As mentioned earlier, when you make a purchase on traditional software solutions you often create a long path to payback or expense the decision over time. You may spread the cost with leasing, but you are locked in for a long period. This is not necessarily a bad thing, changing your core business or ERP solution regularly is not good for a business. However, if you can have your cake and eat it too why wouldn’t you?
With a SaaS solution you pay for the software as you go. Some vendors lock you in for longer still but the better one’s back themselves and you have short initial contracts. This means the initial cash investment is generally halved or even better. When you need to look at payback you have a much simpler task justifying change for the business. Additionally, you have a better failsafe if you were unlucky enough to make a mistake.
With the onus being on the software vendor to keep you, a side effect is that they need to remain as an innovative and a relevant provider for your business. When it is much easier to walk away, they need to ensure you are well serviced and your business requirements are handled. This provides a future proofing of sorts and ensures you hold the upper hand.
Finally, with a system where the software vendor applies the updates you also have a better platform for keeping up to date. SaaS is predicated on running a single version of the software and while that is not always practical it does mean the onus is on the vendor to keep you up to date and you once again remain with the upper hand. Receiving updates as part of your subscription to the software is a benefit that keeps you current and future proofs your business!
It is for many reasons that SaaS is the choice for businesses today and for Goldilocks, she would only have had one bear to run away from!