by Greg Castro

Most small to medium business have seen or heard about the “cloud”, “SaaS” or “managed services” in one place or another. The interesting part about it all is how does it actually impact my business and where would I see the benefits. Technology has moved as such break neck speeds that once expensive software/hardware solutions are now available at a monthly price with little to no upfront cost, and managed for you.

What is “As a Service” and what does it mean,

As a service is a business model that gives the customers the ability to pay for the product/service monthly or annually. In our industry the two most popular offerings are;

1. Software As A Service (SaaS) – These are cloud applications, which means that most processing and storage takes place elsewhere (servers, etc.). Your application is hosted by a vendor or third party provider. Made available to you 24×7, 365 days a year via an internet connection.
2. Hardware as a Service (HaaS) – Where a vendor supplies your physical equipment or POS hardware and they are responsible for the maintenance and fulfillment.

Download the SaaS Infographic Now!

Businesses are now looking to take advantage of both these solutions to create a fully managed service offering. We have taken the time to break out the top reason small to medium business are considering moving to an, as a service model.

1. Cost : Eliminates large upfront cost associated with traditional licensing. Removes on going cost of maintenance, upgrades and hardware installation. Very beneficial for small businesses because it gives exposure to high end software/POS and hardware solutions that once were too expensive in traditional models.
2. Endless Innovation : Your service provider will manage all your software updates, and upgrades for you. No patches or upgrades to download. Hardware is continuously up and running, and always utilizing the latest in technology. You are not faced with outdated equipment and you no longer have the risk of loosing your investment when you want to upgrade.
3. Time : For most small and medium sized business owners, time is money. A once timely event such as installation is now as simple as logging in through a basic internet connection. Maintenance, upgrades and downloads are now your service providers duties, freeing up your efforts. The learning curve for most cloud-based apps seems to be shrinking due to the workforce adoption of many cloud based applications in their daily lives.
4. Security : In today’s world data and its whereabouts are becoming SMB owner’s top priority. Having your software and hardware managed in an as a service model removes you from worrying about PCI and data being stored on local devices. You will no longer worry about having the most recent software/POS versions or latest in hardware encryption technology. Your service provider will ensure that all of this is managed for you, giving you a piece of mind.
5. Customer Experience : One of the key components to an as a service model. The traditional “set it and forget it” is a legacy behavior that leads to compliancy in any relationship. With a managed service offering you are in constant contact with your provider. Continuous touch points that ensure you are utilizing best practices, most recent versions and your hardware is up to date. Having a dedicated account team in times of need is crucial to the success of the SMB owner’s.

As a business owner the next step is to determine if these factors matter. Each has a different weight or impact to your business. Determining your most influencing factors and the impact each has will help get you closer to a decision. Moving to an as a service model is a transition in behavior. Your entire business and culture will need transition as well to be successful. One key take away, the as a service model provides your business a complete end to end managed solution. To see if your business is right or you need more information about the as a service model contact SilverEdge today!

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