10 WAYS SAAS COMMERCE PLATFORMS IMPROVE TCO · 2019-08-01 · TECHNOLOGIES ELIMINATE THE NEED FOR...

10 WAYS SAAS COMMERCE

PLATFORMS IMPROVE TCO

REVISIT OPPORTUNITIES TO

MOVE TECHNOLOGY SOLUTIONS

TO THE CLOUD: SOFTWARE-AS-

A-SERVICE (SAAS) APPLICATIONS

ARE HERE TO STAY—AND ARE

GROWING IN NUMBER. WHY? SAAS-

BASED BUSINESS APPLICATIONS

USUALLY DELIVER FAST TIME-TO-

DEPLOY AND AN AGILE, ITERATIVE

APPROACH TO IMPROVING

BUSINESS RESULTS. RETAILERS

WHO HAVE CONSIDERED SAAS

SOLUTIONS IN THE PAST SHOULD

LOOK AGAIN.1

Forrester Research Inc.

1.Brief: Key Tech Trends That Serve Up Next-Gen Commerce, Forrester Research Inc., April 8, 2016.

10 Ways SaaS eCommerce Platforms Improve TCO © 2017 Kibo Software, Inc.

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Total cost of ownership (TCO) provides businesses a cost basis for determining

the total economic value of an investment. And because commerce platforms

are a significant investment for any enterprise, many are finding numerous

advantages to switching to Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions—leaving the

limitations and high cost of legacy on-premise platforms behind.

Below are 10 ways SaaS Commerce platforms improve TCO within your

business, increase efficiencies, and build the bottom line in ways you might

not have imagined.

A WARNING: SOME PROVIDERS OFFER

UPGRADES FOR A HEFTY PRICE.

FORTUNATELY, SAAS PLATFORMS

GENERALLY OFFER BUILT-IN, SAFE,

FREE ROLLOUTS OF RELEASES

AND UPGRADES, THUS ENSURING

FEATURES AND FUNCTIONS ALWAYS

REMAIN CURRENT WITHOUT

INTRUDING ON BUSINESS CYCLES,

KEEPING USERS EFFORTLESSLY UP-

TO-DATE WITH BOTH MARKET AND

CONSUMER DEMANDS.

#1 SAAS COMMERCE

PLATFORMS DELIVER

PREDICTABLE RELEASES AND

UPGRADES

SaaS software possesses a predictable cycle of future releases and

upgrades. When software upgrades are not automatic and seamless,

the software user runs the high risk of slowly falling behind in the

upgrade schedule. This failure to upgrade means lost efficiency and

potentially lost sales as the business is not operating with the most

state-of-the-art features and functionality to combat consumer’s

demands.


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#2 SAAS PLATFORMS

EMPOWER BUSINESS END

USERS

IT departments are often tasked with balancing between

time spent on maintenance and time spent on strategy

and innovation. SaaS platforms give time and internal

resources back to IT departments. SaaS takes care of

all maintenance, which improves efficiency within IT

departments by freeing in-house IT resources from the

burden of platform maintenance, allowing them to focus

on building the future of the enterprise.

#3 MULTI-TENANT

SAAS PLATFORMS ARE

INHERENTLY DEMOCRATIC

The “develop once, deploy many” model of multi-tenant

SaaS streamlines platform upgrades for all users.

Because a single instance of the software runs for all

customers—with updates released simultaneously—

lengthy, expensive integrations that waste revenue and

time are no longer an issue. The way to determine if a

Cloud platform is truly SaaS is if all users run the same

version at the same time. If not, it’s pseudo SaaS, and not

the platform that delivers all the great benefits of true

multi-tenant SaaS.


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#4 KEEP YOUR EYES

OPEN FOR CENTRALIZED

FEATURES SUCH AS

INTEGRATED PRODUCT

CATALOGS

Choose a SaaS solution that liberates developers from

the time-consuming tasks of updating multiple catalogs

for multiple sales channels. Instead, marketing and

merchandising teams can manage product updates and

launch sites directly, increasing efficiencies within the

enterprise overall. SaaS eliminates painful redundant

work and decreases the chance of human error.

#5 SAAS PLATFORMS

ALLOW LIMITLESS

EXTENSIBILITY AND

CUSTOMIZATION

Traditional on-premise platforms often prevent

businesses from realizing revenue due to their lack of

extensibility and customization. Some only allow for

templates with no customization whatsoever. But not all

businesses are created the same. Retailers and branded

manufacturers should look for a platform that has open,

extensible API and SDKs in multiple languages that allow

them to utilize existing in-house development resources

and decrease time-to-market for product and site

launches.


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#6 LOOK FOR FAIR, USAGE-BASED

PRICING THAT DELIVERS ECONOMIES OF

SCALE

Usage-based pricing models are highly predictable, allowing enterprises to accurately

manage IT budgets and achieve economies of scale as the business grows, supporting

a shared success without unfair penalties. Platform users only pay for what they use, a

refreshing change to the on-premise pricing model. With most SaaS pricing, businesses

can start playing the game at a lower entry fee and can start realizing ROI faster.

Additionally, most Cloud-based systems with a SaaS payment structure allow business

users to utilize more instances and scale up and down as traffic increases and decreases

during peak seasons. On-premise solutions require purchasing the total estimated highest

instances up front (so as to have enough infrastructure to cover all spikes) which also

means businesses will be paying for the highest instances even during their slow months.

But with on-premise, it’s a necessity, otherwise when businesses have high traffic to their

eCommerce sites but limited infrastructure to support it, the sites could go black.


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#7 ON-PREMISE COSTS

CAN BUILD UP OVER TIME

WITHOUT BUILDING YOUR

BOTTOM LINE

Before a business user signs the dotted line, they should

look at the additional costs associated with on-premise

versus the Cloud. Which of those additional costs help

grow the bottom line? Or are those additional costs more

akin to throwing money at a solution that can barely

maintain needs, instead of one that not only maintains

but anticipates needs as well? On-premise platforms

frequently come with numerous hidden costs, including

additional new site licenses, annual hardware leases,

and data center hosting and facility costs. These costs

can really add up and undermine TCO as they constrain

growth and result in unrealized revenue.

#8 SAAS PLATFORMS

REDUCE DOWNTIME

DRAMATICALLY WITH 99.9%

AVAILABILITY

Because SaaS solutions are Cloud-based technologies,

uptime is not dependent upon on-premise hardware.

And down eCommerce platforms mean no online sales.

But it’s not just revenue to be concerned about—internal

resources such as time and money are also spent while

the platform is down, leading to an even greater overall

loss.

As SaaS platform providers are evaluated, look for

multiple redundant data centers in dispersed locations,

professional 24x7x365 monitoring, automatic daily

backups, disaster recovery, and business continuity

services to ensure that assets are available, secure, and

performing optimally.


8

ACCORDING TO ONE SPECIALTY

RETAILER WE SPOKE WITH, ‘WE

WENT WITH A SAAS SOLUTION TO

GIVE US FLEXIBILITY, BUT THE COST

STRUCTURE—PUTTING LESS INTO

INFRASTRUCTURE UPFRONT—WAS

ALSO MORE ATTRACTIVE.2

Forrester Research, Inc.

2. Building The Business Case For Omnichannel In Retail, Forrester Research, Inc., July 11, 2016.


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#9 SAAS

TECHNOLOGIES

ELIMINATE

THE NEED FOR

HARDWARE

INFRASTRUCTURES

Because SaaS technology is housed in the Cloud, the on-

premise hardware technologies—and the IT resources

required to maintain them—are no longer necessary,

and can be rechanneled to more efficiently support

other aspects of the business. This includes the space to

house the hardware, along with any fees that may incur

(See number 10). Many businesses leveraging SaaS

technology don’t even use an IT team, instead they rely

completely on SaaS for all their business needs.

#10 CHOOSE SAAS

AND SAY GOOD-

BYE TO RELATED

HARDWARE

SUPPORTING COSTS

Using on-premise eCommerce platforms and the

required supportive hardware demands significant

amounts of energy to keep these systems running.

ZDNet discovered that average energy costs for both

direct IT power and related cooling for just a single

server can use up about $731.94 per year in electricity.

Estimating that enterprises average one server per 20

PCs, even businesses with fewer than 500 employees

can rack up energy costs well over $18,000 each year for

server rooms alone.


10

START THINKING SAAS

FOR FUTURE SUCCESS

Considering a SaaS solution when calculating

TCO for commerce platforms brings numerous

advantages. SaaS is a fundamentally different

software development model, and Kibo provides

the simplicity of multi-tenant SaaS without

hardware headaches and with the regular,

predictable releases of new features. With Kibo’s

open and extensible API, business users don’t

need to wait for IT to launch new features or

microsites, or test new markets or products. When

looking to ensure future stability and success,

consider implementing SaaS technology.

10 Ways SaaS eCommerce Platforms Improve TCO

© 2017 Kibo Software, Inc.

Kibo empowers retailers and branded manufacturers to achieve optimal performance

of B2C and B2B commerce through unified consumer experiences. With more than

40 years of innovations, Kibo provides a complete omnichannel commerce platform

delivered with the lowest total cost of ownership and the fastest time to market.

By leveraging cloud technologies, individualized buying experiences, and true

enterprise scale, Kibo enables you to reach higher peaks of sales and consumer

loyalty. No matter the challenge, Kibo powers your success.

TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT KIBO CALL 877-350-3866

OR VISIT OUR WEBSITE AT WWW.KIBOCOMMERCE.COM

ABOUT KIBO

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Lowering the Cost of Ownership with Cloud-Based Technology

10 WAYS SAAS COMMERCE PLATFORMS IMPROVE TCO · 2019-08-01 · TECHNOLOGIES ELIMINATE THE NEED FOR...

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