The Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) market is expanding rapidly, led by large SaaS corporations as well as smaller startups. According to research by the Synergy Research Group, the market is a high-growth one, with leading SaaS providers growing at about 32% YoY in Q4 2016. Q4 revenues thus stand at a whopping $13 billion, a dominant trend that is expected to continue.
Cloud computing offerings are of three types—Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), and Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS). SaaS leads the way, and will continue going ahead too. It is expected to account for nearly 60% of cloud spending by 2020.
Here are some of the key players driving this growth trend:
Microsoft: Microsoft leads the enterprise SaaS segment ever since it overtook long-time leader Salesforce. It operates in the categories of collaboration and customer relationship management (CRM) and enjoys customers such as Rolls-Royce and GE Healthcare for its cloud offerings.
Google: Google SaaS is in an enviable position, and exhibited the highest growth rate in Q4 2016. Its G Suite collaboration and productivity suite, serving the likes of Verizon and HP, has done the search giant a world of good in securing its SaaS leadership position.
Cisco: Leading the collaboration SaaS space alongside Microsoft and Google is Cisco. Aimed at improving performance and reducing costs, it secures and optimizes the hybrid IT world with its SaaS applications such as Cisco CloudCenter and Metacloud.
Adobe: Adobe is known for its creative bent of offerings for a niche audience. Its Creative Cloud suite delivers on the needs of varying clients, from travel portals such as Travelocity to state governments such as the State of Hawaii.
IBM: It offers a range of system infrastructure SaaS apps. Businesses can select from 150+ apps that come inbuilt with deep domain expertise and cognitive analytics capabilities to impart a competitive edge. Offerings spread across functionalities like marketing, talent management, CRM, and others.
Workday: A human capital management solution vendor, it also offers financial management, professional services automation, and education management modules. Embedded with prism analytics, it helps simplify and streamline organizational challenges. Workday finds SaaS users in Netflix, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, and the Ohio State University.
Zendesk: A relatively new entrant in the SaaS space in the year 2007, it operates in the CRM arena, empowering organizations by helping them understand customers better. Improving customer relationships has helped the company build a great client base in a short time, some of which are Tile, Everlane, and RentMoola.
Oracle: One of the pioneers of ERP today, Oracle also doles out system infrastructure SaaS. Its cloud suite spans across customer insighting, human resource management, financial management, and sales and marketing, among others. Its embedded social, mobile, and analytics capabilities deliver value by boosting business performance across these areas.
SAP: SAP is another long-standing leader in the ERP space. It made it big in the SaaS space with the release of its analytics platform, SAP Cloud for Analytics, in 2015. Operational on the SAP HANA cloud platform, it has wooed customers such as Adidas and Citrix.
Intuit: A company that creates SaaS solutions focused on small and medium enterprises, it is primarily into accounting software. It started in 1934 and is headquartered in California, and now its niche operations have rendered it a leader.
A number of leading players indicates that the enterprise SaaS market has attained a degree of maturity compared to IaaS and PaaS. Further growth is predicted, with Synergy estimating that the market will double in size over the next three years.
