These days, renting is becoming more and more common. We rent our houses, our pay tv service and even some appliances. We’ve become accustomed to paying a monthly fee to use a product or service at home, so why not in business too?

Software as a Service (SaaS) is when we rent software via the internet, or ‘Cloud’, rather than purchase it outright. It’s becoming more and more popular in business, and small businesses are starting to see it’s advantages.

But what do small businesses love about SaaS?

1. SaaS is quick to get up and running
   
   With SaaS, you sign up for a service and in many instances can start using it straight away. All you normally need is an internet connection and web browser - there is no need to install software on one or more computers, and no need to setup servers!
   
   
2. SaaS is always the latest version
   
   With regular software, you normally need to purchase upgrades to ensure you have the latest version, and to keep up with any newly added features. If there are any issues with the software you’ll need to install updates to fix bugs also - or way for your IT department to do it for you! With SaaS, you don’t need to do any of that. The software is always the latest version with all the current features - there’s nothing you need to do!
   
   
3. SaaS reduces costs
   
   With SaaS there is no large capital expenditure to purchase software, you just pay a lower monthly subscription fee. Instead of finding out there’s a new version you need to upgrade to with regular software, the monthly fee makes it easy to predict costs. For many small businesses which outsource their I.T. support, it often would have cost them to have traditional software installed, configured and updated regularly - but with SaaS they’ll save money as none of that will be needed! Also, SaaS subscriptions are often based on the number of users, so it’s easy to scale as your business grows. You’re not paying extra now for when your business grows in the future!
   
   
4. SaaS is more secure
   
   Data security is always a concern for any business. With traditional software residing on a server, you’ll need to ensure the server has all the latest security updates and anti-virus software. You’ll also have to make sure you have reliable backup systems in place, since the loss of your data would normally be catastrophic for most small businesses. With SaaS, all of this is taken care of, with the SaaS company looking after everything for you. Your data is extremely important to them and they will have tried and tested security and backup methods in place to ensure your data is safe and always available to you.
   
   

So we’ve looked at the main reasons businesses are adopting and loving SaaS, and these are the reasons that you should too!