The way software technologies develop and find the most optimal way to fit in our lives sometimes amazes. Netflix and Spotify have transformed the market landscape and changed the habitual view of the entertainment industry. Apps that handle all the data “somewhere in the cloud” and provide end-users with specific services when and where they need it have come a long way from groundbreaking tech to a completely ordinary phenomenon, without which it is difficult to imagine everyday life. The good news is that such apps not only help us entertain ourselves, but can also make business flourish. Today, we’ll consider SaaS app development to better understand the benefits it provides and challenges it brings.
What Makes SaaS Apps so Special
SaaS apps free end-users from the need to install anything on their PCs or mobile devices and rely on a cloud-based solution that is distributed by subscription. Moreover, the use of such a product allows businesses to forget about all the inconveniences related to maintenance. Instead, a service provider takes care of all the technical side of the app functioning. There’s no shortage of product types one can implement as a SaaS solution. For example, it can be ERP, CRM, or a project management app.
For a business organization, there’s no need to invest in on-premise servers and regular software updates. From the user standpoint, compatibility with any type of device connected to the Internet, synchronization between different devices, and regular saving of the changes made are major advantages of SaaS apps. As you grow your business, enter new markets, and expand your staff, you will have the luxury of not worrying about buying new servers or testing how your app works under high loads. If you work with a SaaS app, you can simply choose a subscription model that better suits your current needs.
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With all these and many other benefits that SaaS apps provide, there is nothing surprising that more and more companies prefer them to traditional software. For example, statistics for 2022 shows that only 2% of UK business organizations haven’t yet adopted cloud-based software. However, SaaS product development has its unique challenges one should not underestimate.
Things to Consider Before You Start Developing a SaaS Product
SaaS apps development specifics are different compared to desktop software, so there are some technical aspects characteristic of these particular solutions. On the other hand, it doesn’t matter how you distribute your software. It’s still a product that follows the market laws, remaining the same for everybody.
Among the technical challenges you may face during the SaaS application development process, we can consider the choice of a suitable database. Your app must scale up and down effortlessly according to the current demand of a client and provide decent security. As an example of a well-proven database management system, we can, for example, mention MongoDB.
A company that provides access to SaaS apps has to take care of its constant updates. Customers’ expectations may change over time and, let’s be honest, there’s no perfect software, and SaaS apps are no exception to this rule. Therefore, it’s essential to receive feedback from end-users, fix bugs, and implement new features accordingly.
Building a SaaS solution that can replace all apps that the organization is currently using is a barely imaginable task. Development complexity of such a system will be pretty high, to say the least. Because of this reason, it can be a good idea to implement third-party integrations. It will help your customers smoothly improve business processes instead of re-learning already seemingly familiar things.
Even if you develop a SaaS app that will become a piece of art from the technological point of view, there’s no guarantee that it’ll have a market demand. Your customers won’t care what groundbreaking technologies you used and how easy it is to utilize the provided API for integration with third-party applications. If the app doesn’t solve the problem and doesn’t increase business profitability, don’t expect it to be welcomed with open arms.
It’s also important to remember that you’ll compete not only with technological challenges but also with other SaaS app developers. Therefore, besides making your app user-friendly and reliable, you must develop a flexible and attractive subscription model.
SaaS App Implementation From Idea to Product
As it has been said, developing a SaaS application without a clear understanding of the current market state of affairs is a path to nowhere. That’s why it’s important to find a problem to which your future app will become a solution and validate your idea to ensure that potential customers will be willing to spend money on your product. As a starting point, you can think of your own day-to-day challenges. Think of routine tasks that drive you crazy (so-called pain points) and try to find a way to improve and automate them.
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Finding an idea is only half the battle. What seems like a brilliant solution for you may not find much appreciation among market players. Therefore, there must always be a place for market research. You should better understand your target audience and, if needed, make adjustments to your SaaS product. Also, it’s essential to know what other SaaS app developers offer to build a solid market competition strategy.
After you validate your idea, you must find a reliable SaaS application development team. The team structure and number of involved specialists depends on the specifics of your SaaS app and your budget. The bare minimum must include business analyst, backend and frontend developers, UI/UX designer, QA engineer, and project manager. Since your app’s fate depends on your development team, make sure that everybody is aware of their roles and responsibilities.
The engineering phase is where your idea finds its embodiment. It’ll take some time until you see the actual UI of your SaaS app, be able to click some buttons and see the results of your actions. But the SaaS design is as important as writing the actual code of the app. The more accurate your approach will be during the initial development stages, the better the overall outcome will be.
Moreover, architecture documentation and mockups that your development team creates during the SaaS design process will become a solid foundation for all subsequent actions. For example, you can choose the single-tenant or multi-tenant architecture for your future SaaS product. This aspect determines if each client will have access to its own server or if multiple clients will connect to the same database. As you can imagine, switching from one approach to another in the middle of development will cost you dearly. The architecture of your SaaS app also determines the tech stack to be used during the implementation stage.
Since SaaS apps operate on the cloud, using them on local machines won’t do the trick. The next development step is product deployment, which opens your software to the entire world. Well, to be honest, only for a small team of testers at first.
The major task is to ensure that the SaaS app meets the requirements determined by documentation. The app must work with no lags under high loads, and its scaling shouldn’t cause any troubles. Also, it’s important to remember that one of SaaS apps’ advantages is the lack of necessity for end-users to update them manually. So, it’s important to test how regular real-time updates affect the application.
Conclusions
With great opportunities come great challenges. SaaS products are very changeable. The reason is that they were initially designed to follow the changing nature of the market and take various forms following the current needs of a specific business client. Such a flexibility has its price and SaaS apps development has brought new challenges compared to traditional desktop software development. Fortunately, modern technology can work wonders in the right hands.
If you’re looking for an experienced development team that can build a reliable SaaS app for your business, contact us.