The technological world is moving at a fast pace. Not long ago, all the major businesses had their on-site software and solutions. The word ‘cloud’ was nothing but a bunch of furry things in the sky. Well, turns out it’s becoming the talk of the decade.
So, what’s all the hype about, and what do these cloud services such as SaaS, IaaS, and PaaS provide that businesses are going crazy about them? Don’t worry as we will find out all about it in this article. Make sure you stick to the end to find out.
What are Cloud Services?
A tool, or product software that can be sold on a subscription basis immediately without setting it up on your site, is called a cloud service. Whether it’s a storage service, infrastructure, or software if setting it up on-site is not required and it can simply be used over the internet, it’s a cloud service.
The above description is pretty much why cloud services are blowing up. Due to their ability to be offered over the internet, there are no setup costs, no maintenance costs, and no scaling costs as well. All you gotta do is keep paying the rent and you can enjoy the services. The best part? You can scale as much as you want and can cancel anytime!
In contrast, an on-site system requires 24/7 support, regular maintenance, a heavy setup cost associated, and most of all, it’s hard to integrate and isn’t easy to scale as your business grows.
How Many Types of SaaS Products Are There?
SaaS stands for Software as a Services and is a cloud computing model when you employ a software on rent basis. The software is pre-designed, but it could be customized according to the business’ needs. Some examples are Dropbox, Slack, and Google Apps.
The variety of SaaS products in the market is endless as there is a SaaS product for every niche nowadays. From accounting to enterprise management systems, SaaS products cover everything. Some of the most famous SaaS products include CRMs, Project Management systems, ERPs, and so on.
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Let’s take a more detailed look into the most famous SaaS products currently in the market:
Project Management Solution
Project management solutions are amongst the most used and most popular SaaS products in the professional world. They offer a wide range of benefits for businesses, especially when we talk about running a business during the pandemic.
The communication gap is filled using PMS solutions and teams can communicate more effectively, resulting in an increase in the overall productivity of the business. Also, SaaS systems are fast and reliable as they offer updated information in real-time which adds further value to communication between team members.
The setup and maintenance costs are pretty low, and there is no issue of scalability as well.
CRM
CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management. A CRM is a vital resource for any business since it can singlehandedly change a business’s fate. In these times of high competition and inflated customer expectations, managing customer relationships acts as the key to gaining a loyal customer base. CRMs help by timely addressing user complaints to confirm they’re satisfied with all their queries answered timely.
The use of AI is a crucial element in modern CRMs. Tasks such as collecting customer data, tracking their activities across social media, feedbacks, etc., are time-consuming, and the only solution is to automate them.
ERP
Enterprise resource planning software is another domain where SaaS is booming nowadays. Software such as Oracle are now being introduced as a cloud service, so you don’t have to bear the heavy setup and maintenance costs.
ERP is a necessity when it comes to handling a large-scale business. These systems help manage each aspect of a company in real-time and offer complete control to the professionals. Supply chain, procurement, accounting, etc., are some of the major areas covered by ERP solutions.
Designing a schema/underlying database structure is the most important for a successful ERP solution for a business. Overall, ERP systems offer several advantages to a company and increase their efficiency but a lot.
HRM
HRM solutions act as the backbone for any business, be it a startup or a large-scale company. If you fail to manage the human resources in a business, you will never be able to hit the full potential a business is capable of.
HRM solutions reduce the stress from a manager’s shoulders by a lot and help them decide more effectively. Moreover, they can automate processes that otherwise take a lot of exertion, such as talent hunting, compliance, and performance management. As a result, they can spend their time doing more important tasks such as strategic planning.
SaaS HRM solutions are easy to scale, which is a necessity for new businesses. When a company suddenly experiences a boom, they don’t have time to hire a team and upgrade their HRM systems. But with SaaS, it could be achieved in a matter of hours!
E-Commerce
Last but not least, SaaS is playing extensively in the field of E-Commerce and Web Hosting as well. With already some well-known products in the market, for example, Shopify and WordPress, there’s no denying that such products are very useful and quick to implement.
E-commerce is the area where quick scaling is probably the most important. According to the customer demand, businesses have to scale up or scale down their stores instantly, and SaaS fulfills this requirement perfectly. However, web hosting is a prerequisite in this case, so it might not be as quick as other types of SaaS solutions.
Other Important Cloud Services
Whether it’s SaaS, IaaS, or PaaS, cloud services are gaining popularity at an exponential rate as more and more businesses keep adapting them every year. It’s important to note that these are not all of the cloud services out there, but they’re the most common ones in the market.
Here are some stats related to the top cloud services that show cloud services are growing enormously:
- SaaS is expected to grow from $225.6 billion in 2020 to $272.49 in 2021, at a compound annual rate of 20.8%.
- IaaS is currently the highest growth among all the cloud services, with a humungous growth rate of 38.5%.
- PaaS is also expected to grow significantly in 2021, with an expected figure of around 14.4%.
Let’s briefly take a look at the descriptions of what these cloud services other than SaaS are about:
IaaS stands for Infrastructure as a Service, and instead of mere software, companies offer the entire infrastructure on a contract basis that companies can employ without the need for on-site setup. Some famous examples are Google Compute Engine and Digital Ocean.
PaaS similarly stands for Program as a Service where the vendor provides a program to use over the internet. The program is pre-packed with features and comes ready to use. Some common examples are Heroku, Windows Azure (mostly), and so on.
Conclusion
Businesses nowadays have a general trend of shifting towards cloud services from the traditional on-site solutions. And I have to say it’s the best choice according to the situation. While the on-site solutions might be more secure in terms of privacy, cloud services offer several advantages that one cannot simply ignore.
While there’s an endless list of SaaS products out there, some of the most famous ones being adopted by the big guns are CRMs, ERPs, Accounting, and E-Commerce solutions. However, if your area of interest isn’t among these, don’t worry, as that will also probably be offered if you take a detailed look into the SaaS market.
