The SaaS life cycle framework was developed on the premise that there are specific business, customer and technology dimensions that must be examined as part of the design of a successful SaaS application. You systematically identify all of the points in a SaaS application where the software or staff will need to interact with the customer (e.g. early sales, marketing, demos, provisioning, configuration, billing, monitoring, renewals, support etc). Then evaluate which of these “touch-points” should be handled as part of the SaaS application design.
Put in very broad buckets these touch-points address:
- Purchasing & Deployment
- Provisioning
- Usage
- Monitoring & Updates
In a pure SaaS model, the underlying economics mandate that almost all of the touch-points in the customer life cycle be designed, delivered and managed via the SaaS application. Automation and self-service do the tasks that would otherwise require support staff to service so that the cost of acquiring and supporting 100 customers is just marginally higher than for 1 customer. This is essential to achieve economies of scale, rapid iterations, and broad market appeal.
But pure on-demand SaaS is not appropriate to all business models. The underlying business value of a piece of software may require unique customer processes, or complex integration tasks that can’t be automated. The steps in the SaaS life cycle framework are however still appropriate for developing a roadmap on how to design your SaaS. Examine the touch-points in the life cycle and determine how you design your application to address them - based on your specific business and technological situation.
In some cases you may need to offer enhanced customization, additional sales support, or on-site professional services, and the premium you charge for this will cover the cost hit you take by not being able to scale via automation or self-service (the “pure” SaaS model). But even in these cases, don’t fall back on traditional on-premise software approaches. You should still thoroughly examine all points in the customer life cycle and determine the fundamental cost advantages of addressing each component in software vs human services. This will help you to align your business model with the underlying economics of how the core application and supporting services are exposed to users.
Categories: SaaS