I’ve been in the industry for a while and have always had a few embarrassing little secrets about what is SaaS mean. I think it’s time to come clean. So, what is SaaS mean?
I’ve been in business for over thirty years and I feel like we should be doing more to prepare ourselves. The classic Harvard Business School case study, Marketing Myopia by Theodore Levitt, is taught to every MBA student since the 60s; it says that businesses must not define themselves too narrowly or they will become obsolete. Well software isn’t going away any time soon but what about Software-as-a Service? Between the rise of cloud computing and decline of browsers (Internet Explorer) SaaS seems so passe’.
What is SaaS mean?
One of the most confusing things about SaaS is how it can be both a service and software. There are two types: one where you rent, not own, the product; and another type that provides an entire solution for your business.
In understanding what is SaaS mean, software delivered as a service means that the customer only pays for what they need and when they need it. It eliminates all of the pain points associated with managing software because customers never have to worry about patching, upgrading or maintaining their systems.
When it comes to knowing what is SaaS mean, it’s important that when you layer service over software, the customer is freed from managing and understanding complicated technology. Click To Tweet
The customer can get back to their day-to-day without having to worry about running into problems that are created by technical issues.
Software-as-a-Service Myopia
I am embarrassed to admit that I like desktop security software. It does not run in a browser, but it is the best out there because its maintenance and updates are automatic with no input from me. The one downside is having to occasionally click “OK” or turn off my computer for other programs; however, this is nothing compared to the problems of enterprise SaaS solutions.
These days, apps are taking over. Yes they require an occasional click but the convenience of having all my banking information on hand outweighs any difficulty I have with using them.
What is SaaS mean? Software as a service (SaaS) is software that has been transformed into an ongoing and recurring revenue stream, regardless of the technical architecture.
Whether the software is delivered through a browser, mobile device or tablet does not matter as long as it remains invisible and valuable. Click To Tweet
Restricting SaaS to software applications that are delivered via web browsers is just myopic marketing. As Internet bandwidth expands and clients evolve with better technology, distinctions between clientserver will continue to blur more than ever before.
Software-as-a-service companies succeed when the company becomes a service that provides software, not just another product. O
