Fact: Legacy SaaS and technical debt are holding executives back from meeting their marketing objectives. In fact, only 5% of company leaders believe their marketing organization utilizes their technology “extremely well.”
As a chief financial officer, your job is to spend wisely, so when someone presents you with a very high (and frankly startling) number attached to a new piece of martech, it can result in sticker shock. However, it’s essential to evaluate the benefits that will come with a long-term investment in SaaS and why it’s important for your business.
Read on to find out why CFOs should invest in SaaS technology.
Focus on the long-term cost savings of SaaS
Despite the pressure to pull back spending amidst global economic uncertainty, tech spend shows no signs of slowing down.
According to Gartner, tech spend is expected to reach $4.6 trillion this year, a 5.1% increase from 2022. Roman Taranov, Forbes Councils Member, writes, “My advice is always: buy, don’t build. When you invest in the proper technology stack early on, you establish a strong foundation for your company’s future.”
Investing in an up-to-date martech stack that facilitates and enables your processes will pay off. One report by McKinsey found that 73% of businesses have seen a 20-40% increase in productivity due to the use of SaaS.
In-house solutions often seem like a good idea, but the cost of fixing internal errors and data losses far outweigh the benefits. Investing in third-party SaaS solutions outsources the complexities of the tech, and allows you to sit back and reap the rewards.
Consider the scalability of SaaS
One great thing about SaaS? It’s scalable. As your company expands, you won’t have to worry about upgrading or replacing software and hardware (which is costly and time-consuming). Good SaaS products can help you stay agile and responsive to changing business needs, and will provide outstanding customer success support along the way.
In fact, SaaS may give you a competitive advantage. 67% of companies surveyed in Wunderkind’s CMO State of the Union report said they rely heavily on internal skills to mature their technology.
“When investing in SaaS, you don’t need to rely on internal teams to continually fix out-of-date tech,” says Richard Aldridge, Executive Director of Business Development, EMEA at Wunderkind. “It’s on the provider to continually optimize, maintain and improve. This is exactly why companies outsource their tech needs, because SaaS providers are specialists and can keep you up to date efficiently.”
Evaluate tech stack integration
Does your new SaaS solution fit in perfectly with your existing tech stack, such as your ESP? You’re likely to get over sticker shock quicker.
According to an AppDynamics report, 80% of IT professionals said their job became more complex in 2020 due to tech stack sprawl (meaning multiple tech solutions that are all geared towards fixing the same problem, but are really just inefficient, out of date, and building technical debt).
Aldridge comments, “Part of the benefit of buying SaaS is time-to-value. If you’re asking an internal team to build or update a solution, they’re often starting from scratch and won’t have the ability to rapidly build and integrate new tech. When you purchase it, it’s implemented quickly and can deliver value quickly.
SaaS products that integrate with existing systems are the solution. The more straightforward and hands-off the system, the better—and if it means you can get rid of legacy SaaS that’s been weighing you down, even better!
Look at the ROI of SaaS
When considering the cost of a SaaS product, it’s crucial to look at the return on investment for the entire business. Although SaaS can be an expensive up-front cost, consider the full value equation.
“All too often, a CFO is brought in at the end of the sales process and they just see the price,” explains Aldridge. “When a CFO has been excluded from the evaluation process, they don’t understand the problem being solved, or the full value a solution will drive. They’re just looking at a cost equation.”
CFOs should work with their teams from the get-go to evaluate the potential ROI, factoring in not just the cost of the product, but the benefits and savings SaaS will bring over time.
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