Why SaaS Outperforms On-Premise

The Benefits of SaaS

If you’ve recently explored investing in a new software tool for your company, chances are it was a SaaS application. SaaS, or Software as a Service, is a software licensing and delivery model where companies “subscribe” to a software license and the software is hosted in a central location in the cloud instead of at the company’s location, which is known as “on-premise.”

Before the cloud made SaaS options as seamless as they are today, on-premise was the go-to option for companies looking to expand their software tools. Some business professionals still believe in the powers of on-premise, thinking that SaaS applications aren’t as secure or robust. While this might have been true when SaaS was just starting out, it’s now an outdated way of thinking.

Cloud deployments have gained ground because they let organizations focus more on business priorities and less on infrastructure and application delivery. Cisco’s Global Cloud Index predicts that SaaS will continue to grow: 74% of the total cloud workloads will be SaaS by 2020, up from 65% in 2015.

There are many benefits of SaaS, but I’d like to highlight a few of the most prominent ones here.

Scalability. With SaaS, you choose only the tools and products your business needs. Is your business growing? There’s no need to invest in more servers or rebuild system architecture since your subscription can grow along with it. Once you have more employees, you simply purchase more licenses. Or, let’s say you then want to limit who uses the software—for example, your sales team members are the only people who actually use it—you can unsubscribe and downsize your licenses. This cuts down on wasted resources and also provides some predictability in terms of future costs and budgeting.

Efficiency. When the software application is already installed and configured, users just need to access it on the cloud and then they’re ready to go. This reduces the time to benefit, as employees can quickly start using the tool without any sort of extensive hardware upgrades.

Since SaaS is available by using familiar web browsers, the learning curve tends to be lower and the adoption rate higher. This means there will be less productivity lost because employees won’t need to take days to learn the software. For example, the cloud-based Signavio Business Transformation Suite has an intuitive design with commenting and sharing functions that are similar to most social media websites, making it that much easier for users to seamlessly integrate it into existing processes.

Cost. SaaS can be more cost-efficient for organizations in the long-term depending on the needs of your organization. Since the vendor is responsible for setting up and maintaining the servers and architecture, a company’s initial setup costs are just a fraction of what they could be when compared to on-premise options. SaaS also allows you to “pay as you go,” meaning the subscription is flexible and can fit your rapidly changing business demands.

Since the SaaS vendor is responsible for maintaining the software, upgrades and security checks are taken care of without additional time or resources on your end. At Signavio, we securely back up encrypted copies of customer data and distribute it geographically, so your data is secure and easily recovered. We have local data centers and comply with EU data protection regulations. Not to mention that we offer customer support via telephone or email as well. Be certain to check what types of support are included in your subscription from any SaaS provider before signing up.

Tackle Your Trust Issues

Some industries might still struggle with using SaaS instead of software that is on-premises because of concerns about security and privacy, but SaaS has evolved to be even more secure and private than most on-prem solutions.

For example, a 2015 report by Forrester titled Software as a Service in Banking stated: “Concerns regarding the security, privacy and risk of SaaS deployments for financial services should be a thing of the past. The new, state-of-the-art SaaS solutions are just as capable of protecting customer information, corporate intellectual property and other business secrets as traditional hosted solutions.”

Even in Europe, where privacy standards are extremely high, SaaS is becoming more and more in demand. According to a recent Bitkom study, the proportion of German cloud users rose from 54% to 65% in 2016. Even more interesting: 57% of the surveyed managers believe their company’s data was “very secure” or “more secure” in the cloud. This demonstrates that a growing number of business users are realizing the cloud-based solutions are just as secure as on-premise options.

Even though it’s entirely possible that your company’s in-house IT team could manage and maintain most SaaS software, why not leave it to the specialists? Operating a SaaS system requires implementing certain processes, such as:

• Managing new releases and updates
• Monitoring application
• Reporting technical issues
• Supplying 24/7 support
• Managing database backups
• Monitoring security

Here at Signavio, we have over 10 years of experience in all of the above and want to make sure each of those processes runs reliably and smoothly over SaaS. Plus, some of those processes, like customer support, run even faster using SaaS.

While I know these benefits to be true for Signavio and our tools, it’s worth double-checking with the SaaS provider you’re considering on exactly what is in the subscription and what isn’t. If the software provider offers both SaaS and on-premise options, it’s wise to get a sense of what each one includes before making your decision.

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Signavio offers an open and engaging platform for communicating, coordinating and managing change.