The landscape for Software as a Service (SaaS) is changing. For years now, SaaS companies have captured the attention of B2B customers by promising them a more flexible, customizable way to access innovative tools and technologies.
However, many vendors are still trying to succeed by offering off-the-shelf, one-size-fits-all technologies. While the as-a-service subscription model might give companies flexibility in the opportunity to pick and choose the solutions they use, few options have offered truly dynamic, customizable solutions.
Even SaaS tools with specific modules for “niche enterprises” don’t always allow companies to combine SaaS applications, and design unique workflows. However, that’s all about to change.
The rise of cloud technologies, artificial intelligence, and low-code-no-code (LCNC) platforms is paving the way for the era of SaaS 2.0. Composable architecture stands to be the foundation of this new market offering, providing companies with more freedom and flexibility than ever before.
Composable architecture is a design solution that allows developers in the SaaS industry to create reusable components customers can access to build applications and workflows easily. According to Gartner, 60% of companies now list “composable architecture” as a strategic priority.
Composable architecture transforms the offer of “software as a service” to “software builders as a service”, allowing every organization to develop its own personalized solution for success.
With low-code and no-code tools, users with minimal technical experience or programming expertise can securely build powerful enterprise grade solutions, without incurring massive costs. Using IPaaS tools, like Workato, companies can reimagine business processes, and scale them, by accessing the abilities of multiple applications in one unified environment.
In a world where companies want access to complete bespoke software solutions, but don’t want to invest in the developer skills and tools they need to create systems from scratch, composable solutions are taking over. As Gartner suggests, in the next ten years, composable solutions will empower every company to innovate and create dynamically.
Applications will be built and assembled by the people who actually use them.
For years, companies investing in SaaS relied almost exclusively on off-the-shelf technologies. Brands purchased subscriptions to pre-existing tools, and struggled to make their features and capabilities fit into their existing workflows.
Though the process was often problematic, as every company has its own specific requirements, an off-the-shelf solution was often seen as a simpler, less expensive alternative to developing new software and applications in-house.
Most companies in the past couldn’t afford to create their own software, or hire experts to do it for them. However, composable architecture and LCNC solutions are beginning to change the landscape. Organizations no longer need to work with developers on custom workflows. Anyone can design the solution they need using a simple, SaaS interface.
Gartner believes by 2025, 70% of applications will be built with LCNC tools, and thousands of companies will abandon off-the-shelf technologies in favor of a composable enterprise service. This means software companies will need to preserve their differentiation by finding ways to empower the creation of custom solutions.
Accenture believes the future will be defined by user-generated innovations. The democratization of the automation and software programming space will lead to an influx of more customized, intuitive tools, from custom CRMs to tools for screening job candidates.
In this world, SaaS companies will no longer be able to attract and retain customers simply by promising a simpler alternative to building tools from scratch. Instead, companies will focus their investments on a select number of composable tools they can use to build their own workflows.
The rapid adoption of composable architecture will be driven by a number of things, including common interface design solutions, and the rise of automation as a business-wide strategy.
The key to unlocking the benefits of composable architecture, is removing context switching. Today’s employees are overwhelmed by complex schedules and endless tasks. They don’t have the time or focus to log in and out of multiple apps just to finish a single task.
Creating an environment which allows companies to combine the resources their employees need into unified workflows is the solution. For instance, companies like Slack and Microsoft empower businesses to connect common tools in their workflow using apps, APIs, and integrations.
These solutions empower businesses to create their own single-pane-of-glass environment for team productivity, unifying CRM tools, business data solutions, and collaboration systems. The result is a dynamic space that can be adapted to the workflows of multiple teams and users.
In the years ahead, we’re bound to see significant changes to the way businesses look at and manage process design. Siloed processes defined by individual teams using huge numbers of SaaS applications will disappear as companies strive to boost efficiency, reduce costs, and preserve high levels of productivity.
In the age of SaaS 2.0, companies will re-imagine their processes in the context of the evolving technological landscape. They’ll remove restrictions to accessing the power of automation, so not only IT teams and developers can unlock new opportunities, but entire teams can access the same services. The age of “citizen developers” crafting their own tools and workflows will ensure companies can rapidly adapt and evolve to suit emerging trends.
This transition will be powered in large part by the evolution of AI. Natural language interfaces and intelligent automation platforms will ensure non-technical teams can develop workflows and automations at scale. While governance will be critical here, embracing this new roadmap will allow companies to unlock the true potential of automation.
Composable thinking will unlock new and improved ways of accomplishing tasks and simplifying processes, without the context switching, onboarding time, and training issues that come with simply adding new software into the technology stack.
Governance will clearly be critical here, but citizen developers in the low-code application space have already paved the way for this to happen quickly and efficiently.
The glory days of one-size-fits-all software and technology are over – if they ever truly existed at all. Rapid innovation in the digital world has paved the way to a new future, where companies can access more control over their workflows and processes, without unmanageable costs.
Composable architecture, the cloud, and the low-code no-code revolution is reshaping the SaaS industry, driving demand for solutions that can be truly customized to suit any business need. Companies will no longer accept the “best solution available” from a selection of SaaS tools when it comes to paving the way for innovation.
Instead, they’ll be looking to SaaS vendors to provide them with the building blocks they need to build the ideal technology from the ground up. SaaS 2.0, powered by composable architecture and customization, will form the foundation of future SaaS technologies.
Companies selling software in this landscape will either have to embrace new strategies to help them transform their customers into “software builders” or risk losing their share of the market.
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