It is clear that the SaaS model presents terrific growth opportunities for independent software vendors (ISVs).
And the benefits go beyond gaining and reaching new customers: SaaS brings agility, increases the rate of innovation, improves overall operational efficiency and boosts market competitiveness. Transforming successfully to SaaS requires the ISV to first consider all business and technical challenges before embarking on the modernisation journey. It’s important for ISVs to develop a clear business strategy to help achieve the benefits they want to see.
This starts with first developing a vision for what SaaS will bring, making sure all assumptions are validated by gathering supportive data – it’s important not to start with a skewed or misinformed vision so that ISVs can be assured that their desired goals will be achieved. To inform this strategy, ISVs should ask themselves questions at the beginning of their SaaS journey, such as how they will fulfil customer needs using the SaaS model, what they will need to do to support growth and which skillsets they have and need to support modernisation. It’s equally important to identify any skills or knowledge gaps in operations, sales, marketing and customer support to minimise modernisation roadblocks.