11 SaaS series Introduction: SaaS Business Model Analysis

1 Configuration Mode

Many Chinese enterprises are governed by people, with great management elasticity, frequent changes in company policies, great changes in management processes and business, and rapid development. One company is 10 people this year, there will be 100 people next year, and may be 1000 people next year. Management mechanisms and methods are constantly changing and require a great deal of software. In addition, although two enterprises in the same industry sell the same product, there are many different management methods, methods, and processes.

ASP can be implemented quickly starting from multiple leasing. It includes many modules, but has few configuration parameters. It can only perform some simple configuration and can be imported and exported simply. SAAS has added many features of large-scale enterprise management, such as workflow and business process formulation, and has strong custom functions. The customer needs to change something on their own to "respond on demand ".

The software technology required to achieve "on-demand response" is very high, and it can be done by no one.

In the custom functions, for example, Custom reports and common forms of companies, ASP technology may only provide a few or dozens of sheets, and there will be no more. Chinese companies have high requirements in this regard. Therefore, only SaaS's strong custom functions can meet this requirement. This is the configuration mode we need to study.

1.1 configuration mode Overview

L definition of Configuration Mode

The configuration mode (SCM) is dependent on custom tools (including Custom forms, custom workflows, custom data structures, and custom reports) you can use the interface creation and configuration without hard coding to quickly complete the software development mode required by the customer's functions.

L configuration mode development steps

Step 16:

　　

Figure 1 Development Process of Configuration Mode

1. provide functional and non-functional requirements based on the materials provided by the demand source, and write the requirement analysis manual according to the function component template.

2. According to the requirement analysis specification, the architecture design function components should be written out according to the template of the function components.

3. Configure the developer to search for the component library based on the function list.

4. Find similar businesses through analysis and integrate them into businesses that meet requirements.

5. If the Component Library does not contain such businesses, use a custom form tool to draw a user interface.

6. If business data is involved in a form, use the Custom Data Structure tool to create a table structure.

7. Configure the developer to associate the table structure fields with the form.

8. If the business involves a process, you can use a custom workflow tool to define the workflow.

9. The workflow is associated with the form and matched with the personnel role of the organization to define the approval executor.

10. If you need the report function, design the report using the custom report tool.

11. Repeat the above steps until all functions are met.

L advantages of the Configuration Mode

1. Develop software efficiently, shorten the development cycle, and reduce development costs.

2. quickly respond to customer needs and maximize customer satisfaction.

3. quickly respond to business models and improve core competitiveness.

4. Reduce or even avoid coding, and even avoid System bugs.

5. A wide range of sources of requirements to reduce system development risks.

L insufficient Configuration Mode

1. Only suitable for small and less complex software

2. The efficiency and performance of the developed software are reduced.

3. Full dependency on custom tools, poor flexibility.

1.2 configuration capability of SAAS Software

The main function of SAAS software is energy customization, customization ability, secondary development, or project-based custom development. In an environment like China, the customization or on-demand response of SAAS software is the most important issue, because when enterprises grow from 5 to 100, demand is constantly changing. Therefore, China's software as a service (SAAS) software must emphasize the ability of customization so that customers can get the highest ROI.

L localized development team

Many foreign vendors enter China and rely on their own technical advantages to work with other development companies for software. This is a very clever practice. However, as an SaaS software service provider, you must have your own code to quickly respond to customer needs.

L Secondary Development

At present, almost every enterprise has used software more or less, but these software comes from different developers. Without uniform interface standards, integration becomes a problem. Newly purchased software cannot share data with old software, and each software runs independently. Information Islands is the biggest headache for enterprises. Can SaaS software be integrated with previous ERP? This is not a simple solution for integration. If the code of these systems is written by yourself, you can modify the code at any time. It is not a self-written interface without a unified standard, integration is impossible. Therefore, it is an important benchmark for SaaS software to be able to provide customers with secondary development and be updated immediately after development.

L package

Whether software can be packaged is a concern of the configuration mode. For example, now that Beijing has talked about a project and suddenly signed a contract with the Shanghai branch to buy the same SaaS software, in this way, we will face the previous software processes, the previously self-made systems, and whether the previous approval processes can be directly transplanted to the branch system. This also requires SaaS technical support.

L scalability

If enterprise users suddenly increase from 10 to 500, can access speed keep up? Does the search speed keep the previous speed? Was the previous permission management as strict? Can a server group be under pressure? Therefore, the ability to withstand the rapid increase of large-scale users is also an indicator of the SAAs operator.

Custom or custom functions in a multi-Tenancy architecture are another core technology of SAAS software. The products of leading vendors have already achieved self-customization. Customers can customize fields, menus, reports, formulas, permissions, views, workflows, and approval flows based on their company's business processes to customize SaaS software, no programming knowledge is required.

The custom technology is implemented by adding a database extension layer, a presentation layer, and a set of related development tools in the software architecture. Currently, only a few vendors in the world possess this core technology. In China, eight hundred customers can also achieve this.

2 SaaS Marketing Model

SAAS software is provided to users through services. The company's products that users choose to use are determined by many factors. Saas-based operators should have a complete set of marketing technologies to promote and promote their own products to form a brand. Continuously expanding market share and creating better economic benefits.

2.1 build your own brand

L brand definition

Brand concepts are rarely accurately defined and understood. The author of "Marketing Management" said that a brand is a name, term, symbol or design, or the sum of the above, and its purpose is to distinguish its own products or services from other competitors.

A famous advertising agency believes that a brand is an image.

A consulting company believes that a brand is the relationship between products and consumers. The process of brand growth is the development process of the relationship between products and consumers.

We have also heard of various different definitions, such as brand commitment, brand experience, and brand cognition .......

So what is a brand? My definition is that a brand is a set of information associated with a specific enterprise and product. A brand only exists in the customer's consciousness.

　　

Figure 2 brand awareness

Therefore, Roland Berger believes that the customer remains at the core of the brand strategy.

A common practice: Roan Berger's brand View

　　

Figure 3 product 1 Figure 4 Customer first

Product 1: production-oriented business philosophy.

Customer first: the true market-oriented business philosophy.

L brand role

The role of a brand is to identify differentiated products and services. It helps customers identify the sources of products and services and influence customers' purchase decisions through trust establishment.

2. value created in the design, development, production and delivery processes.

2. measurable objective performance and characteristics.

2. It will be depreciated and depreciated continuously within a limited period of use.

2. Additional value created in the customer's consciousness.

2. quality and value of subjective feelings.

2. Continuous influence and value-added.

L brand assets

Brand asset refers to the brand's long-term brand image in the customer's mind by building trust and creating value-added means.

Three Functions of brand assets

1. create differences

2. differentiate a brand product from a product of general significance.

2. differentiate a brand's products from those of other brands, although their physical performance may not be different.

2. Pass Brand Information

Influenced by marketing activities and previous user experience, the customer can immediately convert the brand name into a series of products, enterprises, quality, technology and other information related to the brand.

3. Adjust the customer's psychological response

2. enable customers to get the satisfaction they expect.

2. enable customers to change their views on a certain brand by purchasing and using it, so as to gain a better sense of self.

Powerful brand assets not only highlight differentiation, improve customer satisfaction, but also bring brand premium and other benefits to manufacturers.

2.2 SaaS marketing Framework Research

The Research on SaaS marketing framework aims to clarify the carrier of the brand and how to combine the information to continuously and effectively disseminate it to target consumers.

1. To fully understand and study marketing decisions and specific actions, and how they work together and work together, you need to use the following two methods to enhance your work capabilities.

2. Be familiar with the skills and techniques you need in your field of work.

2. fully understand how your work is combined with the overall brand strategy and regional strategy.

2. enable marketing staff to fully understand all aspects of the marketing field they need

Marketing is the process of providing appropriate products and services to appropriate consumers at appropriate prices, appropriate information communication and promotion means at appropriate time and place.

3. Starting from the consumer to the consumer end

2. Understand consumers and serve their product needs, rather than marketing activities from the perspective of competition.

2. Respect customers and strive to gain their trust.

2. Let customers know how your brand serves their life, so that they can fully support your brand.

2. cater to consumers in various ways and make them satisfied in every aspect related to the brand.

4. If you have a solid value, you can have a sustainable brand.

2. establish continuous brand assets and use these assets as a solid foundation for brand building.

2. The brand is a bridge between your company and customers.

2. Reasonable brand behaviors help to strengthen and consolidate your brand assets.

5. Investment in marketing in a profitable market share

2. The combination of experience, intuition, and financial responsibility can help your brand achieve breakthrough profits.

2. Learn the knowledge through experience, competition, and industry environment where you are, and use the knowledge to further consolidate marketing strategies.

2. Conduct new experiments based on the learned knowledge. This is very important for the long-term success of the brand.

6. The purpose of establishing an integrated marketing framework is to develop plans that can increase market share more effectively and conduct successful strategic deployment.

L The significance of the marketing framework is embodied in five aspects:

Helps enterprises review the most important strategic issues and prevent too much entanglement on small issues

• Combine history with all practical methods to solve problems.

• Provides guidance for every meaningful and valuable business choice.

• Avoid a one-size-fits-all plan.

• Expand thinking and help enterprises make Mature choices, so as to avoid too much attention to short-term interests and neglect the long-term development.

2.3 SaaS marketing framework consists of four core issues

　　

Figure 5 composition of SAAS marketing framework

Who are our customers: research and analysis of market customers, customer preferences, customer characteristics, discovery and mining of customers, positioning of customer directions, and cultivation of the market and customer if necessary. Only by clarifying who our customers are can we promote products and sell products to our customers in a more targeted manner. We also need to analyze which customers are not our customers.

What is our product: What kind of product is developed? Is it ERP, CRM or OA? This should combine the distribution of products in the market and the effect of the brand, avoid competition levels that are not in the same condition, analyze their own advantages, and find out the shortcomings of competitors, give full play to your strengths, position your products, and determine what your products are. Products that are unclear, hard-coded, and clearly explained cannot attract users' attention.

Why Should customers use our products: analyze the characteristics of their own products, user characteristics, key factors that attract users, and the reasons why customers use their own products.

How can customers continue to lease our products: How can temporary customers become permanent customers? Are users satisfied after renting their own products? What are the reasons for dissatisfaction, how can we improve our products and service quality? In addition, it mines potential users and turns trial users into paying customers.

3 brand vitality Model

The future evaluation should explain the vitality of the brand. Brand vitality reflects the comprehensive strength of the brand scale and brand grade. In the analysis model, the area covered by the brand points is used to represent 21:

　　

Figure 6 brand business vitality Model

Advantageous brands can achieve a general balance between "promotion" and "Popularization". To avoid being sucked into the black hole, other brands must take one of them as the focus of brand building. 22:

　　

Figure 7 brand building

4. Summary

This article focuses on the SAAs business model. Through the introduction of configuration mode and marketing mode, we can understand the value and market development potential of SAAS business model. At the same time, building your own brand, creating a brand vitality model, and creating a suitable SaaS business system through the business model is a key step.