The Advantages of SaaS: Why Enterprises Continue to Migrate

Companies of all kinds are finding their way to the Software-as-a-Service technology model. SaaS applications are hosted entirely offsite and purchased as a monthly or annual subscription. While these software options may be seen by some as better suited to small and medium companies than large corporate entities, their popularity and growth have remained impressive over the past few years, serving as testaments to their widespread appeal.

One area where the SaaS model can shine is in supply chain and logistics operations. Companies have spread these departments around the world in recent years, with multiple facilities needing to communicate consistent information across continents and employees logging into software from a plethora of locations. Essential systems such as enterprise resource planning and Enterprise Labeling can thrive on an SaaS model, delivering connections between widely dispersed operational units.

It’s worth exploring both the general advantages that are drawing companies to SaaS and the specifics that make it successful for a specific computing need.

The Best Qualities of SaaS

The first thing to note about SaaS use is that it is increasing within enterprises. With more than a decade to grapple with the implications of this technology, business decision-makers are still boosting their use of SaaS tools for everyday functions. ZDNet quoted the latest forecast from Gartner, which indicates SaaS use will grow 17.8 percent year over year in 2019, leading to $85.1 billion in spending this year. This huge amount of value will make SaaS the largest segment of the cloud market.

The Forbes Tech Council listed some of the advantages that keep IT departments coming back for more SaaS deployments. These include the complete lack of in-house maintenance and the ability to receive updates and features automatically and with no in-house effort. Organizations that no longer have to perform these tasks can free up IT resources for more value-adding work. Since the updates and fixes are applied centrally, the benefits are felt at every facility that accesses the software, no matter how many of these locations there are.

There are also other logistical reasons to adopt SaaS technology as an alternative to the on-premise equivalent. For instance, cloud-based systems do away with the need for in-house data centers. Using space to house servers and energy to power a data center can be expensive, and organizations may be relieved to shift these responsibilities to cloud providers. Furthermore, keeping data centers secure isn’t a concern when businesses use the cloud: It’s up to the software provider to set up the security systems.

Deployment Set to Continue

InformationWeek noted that experts looking ahead to the 2019 SaaS market and beyond predict that business users will continue to find uses for these tech tools. The connection between everyday digital tasks and SaaS technology is growing stronger. The deployment patterns of SaaS systems may change, but the overall picture remains optimistic for this technology.

Slack Head of Enterprise Product Ilan Frank suggested to InformationWeek that companies will seek out ideal tech tools for their purposes, buying these items individually – in the past, they may have purchased bundles of suites of products instead of taking such a targeted, piecemeal approach.

While evolution is a constant in enterprise technology use, it appears general satisfaction with what SaaS can deliver will keep that model in use for important apps this year and beyond. Companies can be confident that they’re on the right track inspecting potential tech solutions deployed via SaaS and turn their attention to the important work of improving key processes.

The Impact of SaaS on Enterprise Labeling

Enterprise Labeling is one of the supply chain systems that thrives on a SaaS model. Companies need to know they’ll have access to reliable and consistent solutions at all their facilities, and accessing a SaaS product is a way to secure this level of connectivity. Organizations are also interested in ensuring installation costs are low and ongoing expenses are predictable. The cloud in general and SaaS in particular can deliver these financial advantages.

Organizations are choosing technology products that suit their specific needs – for instance, ideal labeling solutions enable failover to local instances in case a facility loses online connectivity. This is a way to keep operations continuously active and subvert a potential drawback of the cloud: the need for an online link with the solution. SaaS labeling solutions that integrate with organizations’ other applications, such as Oracle or SAP enterprise resource planning offerings, can also provide an added benefit offering access to sources of truth for label data and eliminate any redundancies.

It seems clear that companies are increasingly choosing SaaS-based options for their next-generation needs. In Loftware’s 2019 Enterprise Labeling report, respondents made this new preference clear, with 68% stating they see SaaS as the future of their software deployment model.

What’s also clear is when IT buyers select the right option from among the many SaaS offerings on the market, they can set themselves up for continued operational success. For additional information managing labeling in the cloud find out more by going to our Loftware Spectrum Cloud web page.