ABES study presents scenario on SaaS in Brazil

Of the total of 136 software companies that responded to the survey, only 7% fits as a purely SaaS company

 

ABES publishes the results of its research on the Brazilian SaaS Market (Software as a Service – Software as a Service). According to the entity, this is the first study dedicated to the segment in Brazil and started from the need to better identify the performance of software companies in this new commercialization medium and, consequently, help them to improve their business. to carry out the survey download, it is enough for the member to connect to the portal using his login and password. Non-associated companies will need to complete a simple registration.

 

Answered by 136 software companies located in Brazil, the survey was prepared by ABES's SaaS Committee, created this year with the aim of identifying best practices, fostering innovation and guiding companies interested in migrating their solutions to the sales format as service. 

 

“The first observation we had with the research was about the misconception that exists in the market in relation to the concept: 'SaaS company'. Many believe that only having an offering in the cloud characterizes a company as being SaaS, when for that, according to the IDC 2010 Software Taxonomy, the company needs to have its business as a whole focused on this model, in addition to having an application” , explains Lauro de Lauro, coordinator of the ABES SaaS Committee. For this reason, the study took into account, in its questionnaire with 44 questions, the value proposition applied by the company; your business model; investment in Marketing and Sales and the management of the company. 

 

According to the study, a purely SaaS company requires the following macro characteristics: it does not require a specific installation for each client; customizations are standardized and adaptable to all customers; software architecture is service-oriented, deployment and operation designed for maximum efficiency; contracting the service does not involve licensing issues; the delivery of the software must be made, necessarily, through a browser or mobile apps; focus on user experience, high scalability and aggressive pricing.

 

With this, the research allowed to identify and characterize two distinct groups of companies: oriented to the business market – Business ASP and Business SaaS; and oriented to the consumer market – ASP and Pura SaaS. ASP is understood to be application provisioning companies as a service (ASP – ApplicationService Provisioning), which is technically different from SaaS.

 

Of the total of 136 software companies that responded to the survey - 3.7% of all software companies identified in the Brazilian Market for Software and Services ABES 2015 - only 7% qualified as purely SaaS. The majority, 56%, were classified as ASP.

 

11,76% of the software companies that responded to the study stated that they are not forecasting a SaaS offer. 74,3% claimed to have a product marketed through the internet. Of these, 79.8% have been in existence for more than 12 months. 37.3% has a turnover of less than 10%, against 31.3% above 70%. Of the “Pura SaaS” companies, 83.3% has revenues greater than 70% with SaaS.

 

Among the reasons that led a company to create a SaaS product, 42.4% stated that the decision was based on the natural evolution of existing products and 22.2% due to the identification of an opportunity.

 

In qualitative interviews, it was clear that SaaS is a benefit for companies that want to speed up their activities, reduce costs and focus IT efforts on the business. It was also identified that the journey of software companies to SaaS is fundamental for the survival of the business in the future and that there is a concern to adopt the model.

 

“With this first step towards understanding the market and generating knowledge, we will be able to help several actors in the national software market so that they can develop policies and programs to encourage the sector and support companies in directing their strategies”, says Lauro.