With the popularity of investment in the SaaS track in recent years, many software have been labeled as SaaS, but many of them only have a certain feature of the SaaS platform. So, what should the real SaaS platform look like? This article talks about the definition and classification of SaaS, and analyzes whether Youzan can become a SaaS platform after changing positioning. Interested students, come and have a look.
With the popularity of investment in the SaaS track in recent years, many software have been labeled as SaaS, and before that, they had various names. In order to make investors smile and change their appearance, I can only say "admiration". So, what should the SaaS platform look like?
1. Definition of SaaS
Many people think that as long as the software is deployed in the cloud and open an account for customers, the platform that can be used is called the SaaS platform. Some people also believe that changing the software charging model from to to subscription is SaaS. Is it right? Not completely right, these are just a feature of the SaaS platform, but not the definition of SaaS.
Let’s first look at the birth of SalesForce, the originator of the SaaS platform. Regarding the idea of the birth of SalesForce, Benioff, the founder of SalesForce, said this in the book "The Legend of SalesForce":
My vision is to make software purchases more convenient in the future and easier to use, and no longer require complex installation, maintenance and upgrade processes.
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This model makes software installation more similar to a public service, where customers can pay monthly bills for applications running their business anytime, anywhere, just as convenient as people pay electricity bills every month.
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Even if the software can only improve sales efficiency by 5%, it will have significant economic benefits and positive impact on the company. So I thought: What would happen if we could provide a software product that could increase productivity to the same extent, even more, and this new product is easier to use and more convenient to pay? Can you get a return on investment in 6-12 months instead of 3-5 years?
What do we see from Benioff's words? Obviously, that is, the points he pays attention to are also the customers. Customers are more convenient to purchase, simpler to use, no need to worry about maintenance and upgrades, use software like using public services, improve economic benefits, etc., are all the points of concern for customers. In contrast, some of our so-called SaaS, apart from the exaggerated service commitments on PPT, how many of them are really considering for customers?
SaaS, Software as Service, software is provided to customers as a service, and it emphasizes not software, but service.
Personally believe that the SaaS platform is an online or offline service provided by enterprises or individuals based on software as a carrier, with the purpose of helping enterprises or individuals achieve their specific goals.
2. SaaS classification
is on the market. From a large classification point of view, the SaaS platform is divided into general tool type and dedicated business type.
The so-called tool type is not used to manage customers' main business operations, such as the video conferencing tools, communication tools, etc. we use. This type of tool usually does not require too much offline services, but is promoted more through online and PLG.
In fact, for this type of tool, it essentially moves traditional client software online, which is essentially not SaaS. Moreover, the tools are very substitutable and the migration cost is not high, so the retention rate is generally not high. In fact, we look at Tencent Meeting . Although the experience is good, it has never been charged for small-scale users because video conferencing is much more selective.
dedicated business type is a platform that serves a certain professional field, such as project management SaaS, and garment industry information-based SaaS. The characteristic of this type of SaaS is that it is deeply bound to the main business of customers, which usually requires deep industry accumulation and corresponding services. Since it involves the core business of customers, this kind of SaaS services account for a large proportion, and after successful customer implementation, it can greatly improve operating efficiency.
Generally, this type of platform will not consider replacing it for a long time once the customer is used to it - unless there is a problem with the platform itself. Therefore, the customer retention rate of dedicated business-based SaaS platforms is very high. Of course, this type of platform is also relatively focused. The cycle from signing to implementation will be longer, so early implementation services are very important.
special SaaS companies generally have customer success departments, with the purpose of solving a series of problems such as implementation, training, and use guidance after signing the contract. With the continuous accumulation in the industry, the best industry practices for customers of different sizes and characteristics will eventually be accumulated, which can further promote customer business and raise the competition threshold.
In essence, the core of this type of software is to use software as a carrier, providing the industry with a series of services including software, consulting and digital transformation . Although dedicated SaaS has heavy services, it has an advantage that once it becomes popular within the customer enterprise, the customer enterprise will basically be inseparable - the cost of converting core business systems is too high.
For professional business-oriented SaaS, after the implementation of the company within the company has an effect, the company will basically not actively replace the software because the cost of converting the software is too high.
Therefore, for product manager career choices, it is recommended to go to a SaaS platform company with a dedicated business type, because on the one hand, it can effectively exert the value of software products, and on the other hand, as you accumulate knowledge in this industry, the value will continue to rise, and your work benefits and stability will be better.
3. Is Youzan a SaaS platform?
Return to the title of this article, let’s take a look at the case of Youzan. Is it a SaaS platform? Before answering this question, let’s take a look at Youzan’s transformation. Youzan made a big strategic change this year, and its positioning became:
from opening a store marketing solution to private domain operation solution.
On Youzan's official website, we saw the following two comments, which actually explains Youzan's positioning changes well. The early Youzan in
was also a cloud deployment and subscription payment, and it was also a platform that could be used by opening an account for customers. However, I didn’t think Youzan at that time was a SaaS platform. Because at that time, Youzan's promotion was just such a useful mall and a useful marketing tool. Essentially, Youzan was a software tool at that time.
We have also purchased Youzan’s mini program mall, and then a small team of ours will do it themselves. As a result, I didn't continue after less than 2 months of struggle. What's funny is that they don't know how to withdraw the money from the order. Is this a problem with Youzan Mall software? No, in fact, Youzan’s mall is indeed very good. Some people even recommend them to use Youzan for trial operation when they consult me when they customize the development mall.
annual report shows that at the end of 2019, there were 82,000 paid merchants in China, 59,000 by the end of 2018, and 54,000 new ones in 2019. However, based on this calculation, the customer retention rate of China Youzan is only 47.8%.
However, at that time, the retention rate of customers who liked it was very low. Many customers, like us, will stop playing if they can’t play. To a large extent, Youzan does not have much supporting services to help customers play in the mall, that is, Youzan and Yousan software, but the service is absent. Youzan, whose positioning has changed
, can be said to be a SaaS platform, because Youzan's positioning has changed, and the biggest change is that it provides a complete set of operational services. The following picture is a panoramic view of Youzan's private domain operation solution. You can see that the product portfolio supports service portfolios. It provides basic delivery services, e-commerce private domain launch services, store private domain startup services, brand private domain business consulting services and store private domain business consulting services.
can support customers' private domain operations through these service combinations. As for whether Youzan can truly help customers improve their operating efficiency, it depends on whether Youzan can truly implement the service.
4. My experience sharing
Finally, let me share my experience in doing SaaS.When we do SaaS software, we often communicate with customers. The most common type of problems we encounter is: "Do you have any good suggestions on xx?"
The questions of each customer are targeted at specific scenarios, and customers really hope to use Internet software to solve their business problems. The key point of whether we can solve these problems of customers is whether we can convert the industry's accumulation into corresponding service output.
In fact, although we sold software at that time, we provided more of a series of service combinations. For example, when implementing software services, we need to guide customers to use our software reasonably; for example, consulting services, we will give solutions based on a certain scenario of the customer and combine our software; for example, functional upgrades, when customers make a demand, we will sometimes give a different but more effective solution based on the characteristics of the industry.
For the industry's SaaS platform, if it only provides a software tool, on the one hand, the software is very substitutable, and on the other hand, it is difficult to exert its corresponding value.
Therefore, the SaaS platform ultimately presents services that customers feel, including training, consultation, and even participation in business process reengineering. Only by helping customers promote their business through software + services, reducing costs and opening up sources can they retain customers, and then continuously accumulate customers of SaaS products and grow.
Author: Product Dolphin Bay; Official Account: Product Dolphin Bay (ID: pm-dophin-bay)
This article was originally published by @Product Dolphin Bay. Everyone is a product manager. Reproduction is prohibited without permission.
question picture comes from Unsplash and is based on the CC0 protocol.
The views in this article only represent the author himself, Renren are both product managers and only provide information storage space services.
