The cloud has revolutionized how businesses function, increasing productivity and profitability. Moreover, cloud-based software allows your team to communicate and collaborate more effectively due to how SaaS inherently handles these tasks. If you’re not taking full advantage of SaaS, you’re not reaching your full growth potential.
What is Software as a Service?
Software as a Service (SaaS) is any cloud-based software delivered through a subscription model instead of having you purchase it outright. If you're using Office 365, or Google Workspace, or the Adobe Creative Cloud, you're already familiar with SaaS. The question is whether or not you're using the software to its full potential and, by doing so, increasing your organizational productivity.
There are a lot of feelings about the subscription model for software, but most of the big names are pretty fair about what you get for the price. For example, Microsoft Office was always a pretty significant portion of a new employee’s onboarding budget back when you had to purchase it outright. Plus, every few years, you needed to upgrade and purchase the latest version for your entire company. With the Software as a Service model, it tends to cost about the same, if not a little less, and you never need to worry about upgrading to the latest version. Plus, most SaaS providers are pretty flexible. Many SaaS options tend to give you the whole kit-and-kaboodle, too. While it would be nice to only pay a nominal monthly fee for just Microsoft Word, knowing that every user has the full suite of tools if they were to need it without having to open up your wallet has its merits.
Depending on the software, sometimes SaaS applications aren't even downloaded to your computer. Instead, they remain in the cloud which serves the application to you via a web browser, or they have some sort of web-based option. This means you can access the software and data securely from essentially any device. One notable feature of SaaS is that you pay a monthly subscription fee and usually aren't locked to a contract. This allows businesses, notably smaller to medium-sized ones, to access high-level applications at an affordable price point. SaaS often offers a variety of price options, allowing you to customize your subscription based on your individual needs.
Benefits of SaaS
Besides typically offering significant upfront capital savings, SaaS can bring a wealth of benefits to any size organization, especially small and medium-sized businesses. Some additional benefits include:
- No Version Issues - All team members are able to use the same version of the software and updates happen automatically without having to purchase the latest and greatest version.
- Platform Neutral - Since most major SaaS options have a web-browser version, documents and files can be accessed from anywhere on virtually any device that has an Internet connection.
- Up-to-Date Security and Compliance - It is common for businesses who invest in one-time purchase software to try to extend the usefulness of the software for as long as possible. However, doing so risks using unpatched software which can expose your network to cyberattack
- Better Online and Offline Features - Since modern SaaS software tends to be made for users to use online, it tends to facilitate better collaboration between team members and clients. Microsoft Office and Google Workspace, for instance, both allow documents to be shared and worked on collaboratively.
It’s About Choosing the Right Platform for Your Organization
We’ve mentioned Microsoft Office and Google Workspace a few times in this post, and for good reason. Most organizations tend to need some or all of the tools found in these basic productivity suites. While both platforms offer a wide variety of tools, the basics most everybody knows them for are:
- Document Editing/Word Processing
- Spreadsheets
- Professional/Enterprise Email
- Presentations
- Document storage/sharing
- Communication/messaging/conferencing
Both Office and Google Workspace deliver on these and more, but there are going to be minutiae between the two platforms that will make one better than the other depending on your business. We help organizations make well-informed software-buying decisions, as well as helping them set up these solutions, migrate their data, and get absolutely comfortable with everything. After adopting a SaaS platform, most of our clients tend to happily stick with it for many, many years.
Make the Most Out of Your Software
Maryland businesses, are you maintaining the status quo and still using your software the way you always have? Are you taking advantage of all the features offered by your software? If you’re not sure, Dresner Group can help. Our software services include support for Microsoft Office 365, Google Workspace, and as a Microsoft Partner, we provide Microsoft-certified Solutions for your business. Call (410) 531-6727 today to schedule an appointment to discuss your business needs and the most effective software solutions for your organization.
