How much is SaaS really changing the business technology landscape?

How much is SaaS really changing the business technology landscape?

For me, SaaS is having a massive impact on the business technology landscape in several positive ways. What are the reasons for this? Companies are seeking to grow sales, use their data more effectively, reduce costs, automate manual processes and improve the overall customer experience. First and foremost, the number of SaaS businesses operating in the UK economy is growing at an exponential rate, which has been fantastic for businesses – not to mention UK tech recruiters too. As well as London, Birmingham (and the North West of England) is fast becoming a tech-hub packed full of PE backed, highly innovative start-ups, with companies operating in all types of industry sectors including Healthcare, Fintech, Supply Chain and Education (to name but a few). Customers are now spoilt for choice when it comes to choosing a software provider(s) and whilst competition is always good when it comes to pricing, it can make things very difficult for customers who at the best of times struggle to choose from long lists of suppliers pitching an equally awesome blend of business-benefitting services. Gone are the days where one must opt for the best of a bad bunch, as we enter into a new era which gives ‘pressure-off’ to established, young, small or large companies looking to outsource some or all of their software requirements.

Is it expensive to integrate SaaS, and do IT teams need to upskill their existing personnel to cope with the new demands? 

There are too many variables to answer this question without sounding like a politician, but in my opinion the answer van be derived by asking the following three questions;

1.      How efficiently the SaaS client has developed their product offering (product suite) i.e. does it need to be heavily customised for every customer they engage? Or is it a product which will slot easily into the customer’s set-up with minimum fuss?

2.      What is the nature and complexity of the SaaS service? If this is a business-critical software such as a core banking system, the likelihood is that the Software will need to undergo rigorous testing (including setting up a sandbox environment), ensuring the product fits into the Architecture of the organisation, is secure from potential cyber breaches, and will have a somewhat risk-averse and smooth ‘Go-Live’ (if there is such a thing!). If the product is simply an add-on to a CRM system, such as the video interviewing platform that PageGroup use, ‘Hinterview’, this is a much less expensive and quicker integration which causes minimal or no disruption to end users.

3.      How needy / how logical are the IT Leaders / business leaders implementing the SaaS product? From having worked with a lot of IT Directors and CIOs (some more pragmatic than others), it can often be a case of how simplistic the approach is when it comes to deploying the SaaS into the business. Some customers will ask for the ‘moon on a stick’, ‘bells and whistles’, whilst others will seek the basic functionality from the product and save a lot of time and money in the process.

As for upskilling existing personnel, I believe it’s absolutely crucial to have some form of product champion or super user(s) within the business (working directly for the business and not a contractor or consultant belonging to an SI partner), to help the other end users both understand the benefits of the new software and assist in the day to day usage of the software. Some of the clients I recruit for have the added advantage of a having a business change function, whereby Business Analysts / Change Managers make the adoption, transition and roll out easier; but for me, the allocation of a just few people (not relying on just one person) to help during the transition phase of an integration is more than adequate in most cases, particularly given that most SaaS providers have dedicated consultants who work on-site and help with the post deployment training, user guides, UAT and support.

How difficult is it to integrate SaaS within an existing IT infrastructure, and how can businesses set up to avoid faulty integrations?

I think I’ve already covered this in the previous question, but to avoid a faulty integration you need to do your due diligence. Some things to consider;

• Have you got a vision for the solution?
• What specific issues or business challenges are you hoping this service will solve?
• How many integrations has the SaaS company done so far?
• What do their customers say about them?
• Have they successfully implemented the solution in a business the same size and complexity?
• Has the product been successfully implemented in the same industry sector?
• Have we set out clear SLAs in the pricing / contract with the Cloud Tech provider in case the service slacks? What if the service crashes, do we hold them liable for company losses?
• After the product has been implemented, do we have permanent members of staff within the business to retain the knowledge of the product? (i.e. don’t let all of the product knowledge sit with your contractor workforce)
• Have we documented our processes / process guides?

I could go on and on, but I don’t want to create a fear factor – every solution albeit a software provided by a cloud SaaS house or the build of an in-house, bespoke software solution carry their own risks far beyond that of just the monetary cost. Speak to people in the IT community, consult with IT leaders working for your competitors, network and simply ask people what the pain points were during their own implementations – learn from other people mistakes!!! DO YOUR RESEARCH, USE COMMON SENSE, HAVE A PLAN / ROADMAP.

Should businesses factor in time constraints when seeking to set up a sustainable SaaS operation?

Yes, yes, yes. Have a vision, create a product roadmap, create a plan, assign a team, create a RAID log and work together with the software provider on delivering the solution by a certain time of year. If you don’t have a target date, projects can then drag on and on for years, costing ￡M’s and as we all know, this is when shareholders or executives can pull the plug on funding! After this, regularly review the service, is it still fit for purpose, what can be improved, what should be changed – continuous improvement will be required to maximise the ROI on the service.

The scalability of SaaS allows customers to have a better all-round experience, so just how far can the service go in aligning itself with the needs of the customers?

This is a tough one… I’m trying really hard not to say ’the sky is the limit’ here, but this ultimately boils down to how much effort the SaaS provider are willing to put in for their customer and ultimately how good they are! Just like relationships should be in the recruitment industry, a successful SaaS partner will live and breathe the same values as their customers, they should strive to work as an extension of that business rather than just operating as a supplier; and if this is executed effectively, then the sky is the limit! I just said it, didn’t I?

If we look at the Utilities industry for example, in Energy Retail, there has always been a massive barrier to enter the market, hence for years we as consumers only really knew of the so called, ‘Big 6’ Suppliers (British Gas, Npower, EON, EDF, Scottish Power, SSE). To be successful in this industry, ultimately all you need to do is manage your data effectively whilst providing good customer service; and efficient, easily understood and well-communicated billing (a solid trading / hedging strategy helps too!). From around 2015 though, the landscape of this industry changed drastically, with just a few existing smaller suppliers and the ‘Big 6’ transforming into a market which boomed with new entrants exceeding as many as 50 suppliers at one point. Why? SaaS!!!!

Whilst the larger, established Energy Retail businesses typically relied on large, complex billing systems such as SAP-ISU, Oracle CC&B etc., there were some SaaS businesses who identified a gap in the market, and so the revolution began. Within no time, there were a variety of SaaS services being offered which covered everything including Customer Billing, CRM, Hedging, Revenue Assurance, Data Analytics, Ledger Accounting, Energy Accounting and more. Since then, colder winters (including the infamous ‘Beast from the East’) and mis-managed businesses have forced down the number of players trading in Energy Retail, but this is a great example of how SaaS can transform what was viewed almost as an Oligopolistic and hated industry into an industry comprised of younger businesses with fresh ideas who cater for the needs of its customers.

What sort of RIO can SaaS provide for businesses, and how important is it to have skilled employees?

ROI for businesses from SaaS technology is incredible! Having studied Economics at University, I like to compare a SaaS business to an Import partner in Global Trade. Hear me out; some advantages of Global Trade include specialisation, economic growth, more revenue, mitigation of risk (of supply) etc. and in my opinion, finding a good SaaS partner is no different. They are experts in their field (or at least they hopefully are!), they will provide a service which will likely mitigate risk, save money, increase revenue, reduce inefficiencies, automate manual processes and deliver a service which will enhance profitability potential. There is a massive opportunity for businesses in utilising SaaS technology and things will only get better and better as customer expectations continue to grow and grow. It’s absolutely vital to select a credible and reliable partner, whilst ensuring you have the skilled labour ready to unlock the value from the service – to do this, you must research, you must plan and you must continually improve processes by working with the service provider and having a relationship built on trust. If you consider all of the above before choosing a product / SaaS partner and you both manage to pull it off, then all parties reap the rewards - including your customers!

Written by Steve Jackson

Transformation & Leadership Tech Recruiter