What is a SaaS company?

When purchasing software as a company, it's extremely important to understand the business model they have. Software as a Service (SaaS) is a very common business model in the software world, but not all buyers are familiar with what it implies.

What is SaaS

One of the best definitions I found for SaaS is from Microsoft:

SaaS provides a complete software solution that you purchase on a pay-as-you-go basis from a cloud service provider. You rent the use of an app for your organization, and your users connect to it over the Internet, usually with a web browser. All of the underlying infrastructure, middleware, app software, and app data are located in the service provider’s data center. The service provider manages the hardware and software, and with the appropriate service agreement, will ensure the availability and the security of the app and your data as well. SaaS allows your organization to get quickly up and running with an app at minimal upfront cost.

A well-known example of SaaS

When I talk about my job at family dinners, I like explaining that as a SaaS company, we offer a service that other companies subscribe to in the same way a person subscribes to Netflix. As long as they maintain their subscription, they gain access to our services.

Just like Netflix adds new series and movies at no extra costs for users, it is our responsibility to keep our software updated and top of the line for our target market. We don't charge extra for those updates.

Again like Netflix, we have several tiers of pricing to allow companies to spend the right amount of money for the features they are going to make use of.

The advantages of SaaS

Buying a Service

The clients of a SaaS company are purchasing a service, not software. This means it's the provider's responsibility to update the software, install and maintain hardware and ensure that the service stays up and running in accordance with its contracts.

Accessibility

SaaS applications are generally accessible via web browsers or the internet, which makes it easy to benefit from them anywhere in the world. It allows users to work with them across several operating systems, via their mobile devices, or even from home, which is a major advantage over on-premises solutions.

Saving and Storage

SaaS companies are also responsible for the saving and storage of your data, performing backups, and protecting data for your organization. That's another thing your IT department doesn't have to worry about.

About Us

Our SOLABS QM10© Enterprise Quality Management Software is offered as a SaaS model. QM10 allows Life Sciences companies to learn from experience by providing an integrated platform to manage all their quality operations. This groups their information into one place and helps ensure they remain compliant at all times.