What is SaaS?

In the past you bought software on a disc or as a download and installed it on your own computer or server. With SaaS the software runs on the vendor's servers. You open it in the browser or in an app, and everyone in your team works in the same version. The vendor takes care of updates, backups and the security of the servers.

For an SME the advantages are clear. You do not need your own server, you start quickly and you pay for the number of people who use the software. New colleagues are connected within a short time, and you work from any place with an internet connection. Many well-known programs for CRM, mail and accounting are SaaS nowadays.

There are also things to watch. You depend on the vendor: if a subscription goes up, you pay along. You get the software as it is, with the settings the vendor allows. So when choosing, look at what you can set yourself, at the options for exporting data and at the API through which other programs can talk to it.

SaaS is also an idea behind the cloud ERP: an ERP that you take as a service instead of hosting it yourself. For a CRM it has been normal for years.

What does this mean for a set-up? You do not have to build or install the software itself, so the work lies in the settings: which fields, which stages, which permissions and which data you bring along. That is where we focus. One example is Zoho Workplace: mail, documents, storage, chat and video, all as SaaS.