When growing a small business, the right choice of software is critical for your success. To improve the security of their data, boost performance, and scale their business faster, many small businesses decide to migrate to the cloud.
Research says that 87% of businesses experienced business acceleration after investing in the cloud, while 52% of them have improved their data security. According to Deloitte, 93% of organizations have already adopted or are planning to invest in the cloud by 2020.
The main reason why small businesses invest in SaaS lies in the fact that, unlike traditional software infrastructures, it doesn’t require them to build the server, configure it, and maintain it continuously. SaaS works exactly like a rental – you only pay for the software you are using and you can upgrade your plan whenever you want.
If you are still not sure whether to invest in SaaS, here are a few more benefits to know.
1. Improving Workplace Collaboration
One of the greatest benefits of SaaS tools is that they streamline your teams’ collaboration and provide a real-time flow of information. With project management tools like Basecamp or Trello, you can create new projects and tasks effortlessly and assign the right people to them. Your employees will only be added to the projects relevant to them, meaning they will stop receiving a bunch of notifications about activities that have nothing to do with them and focus more on what really matters. Above all, they can exchange ideas, attach files almost instantly, and share feedback on an intuitive dashboard.
2. Encouraging Remote Work and Boosting Flexibility
Remote work benefits small businesses in multiple ways. Apart from helping them reduce costs, it also gives them access to the international talent pool and lets them target the right candidates, irrespective of their location. However, managing a remote team successfully and engaging them can be challenging.
This is where video conferencing tools shine. With Join.me, Skype for Business, or GoToMeeting, you can schedule proactive online meetings and, in this way, reduce travel costs and enable remote employees to communicate proactively. This is also an opportunity to organize creative team building events. For example, GitLab encourages remote workers to take virtual coffee breaks and chat with one another via video apps to build stronger relationships.
3. Automating Business Processes
One of the greatest benefits of SaaS tools is that they let you streamline many aspects of your business. Most of them offer an Application Programming Interface (API) and, therefore, let you integrate numerous tools under a single platform.
One such example is cloud-based manufacturing software for small business. With these tools, you can centralize all business processes, from sales to manufacturing and inventory management, under a single tool. Above all, the tools integrate with other cloud-based tools vital to your business, such as accounting tools, ecommerce platforms, payment gateways, and shippers.
4. Reducing Maintenance Efforts
A SaaS provider takes care of everything, from data, applications, and runtime to the storage, networking, and servers. They are responsible for monitoring, maintaining, and updating the infrastructure and ensuring its utmost security.
McAfee warns that, while SaaS providers handle most of your security in the cloud, they are not responsible for protecting customer data. Precisely because of that, you will need to adopt at least some basic SaaS security practices to enhance online security. Some of them are encrypting the data on the cloud, monitoring collaborative data-sharing practices, detecting compromised accounts, checking providers’ security, and so forth. Remember that Gartner predicts that, by 2022, 95% of cloud security problems will be caused by users’ fault.
5. Minimizing Costs and Scaling Faster
Unlike complex and expensive on-premises infrastructures, SaaS software works on the pay-as-you-go principle. When keeping your data in-house, this means you would need to invest heavily in expensive hardware and software components. As you are the one managing data security, you would need to invest in a team of IT professionals that would audit your infrastructure and protect it. And, to meet your growing business needs, you would need to invest in additional hardware and software.
SaaS is more flexible and affordable. Namely, you choose a pricing plan that meets your budget needs and pay only for what you are really using. Over time, as your business grows, you can scale your plan. This is immensely important to small businesses with limited resources, as SaaS tools will adapt to their business needs. Above all, you do not need to grow your IT team, as all relevant updates and cybersecurity checkups are handled by a third-party SaaS vendor.
Over to You
SaaS models are in high demand for a simple reason – they provide employees with greater flexibility and improve workplace performance. They also let you automate many aspects of your business and reduce maintenance costs, given that the SaaS vendor maintains and manages all components of the cloud infrastructure. Above all, they are priced on a subscription basis, meaning you will pay only for those services you are using. For small businesses, this means streamlining many repetitive tasks, gaining a competitive advantage, and growing faster.
How do SaaS tools benefit your small business? If there is anything you would like to add, we are listening!