Gets Unexpected Boost from Recession as CRM Takes the Lead.
via AMI-Partners
Small and medium business investments in software-as-a-service applications (excluding CRM and ERP as SaaS) will jump 18% CAGR over the next five years, projects Access Markets International Partners Inc. The projections are even more pronounced when contrasting CRM as SaaS vs. CRM installed at site-the former is expected to grow 16% CAGR while spending on CRM will remain flat over the same period.
While they slowly emerge from economic uncertainty due to the recession and its lingering aftermath, SMBs remain conservative about upcoming IT spending. With the majority of SMBs still facing restricted cash flow and tightening credit lines, the climate for buying software applications is now ripe for shifting to SaaS applications, since they can be acquired through a fixed monthly/annual fee and thus moderate over time the impact of a large purchase.
SaaS solutions are expected to be the solution of choice among ERP users as well, New York-based AMI notes, with hosted ERP spending growing at 14% compared to the 4% growth forecasted for on-premise ERP. SaaS investments are expected to be boosted even further by US SMBs’ trending towards greater mobility and work at home. Currently, 39% of SBs and 84% of MBs have a mobile workforce (at least a tenth of employees traveling at least 4-5 days each month).
“SaaS solutions are particularly well suited to workers on the go,” says Neha Jalan, Associate at AMI-Partners, “since they’re easy to use offsite across diverse platforms such as notebooks, netbooks, smartphones from anywhere and even PCs from a corporate work center in a hotel, and in the future, tablet computers.”
A further attribute of SaaS is that applications can be fine-tuned to look like “apps” on smartphones. “With the proliferation of smartphones, netbooks and now the introduction of ultra-portable tablet computers, businesses will start viewing software through a different lens,” said Ms. Jalan. “Subscription-based apps seamlessly accessed have the potential to change how companies view the software applications market-so much so that the currently projected growth may prove to be conservative after all.”
4 Responses to “SaaS Makes Inroads with Small Business”
Dan @ WORK[etc]
We are seeing this with exponential growth over the last 6 months. And put a lot of this down to implementing our CRM SaaS solution directly into accounting solutions like Xero and Quickbooks Online
Paul Arliss
SaaS is the best way for small to mid-size businesses to focus on operations rather than IT, plus it is cost effective because it involve no risks of buying equipment to maintain the software. Read more reasons of getting web based crm http://www.worketc.com/features/crm_software.
Marty Desmond
I worked in an office on the 42nd floor of 1 Shell Square, New Orleans, LA when Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005. Even though we had adequate backups of software, we lost all of our equipment. Had we been on SaaS solutions, I could have kept working remotely and not lost some of the time sensitive projects I had been working. I am now a big proponent of SaaS solutions, personally.
CRM is certainly a big growth area in the SaaS space. However, we surveyed — by web and conversation — nearly 1500 tax and accounting professionals last year. The majority of them did not have, or seldom used, any type of system to track marketing and business development activities. If none of the systems are going to be used, paper and pencil, are just as effective as the most expensive computer or web based systems.
Investing time in developing or improving relationship management and business development processes up front will increase the return on investment in the CRM systems. Regardless of the platform, if automated processes do not match those in the office, user adoption will be low. Then the data will be incomplete, making any system a bad investment.
Once that process is done within the firms, most practitioners will find that many of the small and medium businesses need to go through the same process work. That could lead to more business consulting opportunities.
Laura
Could not agree more. As a web development company, we are seeing increasing demand for SaaS applications and have just written a blog on it – http://blog.bitzesty.com/saas-opening-up-new-opportunities-for-busines