What is Software as a Service (Saas)?

& List of Top Saas

Companies & Products to watch in 2020
tvisha.com/blog/list-of-top-saas-companies-products-to-watch-in-2020

SaaS or Software as a Service has been gaining a lot of importance in recent times.
Businesses, irrespective of their sizes are switching to top SaaS Companies and
Products according to their organizational requirements. This is a major shift from the
purchase of hardware and software packages that was the traditional practice.

What is SaaS?
In simple terms, SaaS is a comprehensive software package made available by third-party
providers through cloud-based systems. Traditionally, the practice was to download and
install the necessary software on computers. With SaaS software, companies simply
approach third parties depending on their requirements. The SaaS company would then
provide these companies with access to their services that reside on a cloud. Companies
can access these services through an internet connection. SaaS services are like pay-as-
you-use subscription services and are to be renewed on a regular basis. On their part,
SaaS providers ensure data security, performance and seamless access to services.

SaaS software is also known as hosted software, on-demand software or web-based

software.

A simple layman example of a SaaS product would be an email service like google or
yahoo. A user enters into an agreement with the provider by signing-up for their services.
The provider would, in turn, provide email services to the user.

In an organizational context, Some of the SaaS applications

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In an organizational context, Some of the SaaS applications
include:
Email software
Messaging software
Payroll processing software
Database Management Software
Customer relationship software
Enterprise Resource Planning

The SaaS business model :

A SaaS business model is completely cloud-based, in that, the SaaS company will host
its SaaS applications, SaaS software, and SaaS products, online. Once an organization
has purchased a SaaS software from a provider, the provider has the responsibility of
hosting, updating maintaining the code as well as the products on the cloud. SaaS
products and SaaS services are available to the buyers on a subscription basis which
can be renewed either monthly or on an annual basis.

The SaaS delivery model:

The delivery model of SaaS is a bit similar to that of the Application Service Provider
model. In SaaS, the provider will create software according to the client’s requirement
and it is then delivered to the end-users over the internet. A single copy of the software
created to suit the specific requirements of the client is distributed to all the users over
the cloud. The end-users, then install the software on their machines. An important
feature of SaaS is that the SaaS provider/developer can roll out updates or new features
as required by the client periodically, or as and when needed. Another significant feature
of the SaaS delivery model is that the client can use their own software and integrate it
with the APIs provided by the SaaS provider. This is a major advantage for companies
that have their own fully functional software systems in place.

SaaS start-ups:
Recent times have seen a lot of SaaS start-ups popping up. The great potential in the
various unchartered SaaS software, SaaS solution, and SaaS application-related
territories is providing challenging and fulfilling opportunities for entrepreneurs. One of
the major reasons for SaaS start-ups gaining such importance is that the scope of SaaS
is global, with huge access to international markets and less overall costs of delivery.

SaaS Start-Up Life Cycle:

Any SaaS startup goes through three phases in its life cycle

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1.Setup phase: In this phase, a SaaS company will plan its products, identify its target
customers and create campaigning and advertising to target potential buyers. Very good
knowledge of the current trends in SaaS products, SaaS software, and SaaS services is
extremely important. A grip on the market lays the foundation for a successful SaaS
delivery model.

2. Growth phase: The SaaS company experiences growth in clients as well as sales. This
is the stage where the company breaks even and starts seeing profits. There will be a
need for creating teams to take care of sales and services as well as marketing. Careful
re-investment of profits back into the business is an important step to continue the
growth curve. The SaaS company need to continue keeping itself abreast with the
changing market as well as the changing market requirements as technology is never
constant. In a dynamic SaaS environment, the ability to absorb the changing
technologies and incorporate them into SaaS products, SaaS software, and SaaS
services paves the way for the long-term success of the SaaS company.

3. Stabilization: The SaaS company will have an established loyal customer base by this
stage and new customers keep coming in. The company has to concentrate on
continuing to innovate and not get stagnated in the ever-changing and ever dynamic
SaaS environment.

SaaS start-ups to look out for in 2020:

Lately:

Lately is considered one of the promising SaaS start-ups providing its services in the
marketing field. Lately is a SaaS platform that helps the client in creating a dashboard
from which acts as a single point of contact for all marketing tools, marketing processes,
media content – both traditional and social, calendars, files, etc. Lately basically makes all
marketing activities available at a single dashboard.

CoSchedule:

Another SaaS platform in the field of marketing, Co-schedule provides SaaS tools and
applications to organize all marketing activities in one place. With Marketing Suite for
Businesses and Enterprises and Editorial Calendars for Individuals and Start-ups,
CoSchedule offers tools that help its clients have unified calendars which can help in
effective time-management and avoid scheduling conflicts.

Docurated:

Docurated is a sales-based SaaS platform that provides the sales team with effective
document management. The platform helps the sales teams research, design and share
their content in an effective manner to help improve the overall sales figures.

Netcrumb:

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A start-up in the field of webpage designing, NetCrumb offers a SaaS platform for
creating effective and responsive one-page websites.

Setapp:

A SaS start-up offering a suite of applications designed specifically for Mac Platform. The
suite also has apps for those who wish to move to Mac from windows.

CompStak:

Compstak provides SaaS solutions in the Commercial Real Estate Platform. It

consolidates data on lease comps, sales comps and quality checks for various real estate
projects. It also provides data on businesses that are closing.

FeatureSpace:

This SaaS startup differentiates itself from all the other start-ups by being a SaaS
platform for fraud detection. A start-up in the field of Adaptive Behavioral Analytics,
FeatureSpace also provides a SaaS platform for risk-management.

The SaaS business model has seen a lot of success due to the many advantages it
provides.

Ease of Use:

Application development and deployment are much quicker as everything happens on

the cloud. Any changes needed in the last minute can also be made quickly, bringing
down the risk factors during the development and deployment stages.

Scalability:

Another major factor that has led to the success of the SaaS business model is the easy
scalability, meaning that any SaaS applications and SaaS software can be upgraded or
downgraded quickly at the click of a button. Any upgrades can also be made and
deployed quickly, removing the risk factor of time-lag in making the needed changes.

The cost factor:

The traditional software and system upgrades were an extremely expensive affair for big
organizations, as the upgrades had to be done on each machine individually. Purchasing
all the necessary software was also an expensive proposition. With SaaS, costs are
minimized to a great extent.

The Time Factor:

The SaaS provider takes care of all the aspects related to the SaaS software and SaaS
application design and upgrades requirements, giving the management time to
concentrate on their core activities. All the deployments can also be done simultaneously

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worldwide making it easier for organizations to work on a unified system and avoid time-
lags related to different time zones.

Ease of Deployment:

Apart from the fact that the deployment takes place from a unified system i.e., the Cloud,
SaaS also provides the advantage of requiring minimal or no extra hardware for the
process of deployment. So any expenses, that would have otherwise been needed, to
procure systems such as IT infrastructure, VPN connectivity, etc can be now completely
avoided.

Ease in Addition to New Users:

In the traditional system, the addition of a new employee to the organization would
mean setting up the whole system and make all necessary upgrades and changes, all
from scratch. With SaaS, the whole process can be done with much more ease and not
much of an additional cost.

Top SaaS Companies and Products:

Here’s the list of the top 15 Top SaaS Companies and Products to look out for in 2020

1. SalesForce: SalesForce is considered the pioneer of the SaaS industry. The setup
almost 15 years ago, this company is considered the leader in Customer Relationship
Management. Salesforce and Lightning UX are the current SaaS product offerings from
SalesForce.

2. Troop Messenger: The online messenger is a cloud-based comprehensive instant

messenger application for businesses with features like Instant messaging, audio calling,
video calling, audio messaging and screen sharing. Look out for the SaaS model and the
Self-hosting model from this emerging player in the unified communication chat market.

3. Oracle: Oracle is the second-largest SaaS company after SalesForce. Oracle recently
launched its flagship product known as the Oracle Fusion which concentrates on CRM
and financial services.

4. Mulesoft: Mulesoft has its own suit for products known as API or Anypoint Platform of
Integration products. These suites of products help integrate Saas with on-premise
applications on both mobile as well as on-premise systems

5. Google: Google owns a large number of SaaS products that help in analytics, online
advertising, document creation, etc

6. Adobe: Adobe is the leader in SaaS products in the fields related to printing and
publishing as well as marketing

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7. Microsoft: Office 365, the Saas product from Microsoft provides its customers with
MS Office suite. The cloud-based services from Microsoft provide a major platform for
their on-premise SaaS products. Azure, an ISV platform is the latest and in-demand SaaS
offering from Microsoft.

8. SAP: SAP Business By Design, from SAP, offers a complete suite of products needed to
run a whole business organization with applications ranging from customer service,
human resources to sales and services.

9. Oracle: Netsuite is the SaaS product suite from Oracle. With a focus on Enterprise
Resouce Planning, Oracle’s cloud-based Netsuite offers services in financial
management, CRM, global business management, etc

10. Slack: Slack offers the Slack App Directory which is a suite of around 1500
applications. The users can integrate these applications into their own platforms or
create applications on their own using APIs

11. Service Now: Now Platform, the complete product suite from ServiceNow has
various products and services that help digitize workflows

12. Zoom: Zoom is a video communications company that provides the cloud-based
communications platform for online meetings, video conferencing, chat, etc

13. MathWorks: Mathworks provides products in mathematical computing software- the

most popular being “MathLabs”. These cloud-based products are mainly used by
engineers and product developers.

14. Shopify: Shopify offers cloud-based e-commerce services. With its products Shopify
Plus Enterprise and Shopify POS system, the company offers 100% safe and mobile
commerce-ready services.

15. Atlassian: Atlassian offers enterprise software-based products and services designed
targeting content managers, product developers, and software developers. Jira and
Confluence are their most popular products.

Conclusion:
The development of technology has enabled both hardware as well as software to be
used from a remote cloud rather than from on-premise infrastructure. With speed and
agility of service being the decisive factor to counter competition, more and more
businesses are reaching up to Cloud to enhance their business standing. Top SaaS
companies and products are certainly sitting pretty on Cloud 9!

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