The payment for use of ICT services, among them, SaaS, is a modality that large companies have been adopting over time. They realized that, for the vast majority of SMEs, their technology was too expensive, therefore they were losing a large market share, especially in countries like Spain. However, other corporations decided to “embrace” as a service in its entirety, as is the case with Salesforce.
To talk about how this business model has impacted the company, we spoke exclusively with Rui Costa, Area Vice President of Sales Iberia & Italy at Salesforce. The manager has told us what his clients are like, what the payment for use brings them and the future of the traditional license, among other issues.
MuyPymes: What is the weight of the SaaS model in the Salesforce business?
Rui Costa: Salesforce is 100% SaaS. This is how it was born in 1999, as a revolution against the traditional system of software licenses. Salesforce enables companies of all sizes and industries to take advantage of the latest technologies—cloud, mobile, social, voice, and AI—to connect with customers in a whole new way.
MuyPymes: Do you think that the payment for use will supersede the traditional license?
Rui Costa: The traditional licensing model, while it will last for some time, is giving way to the SaaS model, which offers many advantages of scalability and flexibility. Companies, including small and medium-sized ones, are not looking for an immovable IT solution, but rather a model that accompanies them in their business transformation processes.
The ability to grow the technology solution at the pace of business is essential, as is being able to benefit from the innovation that SaaS providers regularly add to our technology.
VeryPymes: What is the profile of the SaaS client?
Rui Costa: Companies are already aware of how with SaaS they can reduce costs and time. The truth is that there is more and more awareness of the advantages it brings to the day-to-day activities of companies. There are companies of all sizes and all sectors using SaaS. In fact, the adoption process is easier for small companies, since they have far fewer challenges related to legacy systems.
In a medium or small organization, without the resources to make a large initial investment or maintain a large IT department, the task automation provided by SaaS is the cloud. In Spain, in recent years and especially after the pandemic, we are seeing how many SMEs make the leap to the cloud. According to the Salesforce SMB Trends Report study, 78% of Spanish SMEs increased their online presence last year, six points above the global average.
MuyPymes: How does the business model based on SaaS work?
Rui Costa: The idea of Marc Benioff, the founder of Salesforce, was always to create software that could be used without the need for technical knowledge and somehow democratize cloud technology. Thus, the business model for a company like Salesforce is based on quick and easy adoption by customers.
The success of our customers is one of our core values, as we depend on their success in their businesses to keep them renewing and expanding their use of Salesforce. For this reason, we help them get the most out of their solutions with constant support from us and our business partners.
VeryPymes: What is the future of pay per use?
Rui Costa: Digital transformation is not understood without a payment model for the solutions that are being used in the cloud. Technology providers strive to adapt technology to the needs of our customers. A good example of how Salesforce listens and evolves to serve SMBs is the launch of Salesforce Easy, a new simplified version of our CRM that offers the possibility to try and buy different Salesforce components in a flexible way.
That’s why the future is SaaS. Only in this way can SMEs adjust their deployment based on their needs at any given time.
MuyPymes: What are the common characteristics of SaaS services?
Rui Costa: We have mentioned some above. The main advantage, especially for SMEs, is that SaaS allows them to benefit from the same technology that until now was limited to large multinationals. We can say that the characteristics that define SaaS are flexibility, cost control, scalability and access to company information from any location.
Furthermore, from a security point of view, the fact that the software provider is responsible for it and the client does not have to worry about product updates is, without a doubt, another of its great advantages.
