Have you ever bought a new car? Do you remember that desire you had to keep it new? You babied it, you kept it clean and new for as long as you could. You worked hard to avoid getting scratches or otherwise make it lose its “newness”. Well, time moves on and pretty soon that new car gets dirty and perhaps even a few chips in the paint. You don’t really remember when it became just a car, but it serves you well and you don’t hesitate to use it every day to get you from one place to another.
When I look back on the SaaS category today, I get a similar feeling. It is no longer something that is new and shiny, but now it is something used and familiar. SaaS has proven itself trustworthy to use every day across industries and around the world to do all kinds of things in our personal and professional lives.
This was really driven home to me the other day when I was helping my kids with their homework. First they had to get the assignment from a classroom Wiki, not a textbook. Then they accessed a website where a report was written, submitted, and graded entirely online. The assistance on the website to draft the report and the feedback on improving the report was fabulous. And as more reports are written, trending on strengths and weaknesses of the students' writing skills are shown to help the students improve where they need it and congratulate them on their strengths. There was no need to type it and print it at home to turn in at school, no need to email the document the teacher or take it on a memory stick. They just do the homework online.
In my best "cool Dad" voice I told my kids “That’s Software-as-a-Service!” They replied in monotone, “No, that’s homework.”
SaaS may not be the latest craze, but that isn’t a bad thing. It seems that SaaS has moved on past the “too new and unproven” stage to the “oh yeah…I forgot that it’s SaaS” stage where people care more about getting the job done and not about how the tools for the job are delivered to them. SaaS now has the staying power to drive nearly every industry to ask themselves what they can do with SaaS to make sure they have a future.
Has SaaS made a difference in your business or your life?
