SaaS ERP Systems

Saas, ERP :Can Help Companies Save Big, Boost Flexibility

More and more companies today are making the bold leap into the Software as a Service (SaaS) space, hosting their enterprise resource planning solutions online. 

And while it’s still a business model with some questions, there are several good reasons for considering hosting your ERP system “in the cloud.”

Saving money is often the biggest advantage. For one thing, it typically costs far less to support an SaaS ERP system than it does to manage and maintain a traditional one, especially during the startup phase. That’s because no new physical servers need to be purchased, and deployment and setup is often a very simple process. Maintenance costs, too, are lower overall.

Such cost savings can be an especially attractive proposition for small and mid-sized businesses that don’t have the luxury of large IT budgets and therefore can’t afford an IT staff to handle their enterprise resource planning solutions. These types of companies also often struggle to attract and keep IT professionals, and spend a lot of time and money training IT employees on the latest ERP technology. But by moving to an SaaS model, such organizations can save money and focus more of their resources on preparing for growth and expansion efforts. 

Larger companies, too, can benefit from the cost savings achieved by implementing an SaaS enterprise resource planning system. In today’s economic climate, IT budgets are being squeezed, and big companies are being forced to make do with less. But by moving ERP systems online, these companies can free up IT staff to spend their time on more value-added projects.

Flexibility is another major reason companies should consider SaaS ERP systems. With an SaaS system, companies get to use an “on demand” approach to their ERP needs, as opposed to being tied down to a fulltime on-premise solution. For smaller companies in particular, the ability to take advantage of usage-based ERP systems means they can more easily scale their systems if they want to, based upon the number of seats they might need at any given time.

This level of flexibility and scalability can also help these companies save money, because licensing costs are lower if the ERP system is not being utilized 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Many SaaS providers today allow monthly or other short-term contracts, which can obviously help users save tremendous amounts of money.

Although Software as a Service is still growing as a business model, and doesn’t meet every company’s unique enterprise resource planning software needs, it’s clear that there are definite financial and business benefits to be had from this approach.