5 Ways COVID-19 Has Changed SaaS as we Know it

You can’t avoid the news. Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, our economy as we know it has come to a grinding halt. From the exhausting notions of conflicting social distancing guidelines, the adaptation of working from home, to the many resulting Zoom quizzes, the pandemic has affected every aspect of our daily lives. 

COVID-19 has catapulted all elements of SaaS to be immediate and effective, as movements to virtual work calls for readily-available solutions during lock-down.

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1. WFH: The new normal?

SaaS collaboration tools have seen an immense surge as working from home has become the ‘new normal’. Connectivity is one of the biggest priorities for many right now, whether for work, networking, or socialising with friends and family. 

Software vendors that offer collaboration and remote working (think Slack, Atlassian, Microsoft Office365) are seeing increased demand as companies expand their remote-working capabilities. 

Most widely recognised perhaps, is the video conferencing app Zoom which has soared in popularity, with many housebound users turning to the software for business calls, quiz hosting, and online teaching. 

2. Increased usage of mobile apps

One category that has seen an interesting evolution is Mobile App development, which has experienced an increase of 199% more traffic. A survey by EE on it's customers mobile habits found that there was a 45% increase on communications apps including Houseparty, WhatsApp and Zoom. Additionally, fitness apps saw a jump in users as the closed gyms, spare time and general boredom caused people to overhaul their exercise routines.

“We’ve seen that Coronavirus boosted mobile app spend to the highest quarterly revenue in history and that e-commerce— often consummated on mobile—is up 25% across the U.S., followed by growth in ad-spend in key mobile categories.”

- John Koetsier, Forbes, 2020

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The reason for this is the increasing reliance of customers on their devices and the pressure of companies to provide mobile apps to satisfy such needs, as our economy shifts closer to digital platforms.

3. The digital-savvy movement

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Due to the sudden and unexpected need for remote working, many companies are now recognising the importance of digital transformation for their business. As other industries rejoice over this time (shout out to Just Eat and ASOS 👋), others have found lock-down a stressful period, as companies rush to modernise their dated technologies and enable remote working.

A recent survey stated that less than a third of companies believed they were innovative or considered themselves to have cutting edge digital maturity, however, this soon looks set to change!

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SaaS provides the perfect route to technologise companies and streamline business operations. Forrester summed up this new attitude in its 2020 software development predictions stating, ‘Software is too important to be left just up to the IT org.’

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4. Higher product expectations

With many businesses facing immense financial pressure right now, management teams are dramatically raising their expectations for vendors. Cue tight cut-backs, intense planning, and careful spending, the main question in focus echoes, ‘What value does this bring to my business?’.

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SaaS products look set to expand on their existing services offered, as vendors are challenged to advocate the value of their product. Whether it's extending the abilities of their software or advancing into a new market demographic, businesses are looking to stretch SaaS to gain the most benefits.

Clients want to feel reassured that concrete outcomes will be guaranteed, with standards only increasing as more people experience the power of SaaS.

5. Adaptation and transformation

The resulting impacts of COVID-19 (lockdown, remote-working, the transition to digital platforms) have meant that the SaaS industry has truly been tested. Adhering to, and often moving with government guidelines, has proved a crucial aspect of SaaS... its adaptability.

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Recent hospitality announcements have included instructions for contact-free payment, hygiene stations, and efforts to ensure decreased capacity of public gatherings. Many examples of using SaaS for good have included the production of contactless payment systems and hand-sanitation units, produced to help smoothly transition  businesses as they prepare for re-opening to the wider public.

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Here at Dotted, we can offer a suite of products to ensure your business is COVID-compliant, alongside ensuring the highest levels of safety for staff and customers. Need a sales outsourcing team? We've got you covered!

Want to find out more about what we can offer for your business? Head to Dotted.org or contact us on 0161 974 4890 to chat with a member of our team!