Rise of SaaSOps Platforms

This post discusses

• Growth of SaaS Apps in last 5 years
• Management of various SaaS apps
• What is SaaSOps and what it cover
• How can banks monetize by solving these problems?

Growth of SaaS Apps

Saas (Software as a service) is exploding through the roofs. Organizations are embracing SaaS solutions faster than ever

Surveys show there is a 7x increase in SaaS apps since 2017 and 14x since 2015.

The reason behind growth in SaaS is continuous adoption of SaaS apps by startups and enterprises alike. On an average companies are using 110 apps in 2021 vis-a-vis 80 in 2020, a 38% yoy increase.

SaaS is USD 170bn industry as of 2022, 5x vis-a-vis 2015.This excludes cloud subscriptions which is expected to grow from USD 396bn to USD 482bn.

Various reports estimate, at least 70% of the companies use at least one SaaS application. Enterprises lead the race with on an average use 447 SaaS applications.

(Souce)

SaaS Management

Such exponential growth of SaaS apps also brings new challenges. Key pain point is lack of visibility into

• Number of apps in use
• Number of users and licenses
• Cost associated with per app, or per use
• Total outgo towards subscription
• Idle licenses and cost leakages, etc

Even a small number of idle licenses is an unproductive cost to the company. On an averag such leakages account for 30% of total expenses.

(Source)

Bigger the organization, more are the number of departments, lesser the visibility and more the wastage. Such waste could run into millions for enterprises and into several thousand dollars for startups.

This excludes the time spent in managing these apps. Bandwidth spent on such reconciliations can be better used towards the growth of the company.

Every reader should do such exercise. We at Nuclei are using 45 subscriptions and our estimate was 20. The story repeats at a personal level. We are so used to subscriptions that they fly under our radar. First step to SaaS management is visibility.

SaaSOps

SaaSOps is becoming quite popular. New companies have emerged offering solutions around SaaS ops. Even Ramp, US based fintech valued at USD 3.9bn, recently bought Buyer which is into SaaS procurement automation.

SaaSOps typically include

• Offering visibility on all SaaS subscriptions of the company
• Providing visibility on number of active users and total licenses
• Employee onboarding and offboarding includes providing access to new employees or revoking such access with click of a button instead of admin logging into all softwares manually
• Savings through cancellation of unused licenses
• Saving time by creating automated workflows for onboarding and offboarding

Case study on number of subscriptions

Founders and finance team remain oblivious to the number subscriptions they have. Here are few categories companies will have subscriptions to depending on their line of business. It’s even possible to hold multiple platforms for one category like marketing.

If you note, we haven’t included subscriptions for workspace, finance, tech and many more!

What should Banks do?

Neobanks and consumer tech startups like Revolut are building SaaS management features in their apps. If users start using such platforms for SaaS management, getting them to shift all their subscriptions will be a lost cause. So, the first mover advantage is important. With SaaS comes a high level of engagement and thus cross-sell opportunity.

The biggest advantage banks have is trust. Our research shows businesses are more likely to give access to bank to manage all SaaS subscriptions than consumer tech startups.

We at Nuclei offer a SaaS platform which offers 3 benefits to SMBs when it comes to SaaS subscription

Management

• See all subscriptions in one place
• See total active users and licenses in use
• Cancel unused licenses and save money
• Get visibility into expenses
• Stop or resume subscriptions
• Employee onboarding with a click

Discovery and Purchase

• Get all you subscriptions in one place
• Discount on new SaaS subscriptions

Bundling

• Bundle or club multiple subscriptions to get even more discount
• Bundle such subscriptions with core offering like current account to differentiate yourself

If this sounds interesting, drop us an email at research@gonuclei.com and we will schedule a session for you.

Ref 1, 2, 3.

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