by Dan Newman
If any of your small or medium-sized enterprise (SME) clients are still buying software on a disk, it’s time for you to have a talk with them. As a matter of fact, if any-sized business hasn’t yet adapted to the as-a-service (aaS) model of software, platform, and infrastructure delivery, they’re missing out on a huge opportunity to make business tremendously more agile while improving cost and competitiveness.
Remember the days of annual software upgrades, or the frustration of sharing a file with a colleague who hadn’t upgraded to your version of Adobe InDesign or Microsoft Word? What about running out of space on your network, losing all the data on your hard drive, or being forced to drive to work on a snowy Sunday morning because you don’t have access to your files remotely?
Today’s “everything-as-a-service” (XaaS) market is changing all of that, and it’s making companies more competitive.
Your customers want everyday/everywhere access to the files, images, music, movies, and information that matter most to them. This access will save them time and money as well.
SMEs are in the ideal position to take advantage of everything XaaS has to offer – and it’s your job to explain that to them. Research shows that they’re adapting faster than global business giants, which struggle to adapt and “undo” decades of bureaucratic growth. One study shows that seven out of 10 companies with revenue over $10 billion don’t expect their core competencies to be delivered by XaaS for five years.
Given the pace of IoT and AI, can you imagine what else these businesses will be missing out on by delaying their ride on the XaaS train for half a decade? Smaller, more agile organizations have the chance to jump ahead.
Here are four points you can share with your customers about how XaaS can help them.
1. It’s Consumption-Based
In today’s market – which changes by the second – XaaS eliminates the need to stress over forecasting and long-term contract commitments. Instead, XaaS grows along with you. With XaaS, you only pay for what you actually need and use. That’s very important, especially for seasonal businesses or companies with peak operating times, and for SMEs that are optimistic about growth – but don’t want to pay for it ahead of time.
2. It’s Easy
Remember what WYSIWYG did for HTML design? That’s what XaaS does for pretty much everything. With XaaS, you don’t have to be an expert in the tech you want. You just need to be able to articulate your needs and find the service that will fulfill them. Your clients’ employees can enjoy the technology without managing the maintenance of it.
3. It Allows Mobility
Contingent workers are a huge part of today’s digital workforce. Not only will your employees love you for making their work and software accessible via cloud, but you could also save money in office space. Employees can now login from anywhere in the world and use the same services they’d have right within your office. You don’t even have to manage the software or their personal computers to ensure access. This makes your contingent workforce a scalable cloud all its own – available when you need them, no matter where they happen to be.
4. It Saves Your Team Time and Money
Who actually enjoys upgrading and maintaining mounds of technology? (I suppose integrators do!) With XaaS, supporting, upgrading, de-bugging, and improving systems are all responsibilities of the service provider—not of your own team. This will free up your tech force to undertake more meaningful (and profitable) projects while saving you the burden of purchasing technology that will be outdated as soon as you have it.
Read the full story at NSCA.org – Using ‘As-a-Service’ Solutions: 4 Benefits to Share with Clients
