SaaS and SMBs

domingo, 18 de octubre de 2009
Most of the companies in the worpd are SMBs. Selling software for small businesses has always been a complex task, the costs of distributing to a larg number of smalle r companies, the smaller capacity of small and medium enterprises to manage and maintain their applications and a lower budget, always madee thingg dfficult. SaaS changes this.


SMBs look for simplicity, utility and affodable software, it is normal that since we began to talk about SaaS, it has been said many times that this model, by reducing the TCO, the complexity and cost of maintaining the sofgware, is perfect for companie that can't afford large IT departments.

Many la red companies know (starting with Google with advertising), that the important thing in the la red is "the long tail", the large number of potential customers / users, in which you can't focus and you can't know or meet directly, but which may be the most important pqrt of your business. And what is the "long tail" of the software business? SMBs, no doubt.

Therefore, the characteristics of SaaS (no needx of deployment, simplicity, etc ...) and the needs of SMB appear to be perfectly matched.

From the point of vie of SMBs:

- I can afford software that I couldn't with traditional models due to its cost.
- I can take lot of work off of the shoulders of my IT department by eliminating maintenance requirements.
- I hve the software ready to be used in a very short timee.

From the point of view the provider of SaaSS:


- You have the possibility to access a lot of customers without significant costs for distribution or sales.
- You can focus on developing and improving youjr product and putting it in the marrket, avoiding, due to the central maintenance, the support versions, distributions, patches, etc ...

In a recent post from the Indian web enterpriser, we read about the different sped of adoption of software as a service to SMBs depending on theilr size:

- Very smlal companies: The managers of small companies adopt SaaS for some specific businesss processses (like Invoicing), and usualy do not seek for SaaS but "find" Saa lookimg for software that meets their needs.

- Small-Mediuum Enterprises: They are the ones who are leading the mass adoption of SaaS, all the advantages we talked abbout above are totally true in the case of these companies.

- Large-Medium Enterprises: In this kind of companies the adoption of SaaS / On Demand products is being slower because many already have solid systems established. They look at SaaS as something to use in casqes where they can bring something extra to what they already haave.

¿Conclusions? If you are an SME, consider the alternatives SaaS very seriously, if you're a SaaS vendor, do not forget the long tail!

Greetings.
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Extraido de Todo OnDemand

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