According to Research and Markets, the Software as a Service (SaaS) market is steadily growing and is expected to reach $436.9B in 2025. Due to the global shift towards this business model, SaaS outsourcing has become an in-high-demand service.
In this article, you will explore the reasons why so many businesses opt for SaaS outsourcing and what they gain from it. Also, we will provide tips on how to choose a trusted outsourcing SaaS development provider.
Why you should consider outsourcing SaaS
SaaS is a cloud-based solution provided on a subscription or pay-what-you-use basis. Such solutions typically offer a range of tools and services for a specific business process. The bright examples of SaaS are Dropbox as shared storage and workspace and Shopify as an e-commerce platform. Customers can access these services online via a browser, desktop, or mobile application.
Here are some reasons why outsourcing SaaS is a good idea:
- SaaS solutions are multicomponent. Even an MVP development that has a limited number of features requires a skilled team and time;
- Cloud-based SaaS solutions use different cloud services and data management tools and have a complex infrastructure that requires continuous support;
- SaaS products need to continuously evolve to retain customers. Thus, providers need to respond to customer needs quickly, add features and integration capabilities, and scale;
- SaaS systems are usually integrated with third-party services, so having all the required security practices in place is a must.
SaaS development outsourcing: how you can benefit
1. Development cost optimization
For businesses, outsourcing SaaS development is a more cost-efficient way to introduce their solution to the market. Outsourcing SaaS brings significant savings at an early stage of development and when the project scales up.
Moreover, outsourcing providers usually overtake the HR, employment, and infrastructure expenses. So, you optimize both the development cost and operational expenses.
The development, support, and scaling of a SaaS system require significant financial resources, diverse tech expertise, brainpower, and time. Thus, many organizations opt for SaaS development outsourcing to achieve flexibility and scalability and reduce time to market.
2. The ability to kick the project off quickly
One of the most significant advantages of outsourcing SaaS development is quickly setting up the team and kicking off the project.
If you choose to hire an on-site team, you need to hire dozens of specialists (e.g., BAs, UX/UI designers, architects, developers, QA, and DevOps professionals) only to get a project running. It takes a lot of resources to compose a cross-functional team, train people, and then continuously expand it when the product evolves.
SaaS partners help to address this issue. Larger outsourcing vendors typically have the streamlined processes required to assemble a development team or augment your in-house one quickly.
3. Reducing the time-to-market and scaling the team fast
To ensure timely project delivery, your outsourcing vendor needs to be able to engage specialists on demand as well as engage the right specialists at the right time.
However, it’s getting more and more difficult to find talent these days. The world is experiencing a severe tech talent shortage with the increasing demand for developers. According to McKinsey, 87% of companies that took part in the survey stated that they either lack tech talent already or are about to experience a shortage soon.
SaaS development outsourcing is a viable response to this challenge. This approach allows you to tap into a much wider talent pool. It also gives you the flexibility to ramp up your tech teams fast and speed up the process of development.
4. Bringing in business and tech expertise
SaaS solutions require expertise in building and supporting infrastructure, as well as cloud, data storage, and management, application development, third-party integrations, etc.
Companies often partner with tech providers to bring new expertise to their projects. Vendors who work with high-load applications, cloud platforms, etc., help clients select the tech stack, choose third-party services, or integrate cloud computing.
5. Refine product strategy
Focusing on business objectives and strategic goals is essential for a SaaS product's further growth and scalability. Tech companies that have worked on SaaS projects for years contribute to the product strategy and help clients reach their business goals.
How to choose a SaaS outsourcing partner?
Here are the critical criteria for choosing a reliable SaaS development outsourcing partner:
1. Strong tech team
Your SaaS project needs a skilled team consisting of:
- Solution architects who make informed decisions concerning architecture;
- DevOps experts who work on the integration of all components of your solution and work with servers;
- Software developers who craft the code;
- A delivery manager who is a mediator between a client and a development team;
- Project manager;
- Testers.
Also, your SaaS outsourcing partner should have strong cloud expertise to host your SaaS effectively.
2. Streamlined agile processes
Agile software development brings benefits that are vital for businesses and SaaS software development is no different. Here are several benefits you get with Agile SaaS outsourcing:
- Accelerated product delivery;
- Enhanced ability to manage changing priorities;
- Improved quality;
- Reduced costs;
- Better cost and time predictability.
3. Experience with all the needed tools
Today’s technology offers various SaaS development tools to build a product. SaaS software usually has a complex architecture that requires using different frameworks, libraries, and tools. Here are the most popular ones:
Server-side technologies:
They do not differ from the common server-side web development ones. Your vendor can use NodeJS, .NET, Java, PHP, etc. The point is – the technologies should be easy to use and customizable.
Front-end technologies:
JavaScript frameworks are one the most widely used in the market. Angular, React, and others are often used to deliver top-notch UI/UX design.
Cloud platforms for hosting and maintenance:
The majority of businesses use third-party providers for hosting their products. Cloud vendors like Azure, Google Cloud, and AWS offer a wide choice in terms of supporting software, and DevOps tools.
SaaS outsourcing: Featured success stories
1. Reducing time-to-market of SaaS solution for marketing automation
Our client helps its customers re-invent their marketing through technology and data. They provide adZU OS – a SaaS web solution for marketing automation. More than 10,000 businesses use it in 113 countries.
N-iX has helped Code Worldwide to:
- support a large number of tenants;
- reduce time to market by improving CI/CD process;
- drive quality first approach by release flow ownership (N-iX teams are release owners for the whole product of ten teams);
- use the integration of SAFe approach into the development pipeline.
N-iX professionals support the system, set up an effective communication between services, and ensure their stability.
2. Ensuring high SaaS security for the US-based manufacturer
Fluke Corporation is a company that manufactures, distributes, and services electronic test tools and software for condition monitoring.
This client needed better visibility into asset conditions. Also, they needed to ensure high performance, customization, and scalability of their solutions.
Together with N-iX, the client achieved an increase in equipment uptime, reduced maintenance costs, and ensured high-security standards for Fluke SaaS applications. N-iX applies security architecture best practices to SaaS applications on this project.
N-iX software engineers are engaged in improving the system’s usability by incorporating the best UX/UI practices. Our engineers have provided the DevOps expertise and helped enhance software development processes with CI/CD and the Git flow branching model.
Our team has helped this client to:
- improve asset maintenance;
- significantly decrease maintenance costs;
- guarantee security and reliability of applications in the cloud;
- meet high scalability and customization goals.
Why choose N-iX as your SaaS development outsourcing partner?
- With its profound cloud expertise, N-iX can help you implement Software as a Service (SaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), or Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) business models;
- Our experts have in-depth knowledge of microservices, DevOps, and Agile software development;
- With 1,900+ professionals on board, we can help you accelerate your project delivery;
- The company offers different engagement models (dedicated development team, T&M, and fixed price), so you can choose one most suited for your business needs.
