Manual, repetitive tasks are a time waster, and are prone to human error.

Anything manual is prone to human error. In mission critical documents, you want to reduce that chance as much as possible.

Many documents contain content that touch other parts and processes of the organization, but do not exchange information with those parts & processes.

Static documents need to be updated and saved manually, resulting in multiple versions, confusing end users.

SaaS offer real-time collaboration and version syncing.

SaaS turn static data into workflows. No more copy pasting across documents.

SaaS offer integrations with other tools, so that data can be exchanged across processes within an organization. NoCode tools make this easier.

SaaS organize data and visualize it in an insightful way, which leads to better decision making.

SaaS offers automation of repetitive tasks and processes, reducing the need for human intervention.

In unbundling markets, finding and claiming a niche is a long term competitive advantage.

Onboarding is the 'unboxing' of SaaS. Make a good first impression, and set the user up for repeated use.

Many SaaS that save money and time are still a hassle to use. A little UX can turn a hater into a lover.

Building a SaaS that productizes a unique skill or expertise you possess and makes it available to the public, is hard to copy or compete with.

Type: Cornered Resource

Integration between your products and other software or processes used in the organization create an interdependence that makes it difficult to switch systems

Type: Switching Costs

Subscriptions are the standard for most SaaS products.

Subscription is often combined with Pay-per-use, often in the form of 'seats' (users). A monthly fee per user.

The Freemium model is ideal to let customers explore your product (good onboarding plays into this) and create lock-in before monetizing.

Larger, more complex SaaS often choose to Tier their pricing, adding features, seats, and services with each tier.

Create an Ideal Customer Profile, and go as granular as possible with this, so that you can hypertarget this user.

Larger B2B SaaS businesses depend largely on a Direct Sales team for acquisition.

Smaller SaaS companies can leverage paid ads, especially if they piggyback on a larger platform (s.a. Shopify Plug-ins)

Product Demos on YouTube by you or influencers, or 1-on-1 in person help customers find and understand your solution.

Making it easy to export and share outputs, graphs, etc. from your SaaS helps them spread within the organization. Brand your exports for extra effect.

Collaboration functionality is so powerful because users will automatically invite team members to your product when they need their input.

Customer engagement data allows proactive deployment of trainings, targeted advice on best practice, and improvement of the product roadmap.

via a16z

One of the great heroes of SaaS across the board. Study them.

Needless to say: Extremely powerful sales team and processes put them on top.

Created a new market: Luxury Software.

Though challenged in recent years, their 'suite' deal is exemplific.

Almost entirely built on integration.

The Next Stripe. Great use of viral marketing and branding.

Built on Shopify. Leveraged a huge trend perfectly and right on time.

A case study in how superniche SaaS can be super successful. So is Vimeo.

Bootstrapping SaaS before it was cool. Always superniche, always built in public.

Not SaaS, but a cross industry example of what accessibility should look like. Blind kids can play their video game.