India as a developing country is thriving for IT hubs. The stats of Indian SaaS startups have the potential to challenge the global competitiveness of startups. Not only that, but the existing companies are also growing at a phenomenal rate.
The success of evident startups has given a stronger pull to new startup ideas. So, if you are wondering what you need to start a SaaS company in India, here’s an expert guide to get you started.
What is a SaaS Company?
SaaS (Software as a service) serves software to customers as a service. In this web-based model, software vendors host and maintain the servers, databases, and code that makes up the application.
These businesses build, develop, host, maintain, and update all the services through a centralized location.
The SaaS model has immediate access to the global market without any extra charges which dominate other models who sell physical products. SaaS deployments don’t require extensive hardware.
It allows buyers to outsource most of the responsibilities required to troubleshoot and maintain the software. These are typically paid within a subscription model.
Why Is SaaS Rising In India?
With the evolution of Machine Learning (ML), Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Virtual Reality (VR), India is a great place to start a SaaS company.
It will solve problems in B2B potentially while leveraging new technologies such as lead management system, cloud telephony, CRM solutions, etc.
The main reason why the SaaS company in India is rising because the demand for software in the market is huge.
In fact, studies reveal that by 2025, India is likely to become a $10 billion market with an 8% share of global SaaS.
This is definitely going to make India the SaaS hub globally. There are several factors that help achieve this share.
With favorable market conditions and learnings from first-generation SaaS startups, the second-generation SaaS companies are going to be more successful.
Be it any form of business, the use of the software is increasing. From email automation to automated workflows, the software has been adopted widely.
All these technologies make routine business operations easier and increase the team’s productivity. Considering all the factors, SaaS does look like a promising model for a profitable and capable business opportunity for entrepreneurs.
Benefits Of Choosing Saas Industry For Startup In India
Companies are adopting SaaS over developing it in-house. Regular updates deployed by the SaaS provider gets done automatically. There are major benefits of choosing a SaaS industry for a startup in India.
India Is A Talent Pool
Do you know that 75% of global talent is present in India? The IT sector has a competitive edge over the US counterpart being at least 5 times less expensive.
The Indian IT workforce has expertise in almost every technical vertical including BFSI, retail, telecom, and banking.
It is the home to engineering, programming, designing, sales, and product management talent.
It is an inherently secure and scalable business model for entrepreneurs having an inbuilt talent and ready to take on new challenges.
The Benefit Of Cost
The cost-benefit is another major reason for India becoming a SaaS hub in the world. According to the New York Times, IBM has more employees in India than in any other country.
The skilled English speaking workforce in India caters to the global need of the top MNCs in the world.
The tech resources available in India are doing excellent research in the field of visual learning, artificial vision, and computer intelligence.
This significantly reduces the budget that needs infrastructural development and other maintenance requirements for Saas.
The Benefit Of Customer Support
Indians are conversant with the B2B tech consultancy and have deep domain knowledge. The readily available talent pool from the service industries in Indian SaaS companies is huge.
This allows us to provide quick, high-quality, multi-channel customer support to low-paying and sometimes even free customers. Its global counterparts can’t compete in terms of quality customer support value.
Location & Culture
Geographically speaking, India is well-suited to do business with all over Asia and the USA. We are just a 4-hour flight away from major SaaS players in the Middle-East, China, and Indonesia.
We decrease the response time by taking the work from the US at night and delivering the next morning. It’s due to the time difference.
There’s also the cultural proximity that allows us to sell better in these countries than the developed countries.
SMBs vs Enterprise
Let’s clarify what we mean by small & mid-sized businesses “SMB” and “Enterprise” customers. Strictly speaking, the two markets are often defined by employee numbers and sometimes by revenue size.
SMB type companies can have under 100 employees and can be essentially the same as selling in the consumer market. SMB is broadly defined to cover companies with employees under 1000. The associated revenues vary but fall somewhere under $100M.
The global SMB SaaS segment is expected to grow at a CAGR of 36% over the 2017-22 period, as per a recent report released by Google & KPMG.
The enterprise sales process is characterized by:
- Longer sales cycle, typically over 180 days.
- A higher average contract value (ACV) of at least $50k subscription, but may be phased into several stages
- Often combines software with professional/custom services for implementation, integration, and customization.
- Involves more than one person on the part of the vendor in the sales process, often including a sales engineer, perhaps inside sales, perhaps Customer Success, and someone from services.
- Involves more than one person in the decision process of the customer.
- The contract and licensing process involve some negotiation of terms.
SMB sales are:
- Transactional.
- Low average contract values.
- Low touch sales involvement.
- Limited customization or professional services offered if any.
- No or extremely rarely allowing contract negotiations but there may be discounting on standard contracts.
SaaS companies selling in the SMB market are structured operationally very differently from SaaS companies selling in the enterprise market.
Everything from Sales structures to Marketing to R&D is organized differently depending on whether you are selling a low-priced product to a high volume of customers, or selling a high-priced product to a smaller number of customers.
Indian SaaS Companies In Global Marketplace
The past few years have seen an exponential increase in the SaaS startups in India. Industries like healthcare, eCommerce, BFSI, and many more have seen the SaaS touching base with them.
Here are some top SaaS companies that are going global and have proved their worth and have a promising future.
Teleduce
Teleduce is not the typical CRM system that organizations implement. It’s an integrated sales and marketing platform from Corefactors.
It can be the all-in-one software any organization may need.
The company was founded in the year 2013 with a goal to provide marketing and communication solutions.
It has grown significantly in terms of customer base and the number of employees since then.
The integrated platform caters to all requirements including lead management, CRM integrations, IVR service, and customer retention tools.
Providing seamless integration and customer communication tools, Teleduce aims to become the industry leader globally.
Sell Faster, Scale Faster, and Resolve Faster with Teleduce.
Founded: 2013
CEO: Mrs. Sharmila Sundaram
Number of Employees: 50+
Zoho
Zoho is one of the best SaaS providers and delivers a variety of business collaboration and productivity applications.
It was started under the name AdventNet. The company was formed with an intention to provide web-based and cloud-based business tools.
Now, It has over 20 million users worldwide and more than 33 products to aid different requirements that include CRM, project time tracking, inventory management, mobile apps, collaborative client portal, etc.
Their quality of customer service is excellent and they are always open to resolve queries. The funds are directed towards research and development and customer support rather than marketing.
Founded: 1996
CEO: Mr. Sridhar Vembu
Number of Employees: 5000+
Freshworks
Freshworks is an Indian company dedicated to providing SaaS customer engagement solutions for corporations of all types and sizes.
The aim of the company is to provide software for an organization that is ready to go, seamless to set up and use. A software that perfectly fits the needs of the company with minimum customizations.
The company has launched a variety of products that include Freshdesk, Freshservice, Freshsales, Freshchat, and many more.
Founded: 2010
CEO: Mr. Girish Mathrubootham
Number of Employees: 3000+
Agile CRM
Agile CRM is one of the leading sales, marketing, and CRM SaaS company, serving the growing need for small businesses.
Agile CRM is an end-to-end comprehensive CRM known for fully integrated sales and marketing solutions for small and medium businesses.
The aim is sales automation, marketing automation, and other services in one platform that helps small and medium businesses manage every phase of their customer lifecycle from a single platform.
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It aims to drive sustainable and scalable growth.
Founded: 2012
CEO: Mr. Manohar Chapalamadugu
Number of Employees: 250
VTION
VTION is a SaaS-based company that aims to solve key problems in the media-based industries.
The tools designed by the company help firms analyze consumer behavior and trends and study consumption patterns across various demographics and geographies.
The real-time data gives insights to advertisers about customer behavior and gains a competitive edge in the market.
Users can create analytics views as required and filter data as well.
Conclusion
The growth of SaaS companies has been tremendous in the last few years, and the numbers are going to reach the sky in the years coming ahead.
India will be home to many SaaS companies in the future due to the easy availability of IT professionals and an increase in demand for SaaS tools in the market.
It’s a good time to start a SaaS company in India with all these advantages and growth opportunities.
