the collective centre of the Belgian technological industry

Scaling a business with SaaSBusiness model transition

Philippe.Thiran@sirris.beNick.Boucard@sirris.be Wim.codenie@sirris.be

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Software Landscape in Belgium

Typical softwareSME’s

MostlyB2B

Mix of product and service• Product• Configuration/customization

Current business

Long sales cycles

Every customer is

different

A limited number ofcustomers

Customwork

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Scalling

Technicalscaling issues

BusinessModel issues

Customers

and offering

Customer

relationships

Partners

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Introducing business models

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A business model describes the rationale of how an organization creates, delivers and captures values (Osterwalder & Pigneur)

Micro-enterprise

Main areas of a business

Customers Offer

Infrastructure Financial

Business model as a shared & simple language

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Introducing Canvas

Who are your customers?

What do you offer?Value?Uniqueness? How to

communicate & deliver?

Automatic PersonalCommunities?

How will you make money?

What do you need to build up?

What will you need to master?What

can you outsource to whom?

What are my costs?

Customer Segments

Current situation

We serve only a small group of well-identified customers

Customers are Belgian SMEs

Scaling

How big is this segment?(20,8 million EU-27)

Do they all have the same needs?Will “one size fits all” work?

Look for homogeneous niche Segment, then focus Look for solving real problems

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Current situation

Scaling

Value Propositions

Current situation

Customization: we offer tailored solutions specific to your individual CRM/HRM needs

Convenience: we run the software for you

Scaling

Tailoring is time and labor consuming

Operating many tailored softwares is very complex

Focus on minimal viable set of features

Standard offering for everybody

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Current situation

Scaling

Channels

Current situation

Direct contactOfflinePersonal network

Scaling

These channels won’t bring in 1000’s of customers

Sticky engine: grow by keeping customers

Viral engine: word of mouth, product advertises itself

Paid engine: all forms of e-marketing

Eric Ries’ 3 Engines of Growth

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Current situation

Scaling

Customer Relationships

Current situation

Direct relationship with customers

Dedicated personal assistance: we dedicate an account manager to an individual customer

Scaling

Not scalable unless you can afford 1000’s of account mgrs!

Give up a direct relationship with customers

Move to a self-service model Automated signup, configuration,

support Community driven help desk, FAQ’s Intuitive user experience

E.g. inline training video’s

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Current situation

Scaling

Revenue Streams

Current situation

License fee + maintenanceSetup fees for software customizationsPrice negotiations

Scaling

Setup fees will go away

Several shifts:• From license fee to usage fee (pay as your go)• From CAPEX to OPEX

Cash flow issue: longer to get same income from 1 customer

Consider 2-3 price plans

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Current situation

Scaling

Key Resources

Current situation

Human resources: • Developers (software &

customization)• Sales force

Physical resource: software

Scaling

User-base and data will most likely be a bigger asset than the software itself New product and services Thorough understanding of

customers

Cloud technologies Elasticity Either own or through partners

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Current situation

Scaling

Key Activities

Current situation

Production:• Project management• Software development

Problem solving: • Requirements

analysis/customization• Account management

Scaling

Product management Analytics / metrics

Software and platform development

Operations (running and maintaining infrastructure) Devops

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Current situation

Scaling

Key Partnerships

No particular key partners Necessary to forge useful partnerships

SaaS specific services Billing Infrastructure

Ecosystem Part of a platform Cloud brokers

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Current situation

Scaling

Cost Structure

No particular structure Variable costs due to the pay-as-you-go of third-party Cloud technologies

Ideally, leverage economies of scale for certain activities like software development, marketing, etc.

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Current situation

Scaling

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How do we help companies in Belgium to scale up?

• Research on ICT technologies to scale up business models (OpenSaaS)

• The SaaS bottleneck assessment service• Identification of the bottlenecks that withhold you from scaling• Considers all elements of the business (product, technology,

market, sales, etc …)

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Contact

philippe.thiran@sirris.benick.boucart@sirris.bewim.codenie@sirris.be

www.opensaas.be@openssasbe