In order to be better prepared for the future, organizations have to work towards making enterprise software accessible from any device. They should be able to access the software as they move throughout their day (while traveling, on their desktop or while out in the field).
All this should happen without the need to sync their device or download updates. Software as a Service (SaaS) allows users to simply sign on for a service they can use anywhere, any time and on any device. In other words, we can say that SaaS introduced the concept of mass production in the software industry (businesses with economies of scale and a level of simplicity that has never before been possible).
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As the cloud grows and matures, traditional on-premise software is becoming obsolete while demand for Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) products has skyrocketed, as per Entrepreneur. In fact, a recent Gartner survey found that SaaS accounts for more than 50 percent of new software implementations. Look around and you’ll see numerous software companies that have transformed their offerings into highly successful SaaS products: Microsoft now offers Office 365 and Adobe has its Creative Suite. Some newer companies like Salesforce.com skipped on-premise altogether. Google doubling down on its SaaS efforts last year and the breakthroughs they’ve had in AI, we’re expecting big things in the near future.
As per LANEWS.ORG, Software as a Service (SaaS) has risen as an effective software-delivery model for meeting the needs of enterprise IT Services. SaaS helps IT enterprises to rapidly build and deploy their applications. SaaS delivers to host the application on its own private server or deploy it on a third-party cloud computing services. SaaS has eliminated the need for enterprises to install and run the applications on its premises. Due to this the expenses for maintenance and software licensing has been eliminated for organizations. SaaS model enables application service providers (ASP) to offer enterprise applications over the internet for their clients.
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So when there were some experts to give their opinion on the subject, the general feel was that Artificial Intelligence or AI is changing SaaS in a big way.
In a blog published on Fusebill, Chris Makkreel, Head of Technology, Salesforce said, “The future of SaaS will be defined by doing more with less. Today, technology is proactive but tomorrow technology will be predictive. Interestingly, 90% of all data has been generated in the past two years. I like to think about artificial intelligence and machine learning, not as a product, but as electricity that will power future tech”.
In the same blog, Susan Richards, Managing Partner at Numbercruncher added, SaaS creates an exciting environment where it is possible to go from business idea to execution very fast. Many companies are adopting a lean startup mentality where a small team is dedicated to build a minimum valuable product (MVP) and then continue to build out features to land and expand within their targeted customer base. As a result of this shift, we will see more startups, more conferences, greater interest from the investor community and more affordable technology for the general population.
Quoted on Future of Everything, David Batchelor, President & co-founder of DialMyCalls.com said, “Now is a great time to start a SaaS company. While SaaS has been a hot buzzword, it’s more than that, it’s a whole shift as to how people function with their devices. You’re going to see plenty of niche verticals with their own unique software, things that were never online before. You could argue that Uber is one of these types of hybrid SaaS solutions, connecting the old world to the new world with a simple, easy-to-use software.”
Adding to the future trends of SaaS, Chris Bryson, CEO & Founder of Unata added, “When it comes to enterprise retail software, the pace of innovation is continuing to accelerate to the point where traditional waterfall development and enterprise licensing can’t keep up; SaaS and its inherent agile nature are the only solution to stay current or even get ahead. The fact that large corporations are embracing SaaS is proof of it; companies are changing their traditions out of necessity, not curiosity. Change is not easy, after all! As a SaaS provider for grocery chains to power their customer experience, we have seen how grocers have warmed up to the concept given that SaaS can enable them to have a customer offering that is frequently being updated over time. Traditionally, Grocery has been the last retail vertical to embrace technology trends; given that even the grocery vertical is finally embracing SaaS, we are convinced that it is most certainly here to stay.”
Steve Benson, Founder and CEO at Badger Maps said, “The future of SaaS will bring the world access to applications that can solve and manage many different problems and tasks in their lives. I think that the software companies will look a lot different than software companies in the past where just a few companies had a lock on the software industries because they controlled closed platforms that other pieces of software didn’t work together on. In the future, there will be platforms like the browser, the iPhone and Android that will allow people to load up the exact software they want from the companies they want to work with. This will mean a lot more but smaller software companies. People in the past may have used 5 software applications in a day, today they might use 25, in the future, they may use hundreds.”
Brian Rich, Managing Partner and co-founder at Catalyst added, “SaaS will be pervasive and there really won’t be a SaaS industry per se, because all software will be delivered in this fashion (unless it is legacy). I also think that intelligence will get pushed to the edge of the network, so it won’t all be cloud based. The reason is that as SaaS continues to increase its share of consumer, SMB and Enterprise computing, the network demands will multiply. Simultaneously, computing power will increase and computations can be done locally. So, it will be a hybrid of cloud based and local solutions.
A chief component of this trend is Artificial Intelligence, Robotics (driverless cars, for example) and visualization like virtual reality and augmented reality. These three technologies will be an integral component of SaaS offerings and compound the aforementioned trends.”
If you were to take a sneak peek at the future, it is a world built around SaaS and smart mobile devices. We are talking of a world that is built on the simple, flexible and cost effective model of computing, and organizations need to embrace it now in order to keep pace with a digital business environment. Speak to one of our experts to gear up for the future.
By: Meenakshi Vashisht