as a secure way for companies to use software and store their data.

Great Availability:

SaaS service providers always ensure that their systems are up and running all the time, most SaaS vendors have recorded uptime of 99%.

With this, all that you need to have is a computer connected to the internet to manage your tasks easily. This makes it particularly easy for everyone because a request is all you need to access the data.

So, what is the Future of SaaS in businesses?

Increased Productivity And Newer Apps:

Oracle’s reports show how widely GitHub’s user base grew between the users 2012 to 2018. It rocketed to 31 million users from a mere 5 million users in 2012.

This growth in user base points to only one direction, better and more proficient software developers, which have increased productivity and better ideas to deal with all the problems they are pitched with.

As a part of technological advancements taking place with SaaS, newer and more improved apps can come into the picture. SaaS will improve coding processes and the development tools indulged in it.

More Businesses Migrating To Cloud:

Today more and more businesses are starting to use cloud-based solutions for their workflows.

As the time comes, about 80% of businesses will migrate from the traditional, privately owned data warehouses to public cloud data warehouses, which will be a driving force to the companies of the future who want to implement and use different work cultures as well as for trying out different options for data storage.

Extensive Use Of AI And Machine Learning:

As per the reports of Oracle, 89% of people use voice assistants in one or the other way. AI-powered chat bots are used by companies to be connected with their customers always.

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Companies no longer rely on management for critical decisions, rather they use AI to make efficient decisions by feeding in the most accurate data available for a specific decision.

Final Thought

SaaS is an evolutionary system, which will always help you in one way or the other as it has so many benefits. It is a service where you pay as per your usage, so it simplifies costs greatly for companies.

SaaS solutions offer integration and customization capacities for all types of users.

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More and more businesses are now adopting SaaS platforms for their daily works and every other project. SaaS systems greatly decrease the complexities involved in deploying software projects.

These are some of the reasons why SaaS is getting popular with businesses these days.

How To Put Together A Top-Tier SaaS Marketing Strategy

Posted on by Jainish Vora

According to Cisco‘s Global Cloud Index, by this year, SaaS will deliver 75 % of cloud workflows.​ Isn’t it amazing? This data depicts the growing pace of the SaaS business model and the competition created by it in the industry. SaaS companies are finding it very difficult to stand out in the industry by providing products and services distinct from their competitors.

Well, for this reason, we have come up with top-tier SaaS marketing strategies to help companies lead the competition.

SaaS marketing is more complicated than product marketing since you don’t have a tangible product to offer. Yes, it is more difficult to tell someone that your software can help them in their daily process than selling a pair of shoes.

What Is SaaS Marketing?

SaaS Marketing

SaaS marketing refers to the strategies implemented to promote software-as-a-service companies. SaaS marketing is exclusively unusual from promoting physical products since it has a varied customer base, distinct pricing strategies, complexity in their offerings, etc.

Since SaaS marketing is distinctive, marketers should use distinct strategies for promotion.

SaaS Marketing Strategies to Improve Conversions

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Let us know a few considerations, to begin with efficiently promoting SaaS businesses. Explore available opportunities and see your brand stand out in a fierce competition.

1. Using Trials To Lure Customers

Focusing on customer acquisition is significant, and the best way to do this is by offering free trials to incentivize customers to sign up and begin using your offerings. Keep your sign-up process simple and don’t have the customers go through the pain of filling lengthy forms to get your product in their hands.

This is a promising way to let people know about the benefits your products offer. This helps them take the initial step to start using your product. After making the customers realize how valuable your product is, you can easily persuade them to continue with the paid plan.

The goal is to convince more people to make a purchase. Ensure that you offer a free plan for a considerable period to make them comprehend the integrity of your product.

2. Enhance Customer Experience

SaaS Strategy

Among all the crucial SaaS marketing strategies, this is advocated by the experts as most essential. Assure that your services are personalized to the extent possible to deliver outstanding customer experience.

Just as companies send a welcome email the moment, a new customer completes the sign-up procedure. You can consider sending reminder emails to the customers who were active once but are now slowly dropping.

Integrating a live chat option on the website is a great way to interact with your customers and solve their queries on the fly. This way, you can help them navigate through your site better and find answers to their queries at the earliest.

3. Get Featured On SaaS Review Sites To Get More Exposure

People contemplate looking at customer reviews and product ratings before deciding to purchase a product. This step is crucial to buy softwares since there are no tangible products, and people check comparable products available and read reviews before they make a verdict.

Getting featured on review sites, you can get more industry exposure for your offering. Search for the best review sites available in your country or field. A few websites make comparisons between varied products offered.

4. Display The Price Aptly

A vital aspect of the SaaS marketing strategy is to display the price of your product clearly. Consider including a pricing page on your company’s website and portray every detail in such a way so that consumers can quickly decide whether or not they can afford your product.

For instance, have a look at one of the popular SaaS provider Vimeo. They have clearly mentioned their varied pricing plans for their potential customers. It helps them make an informed choice about their spending.

5 Limit The Choices Offered

With too many choices offers, your customers can get confuse as to buy which one. It can also result in them abandoning a purchase. Make two to three variations of your plans to avoid confusion.

While mentioning different plans include their features and respective prices as well. This way, customers can quickly decide which plan will fulfill their needs better. Your pricing page should consist of the characteristics of every plan offered.

6. SEO Stays On Top For Lead Generation

SEO is the best strategy to generate the right amount of leads for a SaaS company. Content Marketing, SEO and Link Building Service goes hand in hand to increase traffic on your website and, at the same time, make your website visible to the target audience.

Search rankings of your website will increase by using on-page SEO techniques, and it also ensures that it is visible to the customers when they make a search query related to your business. SEO also helps to get good quality backlinks and drive referral traffic effectively to your website.

7. Rewarding Customers For Referrals

Rewarding Customers for Referrals

When it comes to generating leads, another proven marketing strategy that works for SaaS companies is Referral Marketing. Referrals are cited as a critical source of lead generation by maximum B2B marketers.

If you want this strategy to work for your business, then you will have to make your company referral-worthy. It is done by offering incentives to the customers who refer your product to other people in their circle.

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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Running a loyalty program to offer rewards for referrals works well, or you can choose to provide incentives in some different ways to your customers who refer to your business in several ways.

Let us take an example of Dropbox, which offers extra storage of 16GB for referring each friend.

The Bottom Line

These worthwhile SaaS marketing strategies, if leveraged, will enhance customer acquisition and lead generation for SaaS businesses. Diverse offers avenues that marketers can explore to serve as beneficial SaaS marketing strategies, and there are endless possible combinations that work for numerous businesses.

All you have to do is to try different approaches, and with the help of consumer metrics, figure out what works. SaaS marketing is a paradise for marketers.

How To Evolve Your Saas Business In Upcoming Year

Posted on by Jay

The changing environment and the growing digitization have become the primary disruptive factors in the market. And with that, it is challenging task for companies to make their SaaS offerings stand out from the others.

This is not just about in this year. The SaaS model has evolved over the past 12 years.

The rise of cloud-based software has helped to redefine the enterprise workplace, unleashing truly mobile and collaborative workforce and new customer-facing interactions.

 

 “Most of all, I discovered that in order to succeed with a product you must truly get to know your customers and build something for them.”

– Marc Benioff

It’s also democratized IT management and stimulated a shift in technology adoption that’s transformed the way companies buy and consume products and services.

Moving beyond, the SaaS global market looks to continue with fast-paced growth.

According to Gartner, public cloud services alone are set to increase by 17% around the world to $266.4 billion in 2020.

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Meanwhile, the integration of AI with SaaS platforms looks set to propel an additional market expansion, as more and more enterprises seize the opportunities on offer to cost-effectively automate internal operations, boost productivity, and speed up delivery of personalized services.

SaaS Growth Statistics - Statista
Image Source: Statista

This could sound good to the entrepreneurs who are considering to enter the As-A-Service (AAS), as well as the existing vendors preparing to update and evolve their SaaS offering

Standing Out In A Crowded Marketplace

More than two-thirds of companies operating in the SaaS space today were formed in this last decade. And the number of new entrants also continues to increase.

With a growing number of organizations looking to benefit from the reduced costs, scalability, and convenience offered by SaaS, it’s no surprise that new market entrants are keen to capitalize on the burgeoning opportunities.

Building a strong customer relationship can be leveraged for standing out from the crowd. It will identify value-added transactions and unroll service offerings in line with changing business requirements.

This is especially relevant where private equity firms are acquiring multiple MSPs, rolling them up together, and then reducing pricing to capture market share.

This puts pricing pressure on independent MSPs, and suddenly it becomes a race to the bottom.

What’s needed is a laser-like focusing on differentiating with the best customer experience.

Actively communicate your feature changes and improvements through regular updates that ensure customers recognize you’re responsive to their evolving needs.

Staying close to customers through regular account reviews will also generate opportunities to deliver strategic consultancy and impart in-depth knowledge that improves their operations.

Finally, utilize BI and analytics to reinvent your pricing models. Tailoring pricing to individual customers will further demonstrate the truly collaborative nature of your relationship and discourage any temptation to consider switching providers.

Deliver Seamless Customer Experiences

“Every step of your customer’s journey, from first sales interaction to on-boarding and ongoing support, needs to be easy and seamless to navigate”.

Because

“if you’re not delivering a holistic service that is responsive, accurate, and timely, no customer will commit to a long term relationship”.

User Experience

An effective on-boarding process that is manageable, intuitive, and interactive should include actional walk-throughs of key features and functionality.

You will also need to provide a help center and additional resources, plus a checklist for users to work through.
Utilizing the professional service automation (PSA) and RMM (remote monitoring and management) tools will help ensure you’re able to gain complete visibility and control of your customers’ environments and can institute process improvements to serve them better.

From automating routine tasks to enabling accurate billing, the effective management of support issues, and keeping track of SLA performance, customer satisfaction depends upon your ability to deliver more than just promises.

Scalable Service For All Industries

Ensure your product can be easily integrated with the customer’s platform. It will make it easier for users to augment their internal processes with your services and products.

In recent years there’s been a growing trend towards SaaS companies moving away from delivering a broad range of business functions and focusing instead on the delivery of vertical-specific software solutions built for clear industry niches.

Focused on the concept of customer success, these solutions often incorporate industry-specific data governance capabilities and tailored features that can be easily adapted to the demands of the user base.

Providing opportunities to create new ecosystems, featuring partner organizations, moving into the delivery of vertical SaaS platforms opens the door to co-marketing opportunities and the incorporation of new technology features through the utilization of APIs.

Refresh Your Approach To Marketing

Delivering content that meets the needs of prospective and existing customers is the key to retaining your market position and becoming a recognized industry leader.

From content marketing that showcases your expertise and builds brand awareness to adopting good digital marketing tactics designed to boost audiences in a wider range of geographies, aligning your marketing activities and messages to specific buyer personas will yield positive outcomes for your business.

By keeping your finger on the pulse of the current challenges customers in your target market are facing, you will be able to refine your offering and educate current and potential customers on how your solutions solve their problem.

To build ‘stickiness’, initiate portals that enable customers to share successes and best practice with peers, gain access to subject matter experts, and acquire new knowledge.

Indeed, building a user-group community is once again becoming central to initiating stronger customer bonds and more informed relationship strategies that generate value-add for everyone involved.

You’re probably already familiar with the often-stated stat that acquiring a new customer is up to seven times more expensive than retaining an existing one. But there’s one instance where that isn’t true: customer referrals.

By creating a simple, rewarding referral program, you can turn your best customers into your most vocal and passionate fans.

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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In doing so, you not only increase the return on investment from every customer, but you can grow your client base without increasing your marketing spend.

And since everyone involved gets something out of it, referrals can increase customer satisfaction, too.

Warping Words:

Today’s customers want to have personal relationships with the companies they do business with.

To thrive and survive in an increasingly competitive landscape, SaaS businesses must strive to cultivate strong, collaborative, and strategic relationships that are personalized to every client.

That means delivering clearer communications, one-to-one check-ins, and better, more timely, insights.

Ultimately, unifying personalized solutions with technological innovations and consistent service delivery that demonstrates you’re paying attention will be the key to maintaining your position in a market that’s characterized by constant disruption.

Want to evolve your SaaS product? Let’s discuss.