What Are SAAS Companies?
Software as a service (SaaS ) Is a software licensing and delivery model in which software is licensed on a subscription basis and is centrally hosted. SaaS is also known as on-demand software, web-based software, or web-hosted software.
SaaS apps are typically accessed by users of a web browser (a thin client). SaaS became a common delivery model for many business applications, including office software, messaging software, payroll processing software, DBMS software, management software, CAD software, development software, gamification, virtualization, accounting, collaboration, customer relationship management (CRM), management information systems (MIS), enterprise resource planning (ERP), invoicing, field service management, human resource management (HRM), talent acquisition, learning management systems, content management (CM), geographic information systems (GIS), and service desk management.
How Does A SaaS Company Work?
A SaaS company maintains servers, databases, and software that allow the application to be accessed over the internet most likely by web browsers. Users can access the software from almost any device.
SaaS customers usually pay a subscription fee often monthly to access the application. Some subscriptions are based on how much data needs to be stored, the number of users who will access the application, or the level of technical support desired.
Types Of SaaS Companies?
- Customer resource management or Customer Relationship Management (CRM) — These applications allow SaaS customers to manage customer information and track sales through their pipeline.
- Enterprise resource planning (ERP) — This is a system of many SaaS applications most suited for big organizations.
- Accounting and invoicing — Some SaaS companies focus on billing and invoicing services. Others offer a full range of financial tracking and reporting services.
- Project management — Software can help collaborators communicate and stay on track.
- Web hosting and e-commerce — Remote servers can handle everything a business needs in its online presence.
- Human resources — SaaS companies can offer tools to track employee hours, manage payroll, schedule, and manage the hiring process.
- Data management — SaaS products can help analyze and secure a company’s data.
Benefits Of SaaS Companies?
- Cost savings — Most SaaS companies charge a subscription fee that helps spread out the cost of the application over time. SaaS customers have lower initial costs because they don’t need to invest in expensive hardware to host the applications as they offer cloud services.
- Low-effort updates — SaaS companies maintain the software and update it when needed. SaaS customers do not need to install any software or install patches and updates.
- Mobility — In theory, SaaS customers can access their systems from any device or location. This is very useful for workforces that are not confined to a central location or office.
- IT expertise — SaaS companies invest in the IT needed to troubleshoot and maintain applications so their customers don’t have to. Also, SaaS companies have the resources to maintain system reliability and data security better than customers with limited IT budgets.
- Scalability — If a SaaS customer needs to expand capacity or add users, it doesn’t need to purchase new hardware or install new software. A SaaS company can increase capacity quickly with cloud technology and cloud storage, but it most likely will come at an increased subscription fee.
Top SAAS Companies In South Africa?
1. iBikeYakho
we assist UberEats drivers to acquire a motorbike asset through an affordable pay-as-go monthly motorbike subscription service. We take of motorbike acquisition on behalf of UberEats food delivery drivers, we provide them with Motorbike insurance, Motorbike maintenance service. We also provide a GPS asset tracking solution to protect their motorbikes from theft & hijack.
2. Xpenso
Xpenso lets your employees submit their expense claims from their phone or desktop, attach supporting documentation as a photo or pdf, and then submit them to their line manager. Once approved, these expenses can be posted directly into your accounting system at the touch of a button, ready to be reimbursed.
3. Fennec Group
Fennec is deposit focused B2B Financial Technology company (Fintech) based out of Johannesburg South Africa. Since having been founded in 2015, our platform TIS (Trust Investment Switch) has generated close to USD1bn (R11bn) in deposit funding for our three partner banks and has opened over 12 000 individual deposit accounts for our 300 plus intermediaries.
4. DataProphet-1
DataProphet is a leader in AI that enables manufacturers to step towards autonomous manufacturing. Our AI-as-a-service proactively prescribes changes to plant control plans to continuously optimize production without the expert human analysis that is typically required. As recognized by the World Economic Forum, DataProphet PRESCRIBE has helped customers around the world, with pre-emptive actions, to reduce their cost of non-quality by an average of 40 percent.
5. Send It media
Send it is an end-to-end live video platform. We connect content creators with their audience in a way that makes it possible for them to pay-wall access to live streams.
We have also developed the ability to reverse-bill mobile data (3G, LTE, etc) traffic to and from our platform. This is huge in Africa as mobile data (3G, LTE etc) is still prohibitively expensive, and online video hasn’t taken off because of this.
6. Akiba Digital
Akiba Digital is a data and technology SAAS company focusing on intelligence-enabling solutions.
For SMEs, we enable them to access better financial services, improve their risk score, and keep their businesses financially healthy.
For lenders, we provide alternative credit scoring, OCR capabilities, and services to optimize their lending decisions and automate their lending value chain.
7. Ploiter
Ploiter is an all-in-one cloud-based software system for running a business, incorporating and encompassing all aspects of traditional customer lead management, invoicing, payments and accounts, inventory, employee management, order handling, warehousing, customer care tools, and sales reporting.
8. OneDirectory
That’s why we created OneDirectory, a new way for your employees to connect with each other and gain insight into your organization’s structure. Whether you’re a team of 50 or 50,000, OneDirectory for Microsoft 365 improves collaboration and boosts teamwork across your organization.
9. Voyc.ai
Voyc monitors and analyses contact center conversations to detect customer experience or compliance anomalies.
Voyc provides Software -as-a-Serice solution that enables users to connect the various challenges where they communicate with customers, use AI/ML to analyze the conversations, and finally act on critical customer experience gaps.
10. Inbox(Get Inbox)
One Inbox for all your conversations.
Talk to different people on different platforms but from one inbox.