SaaS adopters stand to see substantial benefits
SaaS adopters stand to see substantial benefits
Companies that invest in software as a service (SaaS) stand to gain major financial and operational benefits, the latest research has revealed.
Computer Economics recently conducted a survey among seven organisations that replaced most or all of their in-house software systems with SaaS delivered via the cloud. The findings suggested that the firms in question made substantial financial savings by adopting SaaS.
The respondents said that when looking at their overall IT operational spend, the cloud option saved them 16.3 per cent when measured as a percentage of their revenue. The figure rose to being 18.5 per cent cheaper when broken down on a pay-per-user basis.
Savings in operational expenditure are, the researchers stated, only one element of the benefits switching to SaaS offers. Paying for software on a ‘what-you-need’ basis eliminates the need for upfront capital funds while outsourcing business critical applications to a specialist third party also removes the need for maintenance, thus freeing up IT staff’s time which can be used more beneficially for the business.
A release by Computer Economics about the study states: “Cloud providers argue that the up-front savings are significant, and that, in any event, the real benefits of SaaS are not in direct cost savings but in the flexibility, agility, and scalability cloud systems bring to the organisation.”
The findings from this report released last month were supported by an IBM study, also unveiled last month. This survey of 879 IT and business decision makers found that 61 per cent of ‘pacesetters’ – those respondents who had the highest level of SaaS adoption – said SaaS increased internal and external collaboration while 68 per cent said it improved the customer experience. Furthermore, 72 per cent identified SaaS as a means to leverage analytics and gain insight from large data sets.
The pair of studies clearly illustrate that SaaS is delivering measurable benefits to organisations willing to migrate away from on-premise solutions to cloud-based ones. These benefits, moreover, are not just financial; SaaS provides superior efficiency, collaboration, flexibility and scalability within an organisation’s day-to-day operations.
Businesses looking to adopt SaaS solutions, or migrate other parts of its IT environment into the cloud, should evaluate the performance of their existing network and consider setting up a leased line or MPLS network. To get an instant cost for a leased line at your location, visit our online leased line price checker.
