Digital Communications and SaaS Based Model are the Next Game-Changer for the Indian Telecom Sector

The ever-changing and evolving digital technology provides small and medium enterprises (SMEs) a chance to enhance operational efficiency and productivity. In addition, this allows them to reduce costs. Therefore, choosing the alternate Software as a Service (SaaS) is much more feasible than the old on-premise software systems that usually have a long deployment time.

SaaS is a cloud-based versatile IT tool that can be bought as a subscription. It is based on the service provider's server, which makes it viable for anyone to access it on any device via a web browser. This feature is suitable for organizations that have shited to remote work or work from home as the anytime-anywhere availability. Additionally, employees' productivity increases and businesses with multiple offices across dispersed locations benefit from this feature. As per a media report, SaaS organizations operate in over 100 countries with a list of benefits to count on.

In the post-Covid times, the flexibility, agility, and the ability to scale despite disruptions will make or break the brand. Besides, SaaS platforms are helping SMEs worldwide to make the shift to digital modes of operations. They provide complete assistance with digital payments, cloud services for data, and security management to optimise logistics.

Transforming the Telecom Sector

The telecom industry has already experienced the change brought about by SaaS firsthand. SaaS has and will continue to transform how communications service providers use business support system (BSS) software.

BSS will need to make the shift to survive in a competitive market. They will gain faster time to market, rapid deployment of systems, and new capabilities. According to a report, the SaaS-based systems will reduce the total cost of ownership upto 80% by eliminating the need for risky and cumbersome upgrades. SaaS is more than just another form of managed services. It is the operational model and lifecycle management of a specific software application and its resulting business model and is available only on the public cloud.

Telecoms should consider SaaS as an alternative to help them cut costs and gain the freedom to focus on business development and customer experience. According to a report, SaaS spending across companies of all sizes will reach $500 billion by 2023, and 38% of companies are running almost entirely on SaaS.

NOW SaaS IT - The advantages of using SaaS

Using SaaS eliminates the need to manage any procurement processes like data centres, infrastructure or hardware.

Now customer service providers don't need to install software on-premise or cloud. They also don't customise software or manage lifecycle versions - including tedious upgrades. Instead, there is an automatic, seamless and effortless process with the continuous rollout of new features and tools.

Other additional advantages include savings on customization costs.

Earlier, the telecoms would use BSS applications and modify them to meet the market demands. But now, the endless customizations and change requests have complicated the entire process, which makes it difficult to operate and upgrade. So the estimation of moving the customizations to the new product is an insurmountable barrier.

But SaaS provides capabilities through configurations and helps avoid customizations by reacting to the market through the products' out-of-box capabilities and functionalities to the new product every time the application is updated. This will further help telecoms reduce the technical debt that increases when there is a need to upgrade to the next generation versions. Therefore, 70% of CIOs are attracted to SaaS for its agility and capabilities.

It helps to reduce operational costs and initial investments.

Telecoms face many challenges like changing customer behaviour, increased competition, and the urgency to invest in the network infrastructure. Also, there is the ever-increasing demand for greater agility and after time to market to launch new products, services, models etc. These make it essential for telecom companies to continue evolving and keeping up with the market to maintain a competitive advantage. Thus choosing the alternate, i.e. SaaS model, supports the digital transformation without the burden of maintaining and operating your BSS. Moreover, a SaaS "pay-as-­you-­go" subscription fee does not require significant CAPEX or large upfront investment — sometimes, it eliminates them. This reduces risk and better aligns spending with revenue. According to a media report, 73% of businesses plan to shift all systems to SaaS.

In Conclusion

The SaaS-based models are the future for all businesses and industries. They are a complete package when it comes to advanced features and capabilities. As such, enterprises worldwide are making the shift, 99% of businesses use at least one SaaS solution. As a result, they help reduce costs and aid in increasing savings on capital expenditure.

Author: Vidhu Nautiyal, Co-founder and Chief Revenue Officer, CloudConnect Communications Pvt. Ltd