As we enter 2011, we can look back at 2010 knowing it was the best year for SaaS yet. Hundreds of new entrants with many new business ideas came online.
SaaS adoption continues to accelerate, and mainstream consumer acceptances and awareness increases about the usefulness of software as a service. But as the field continues to mature and become more competitive, it brings the most important change yet - the creation of niche players in the SaaS industry.
Grow Calendar 2011
Help desk provider Zendesk is a good example of how companies using desktop based are left looking antiquated when it comes to customer support. A friend of my recently had an unhelpful support phone call with a company when he experienced a serious problem with their product. Unhappy with the companies response, he complained on twitter. Within seconds there was a response from a higher up offical in the company. It turned out the company was using Zendesk support to monitor unofficial comments about their company on social networks such as twitter. Had the company been using traditional desktop software to manage their support tickets they would have no idea their phone support staff was doing such a horrible job, possibly for months.
Grammarly.com's claim to fame is the world's most accurate grammar checker. Yet another interesting idea, a new business model around a product which is already included with most computers are word processors. However by narrowing their focus they've been able to build an amazing grammar engine which works far better than most desktop software I've used before.
As time goes on it will be fascinating to see what niche markets SaaS developers will come up with.
Narrowing of Focus in Software As a Service (SaaS) Businesses Models in 2011 Grow Calendar 2011