Key Features of SaaS and a Step-by-Step Guide to Launching

summary: "With the spread of the new coronavirus, the need for remote work, including from home, has rapidly increased, making SaaS a widely recognized term in Japan. Looking back, SaaS started gaining traction around the year 2000, when Salesforce and other startups recognized the promising business opportunities provided by the subscription model. Initially, SaaS was seen as a solution primarily for SMBs, mainly due to concerns about security and limited customization, but this perception gradually shifted. This led to major software companies such as Adobe moving from packaged software to SaaS. In Japan, Horizontal SaaS has become widespread, and Vertical SaaS is also becoming highly competitive. In light of this environment, this article will outline the launch of SaaS.

What is SaaS?

Before launching a SaaS product, let's begin by defining SaaS, which stands for 'Software as a Service' and describes a method of software delivery. Traditionally, software was sold as packaged products in a one-time purchase model, but SaaS is delivered via the cloud, with usage paid for through a subscription. While SaaS may have limited customization options, it eliminates the need for installation and can be accessed from anywhere with an Internet connection by simply logging in with an ID and password. Also, the subscription fee greatly reduces the initial investment, making it easy to use. From the provider's perspective, the key difference between packaged software and SaaS is that SaaS allows for the continuous delivery of the latest software updates to users via the cloud. Subscriptions necessitate a delayed revenue recognition and require more financial resilience than the one-time sales model, as billing is based on usage. However, with the evolution of metrics to evaluate SaaS, it is now possible to evaluate that sales will follow, and many venture capitalists in Japan are already offering risk money.

Launching SaaS

Let's examine the key aspects of launching a SaaS product. The process typically involves four major phases: preliminary research, development, GTM strategy, and release preparation.

1. preliminary research

SaaS is often deployed for BtoB and used for business purposes, so the first step in product development is to understand the business flow in detail. Compared to BtoC products, SaaS for BtoB is used for business purposes, and through various surveys, issues and needs can be understood in advance in a highly reproducible manner. This means that, even without moving forward with product-focused planning and development, understanding the business flow in detail allows you to identify critical issues and refine the development requirements. In addition to defining requirements through preliminary research, it is also possible to enhance the completeness of the product at the planning stage by creating a prototype, having the intended users use it in advance, and obtaining feedback.

2. Development

Once the final requirements are determined through prototyping, we will proceed with the development of the product in concrete terms. The first step is to formulate the design, development, and QA policies involved in the development process. For example, this includes setting up guidelines for managing the scrum process during development. There are also non-functional requirements such as infrastructure that should be addressed before proceeding with the development of the functional requirements designed in the prototype. If any omissions occur at this stage, it will affect the schedule later on, so it is important to thoroughly identify development projects and proceed with them.

3. GTM Strategy

GTM strategy stands for "go-to-market strategy," and refers to the strategy and tactics used when launching a product that has been developed. Specifically, it is the process of deciding how much to sell the product and how to market it, and developing an execution plan. For BtoC, once an app is developed, it can be easily distributed through platforms like the App Store or Google Play, where users can readily download it. However, in BtoB, there is no equivalent platform for easy distribution.

4. Release Preparation

Based on the GTM strategy, we'll determine the most effective way to release the product. For example, one option is to release the official version of the product right out of the box. Another option is to have a certain number of users as monitors, have them use the product thoroughly, and release the product only after the accuracy of the requirements has been improved to the limit. There is also the method of charging from the very beginning of the release, or of initially developing the product for free while checking the initial trends of users, especially the number and percentage of churns. In this way, the word "release" can be interpreted in many different ways, and there are a wide variety of options to choose from.

Summary

The Corona disaster triggered a sudden increase in the need for SaaS in Japan, and there is no end to the number of startups deploying Horizontal SaaS and Veritical SaaS. Knowledge of SaaS startups, including preliminary research, development, GTM, and release preparation, has been accumulated mainly by startups, and is gradually becoming systematized. As major companies adopt this systematized approach, the shift to SaaS for core business operations in major companies has the potential to become the next trend. In the near future, we can expect to see more examples in Japan, like Adobe, successfully transitioning from packaged software to SaaS.

References

• Shoei-sha/ ALL for SaaS SaaS立ち上げのすべて
• Shoei-sha/ ビジネスモデル構築の大転換 クラウド化する世界