Knowlarity Communications is a cloud telephony company in Asia which replaces traditional communication hardware system with cloud based telephony solutions for small and large businesses. Headquartered in Singapore, Knowlarity is present in more than 65 countries with offices located in India, Dubai, Turkey and the Philippines.
Here’s a non-business related question. Let’s say you’re given a choice. You could either cook yourself a sumptuous, nutritious meal with the finest ingredients. Or you could have the same meal with the same ingredients, catered to you at a lower cost, with enough food to share with guests, and someone else doing the dishes. What would you choose? Forgive us if we’re presumptuous in assuming that you’d opt for the advantages and convenience of the catered cuisine.
Similarly, many companies, in India, (especially SMEs), are now choosing to have their business critical software applications catered to them from within the cloud, instead of having to cook up their own IT infrastructure and software installations.
While the popularity of Software as a Service (SaaS) products have grown in recent years, the concept of shared software is not really new. In a speech he gave at MIT in 1961, computer Scientist John McCarthy is quoted as saying: “Computation may someday be organized as a public utility...” famous words that have long since come true, in the age of cloud and SaaS.
Speaking of SaaS in emerging markets, Knowlarity, Asia’s leading unified communications service provider has leveraged the concept of cloud with its main product SuperReceptionist – a virtual plug and play contact center solution. SaaS products are centrally hosted in the cloud and remotely accessed. A multi-tenant architecture allows many clients to access the application server. A simple internet connection and web browser is all one needs to make the most of these products.
Some of the most commonly used SaaS applications are Customer Relationship Management (CRM) applications, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) applications, database management applications, analytics applications, human resource management applications, productivity tools, designing tools, and cloud telephony applications, among others. Most business operations are covered.
The thumb rule for businesses to invest in the right SaaS product lies in choosing the right service provider. Exploring the benefits of SaaS against on-premise software installation can help SMEs understand the importance of the software while competing with their larger counterparts.
Cost Effective
You don’t need to shell out a large amount of money to buy a long-term software license. Instead, payments for SaaS product are subscription based – you pay a monthly fee to access and use the application. This fee often includes the cost of maintenance undertaken by the service provider.
With SaaS, you don’t need to invest in costly initial hardware infrastructure. You also don’t need to employ IT employees to maintain onsite software, or handle related issues. All these savings add up.
Quicker time-to-use
Since SaaS products are accessible via the Internet, using a web browser interface, your company can start using an application much faster than if you had to install software on each employee’s machine.
Lower maintenance
SaaS vendors are responsible for maintaining and upgrading the application at their end, so you don’t have to worry about installing patches, or new versions. SaaS providers also guarantee a high level of availability of the application. Your company might be anxious about losing productive time, if the application goes down. SaaS vendors do their best to ensure that does not happen.
High security standards
A key barrier to SaaS adoption is the fear that confidential and business-sensitive data isn’t as safe in the cloud, as it is onsite. SaaS providers counter this fear by implementing the latest security measures and adhering to the strictest safety standards. You can even back up your data on a local machine, to prevent potential loss in the cloud.
Anytime multi-device access
SaaS is a boon for employees on the move, especially field staff, who need to access business applications remotely, from their mobile phones or tablets. All they need is a device with an Internet connection and web browser.
Easily scalable
A growing business needs its business critical software applications to keep pace. SaaS providers offer incredibly scalability to allow availability to more users without compromising on quality or speed.
Increasing flexibility
An earlier barrier to SaaS adoption was the inability to customize an application for individual business needs. More recently, this has changed, with SaaS vendors offering greater flexibility on this front. Some SaaS products can even integrate seamlessly with other enterprise software.
Multi-platform operations
Whether your company’s systems run on Windows, Linux, or Mac OS, SaaS providers ensure complete compatibility, so you can continue to use existing IT infrastructure without any issue.
On that note, the growing adoption of SaaS, is driven by the overall benefits of convenience, cost-efficiency, scalability and lowered maintenance. Advanced SaaS products like Knowlarity SuperReceptionist offers a host of features to deliver round the clock customer interactions, optimize workflow and increase the overall productivity. The added benefit of investing in these products is that companies no longer need to buy their own software licenses and host applications on a business server.
