SAAS Explosion And Integration Into Existing Digital Solutions By Kunal Prasad, Co-Founder & COO, CropIn

SAAS Explosion And Integration Into Existing Digital Solutions

Kunal Prasad, Co-Founder & COO, CropIn | Wednesday, 06 February 2019, 11:17 IST

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SAAS Explosion And Integration Into Existing Digital SolutionsNathan Myhrvold, former Chief Tech­nology Officer at Microsoft, had once quipped, “Software is a gas; it expands to fill its container”. Such is the current disposition of software-as-a-service, one of the more recently popular methods through which software is delivered to its registered users. SaaS, as it is more fondly called, is a cloud-based software model that allows for a licensing or a subscription model where us­ers access their organization’s data from any device con­nected to the Internet.

With more sectors progressively adopting technolo­gy into their systems to boost operational efficiency and to bring about a structure and organization to their pro­cesses, SaaS capabilities are also being tested and pushed beyond what was once imagined. SaaS platforms are be­ing designed to accommodate the multiplying require­ments of enterprises as they attempt to solve a new chal­lenge each day. Businesses worldwide are undergoing a digital transformation, and SaaS solutions are aiding the process by creating an adaptable and versatile environ­ment that is profitable to both the enterprise and to the end consumer.

" Businesses worldwide are undergoing a digital transformation, and SaaS solutions are aiding the process by creating an adaptable and versatile environment that is profitable to both the enterprise and to the end consumer " 

What Makes SaaS The Go-To Option To Build A Digital Ecosystem?

Technologists will agree that given the present condi­tions, SaaS platforms are the way forward for any indus­try to leverage cutting-edge technology and drive their business towards excellence, for multiple reasons.

What Makes SaaS The Go-To Option To Build A Digital Ecosystem?

Technologists will agree that given the present condi­tions, SaaS platforms are the way forward for any indus­try to leverage cutting-edge technology and drive their business towards excellence, for multiple reasons.

1. Strategic Outsourcing: At a time when organizations are required to respond to several business challenges and opportunities on a day-to-day basis, it is prudent to propel a sizeable portion of the work to a vendor who specializes - and also excels  - in developing IT infra­structure that supports business operations without any glitch, and is constantly up-to-date.  This helps the com­pany focus its time and effort on making its core business processes more efficient, without having to worry about complex IT requirements. In other words, the SaaS plat­form would act as the fuel to the company’s growth, in place of an in-house solution that could possibly be an unneeded deadweight, which depletes resources.

2. Configurability and Profitability: Owing to the explo­sion of SaaS services within the last decade, it has now become convenient for businesses to choose a solution that best addresses specific business goals within the al­located budget and integrate the same with the existing digital system in a cost effective manner as against setting up and managing an in-house solution. A SaaS solution being reason­ably flexible and customizable, also enables businesses to add additional features or modules that can be readily plugged to the current processes and focus on a ‘mobile-first approach’, thus making them a highly attractive and a cost-effective alternative. Moreover, because SaaS plat­forms are based on subscription models, businesses can do away with pricey commitments to on-premise software packages and hosting, and instead opt for ‘pay as you go’.

3. Conducive Data Storage: This is the era of Big Data. Organi­zations in numerous horizontal categories collect and store high volumes of information assets, in formats such as numbers, text or images and videos, for further processing. Where does all this data get stored? Speaking of the agri industry, the agri data size is estimated to be 25 Petabytes by 2030 assuming that 50 percent to 60 percent of the farms are digitized. To put things into perspective, a 24/7 full HD video recording over 3.5 years would account for one Petabyte. Many small and medium enterprises are making the switch to public cloud services provided by SaaS vendors who can effectively manage Big Data storage and computing. It is interesting to note that a report by Gartner forecasts the growth of worldwide SaaS market at 17.8 percent in 2019, amounting to a sum total of $85.1 billion, as compared to $72.2 billion last year.

4. Sustainability: Lastly, the term ‘sustainability’ appears to be the latest hot topic- can SaaS platforms aid in making your business sustainable? The concept of sus­tainability is composed of three pillars: economic, en­vironmental and social - also known as profits, planet, and people. Narrowing down the focus to SaaS solu­tions, they are cost-effective solutions that empower businesses to be more goal-driven and productive, they conserve energy and resources that are otherwise needlessly spent on modelling and managing an IT in­frastructure setup, and they reduce the human labour involved since a single software is being designed for use by hundreds and thousands of enterprises worldwide. In short, SaaS platforms support a judi­cious usage of profits, planet, and people, does it not?

Though the concept of SaaS has been in practice since the 1960s, it has undoubtedly become a game changer in the last few years. Sev­eral companies of different sizes, regions and specializations are starting to see the potential in SaaS to make their business more profitable, to say the least. With an effective platform in place, user-experience is more fluid and less complex, internal resources are be­ing better managed, and the pos­sibilities of business expansion are multifarious. SaaS provides enter­prises with a competitive edge on factors including scalability, com­pliance, cost efficiency, and secu­rity, along with modernized mar­keting and enhanced mobile functionality. Along these lines, it comes as no surprise that offbeat industries such as agriculture, healthcare and pharmaceuticals, real es­tate, construction, and non-profit organizations among many others are adopting technology into their systems and have begun to leverage cloud computing to drive communications and collaboration to a greater degree. Therefore, it is only fair that we nod in agreement with Philip Green’s view: “Good, bad, or indifferent, if you are not investing in new technology, you are going to be left behind”.

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