Some of the most widely used solutions include the Google suite (Gmail, G Drive, Calendar), task management services (Zendesk, Slack, Salesforce), file sharing (Dropbox), and mailing (MailChimp). A recent study by Gartner shows that the SaaS market will rise this year to $105 billion, a 20% increase compared to last year.
This market is continuously growing, as the same study estimates that by 2021 73% of organizations will rely on SaaS solutions, ranging from 50 apps for small companies up to more than 250 for large organizations.
The SaaS model can be applied to many digital products, including those from the operational area, including those used in managing IT systems, like AIOps solutions.
Top features that make SaaS popular
The development above is based on real business needs, and SaaS solutions help companies grow even on a shoestring budget.
Pay as you go
The first advantage and sometimes the selling point of SaaS is the flexibility of payment. Instead of investing in costly hardware and software solutions, companies can pay only a small subscription to use cloud-based services. The same resources are used by multiple organizations that only pay for the amount they actually use, instead of an entire system that is underutilized. The SaaS services have lowered the entry barriers for millions of small businesses.
Scaling opportunities
SaaS allows companies to upgrade their payment models as they need to. Most have various packages to accommodate any business size and also offer tailor-made solutions if necessary. In SaaS models, the customer gets to choose what features they want to use at any given moment, and they can upgrade or downgrade as required. The advantage is that any growth comes with minimal impact on spending since the infrastructure is already in place.
Always up-to-date
Having an on-premise solution also requires an adequate workforce to keep it up to date and prevent security breaches and other problems. Using SaaS solutions means that the provider is responsible for updates, maintenance, and everything running smoothly. This translates to more focus on their core service for small companies, while at the enterprise-level, it means lower headcount and important savings.
Cross-platform accessibility
Most SaaS services are available on different platforms and even cross platforms on a wide range of devices, so they are accessible everywhere. Compared to legacy systems, SaaS solutions give more importance to user-friendliness and user experience.
Enterprise-level security
Since SaaS solutions strive to accommodate all client sizes, the security levels are fitted for the more advanced requirements. The goal is to have the information encrypted and secured and with high redundancy to avoid losing it. Cloud security is designed to prevent attacks in real-time, and it is based on AI.
Collaboration and synergy
SaaS systems are designed to increase team collaboration by creating opportunities to work on the same files/tasks and to keep track of every intervention. This system acts as hubs that can trigger synergies between different departments of different organization tools.
What to expect in the future?
The AI explosion of the last years means a massive investment in automation with an echo in productivity and efficiency, adopted by SaaS solutions.
In all business-related problems, AI and machine learning can offer a higher degree of responsiveness and even trend anticipation, thus enhancing the relationship between clients and the organization.
Some of the most useful features of AI-based software are related to data alerts. AI algorithms using neural networks can perform pattern recognition and trigger a warning as soon as something noteworthy happens. The alert can work to notify you when a previously set threshold is passed, such as hitting your monthly revenue target, or when something unexpected happens, like a brute-force attack on your server.
There is a real problem when a system produces too many such alerts, as some are relevant and need to be acted upon immediately. In contrast, others are just warnings and notifications or simply noise. That is why it is necessary to have a monitoring dashboard that provides an overview of the company’s systems and only displays the alerts requiring real human attention.
Using AI in combination with SaaS systems or even designing AI-powered SaaS solutions will significantly improve productivity by offering companies the ability to derive better value from their data and processes. Most organizations – and not only the very large ones, have a lot of data that could be processed into making better decisions, but it is not used, either due to the lack of know-how or the lack of suitable tools.
Boosting SaaS with AI
One way to turbocharge SaaS systems with the help of AI is to use it for task automation. It can be applied to onboarding processes or current operations such as those handled by chatbots.
Another way is to use it to make predictions based on existing patterns. A system with enough clean data can help get answers fast, thus moving the business forward.
Using AI in SaaS can also help with security, prevent fraud, and put fast self- recovery systems in place.
The final step: AIOps as an AI-SaaS application
As mentioned before, a way to make the most out of your SaaS systems is to attach an AI process automation platform, which, in its turn, can operate as a SaaS solution. Such a tool can perform root cause analysis on data retrieved from the other systems and identify the problem, offer insights, or increase security.
Conclusion
SaaS is the future for most organizations since it can enhance the internal processes with automation, serve the clients better by focusing on urgent and important tasks, and offer a higher level of personalization in the interaction. The internal challenge is to avoid becoming overwhelmed by alerts and notifications and to remain focused on the core business.
