Techaisle SMB study: integrated, interconnected business applications deliver better business outcomes

Techaisle survey shows:

• 73% of US SMBs are using at least one SaaS application, up from 27% in 2011
• 51% of global SMBs begin their cloud journey with SaaS
• Global SMB spend on SaaS in 2018 will be US$40 billion
• Cloud is the agility platform & SaaS is a zero-friction option for automating business processes
• 74% of SMBs achieved increased business agility with connected business processes

 The first entry point to cloud in many SMBs & midmarket firms is the purchase of a specific business application by a business user. Each disconnected siloed application provides real & immediate benefits in terms of enhancing individual productivity and enhancing morale and helping with recruitment of tech savvy new workers. Frequently the next step in this process is to automate related tasks within a single process. Connected applications provide the benefits of enterprise agility, of corporate efficiency, collaboration and alignment.

The scope of SaaS impact mirrors the scope of activity in the SMB itself. SaaS can be meaningfully applied to IT operations, to core business functions (finance, HR, business operations) and to customer-facing tasks (customer service, marketing and sales). There are dozens of discrete SaaS application categories under these seven main headings, and thousands of applications that address part or all of the requirements in a specific area, or which bridge across process requirements.

SaaS also increases the ways that buyers can distinguish between offerings (and suppliers can differentiate within competitive markets). Buyers and sellers can choose to focus on value or cost. Value in turn can be delivered through SaaS applications that provide best functionality for a particular objective or task, best integration across multiple tasks/process steps, and/or ease of upgrading to add functionality. Cost, too, can take different forms: lowest price, ease of use (improving user adoption) and/or speed of deployment (like ease of use, addressing time-to-benefit).

Techaisle believes that the norm in the Interwork era will be for SMBs to assemble their own EPM (enterprise performance management) systems, combining financial and related applications to give management greater control over the business and greater insight into its operations. As data shows, SMBs are finding that connected applications support pursuit of multiple important business objectives. Connected applications are good for business. They provide cost-effective solutions to pressing business issues with superior time-to-benefit, and can evolve with cloud, and deliver ongoing support for digital transformation initiatives.

Connected business processes represent the best path forward for corporate workloads and processes – and represent a critical component of the Interwork platform.

As compared to a decade ago, SaaS is one of the main reasons behind SMB transformation thus enabling SMBs to reach their full potential in the shortest possible time. Left-hand chart shows the technology building blocks – which were hardware driven – that SMBs adopted to IT enable their businesses. Today, these hardware blocks are increasingly being replaced by SaaS-driven application solutions.

For more details, please purchase US SMB & Midmarket SaaS Adoption Trends report

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