From Unbundling to Rebundling: 6 Insights On the Future of SaaS
As the SaaS market matures, providers are starting to unbundle their services to better compete with niche markets.
This trend has led to a rise in specialized, standalone products.
While this can be great for customers, it can also be challenging for users (and customer success teams) to keep track of all the changes.
In this post, we’ll explore six insights on the trends of unbundling and rebundling and what it means for the future of SaaS.
SaaS is one of the fastest-growing industries in the world.
The global SaaS market is growing at an incredible rate thanks to the many benefits it offers businesses of all sizes. Not only is SaaS more affordable than traditional software, but it is also much easier to use and scale.
Businesses can easily adjust their use of SaaS applications as their needs change without changing their on-premises infrastructure. This flexibility makes SaaS a desirable option for companies that want to increase their agility and responsiveness.
According to the latest research by SkyQuest Technology, the global SaaS market was valued at $143.77 billion in 2021. This number is expected to reach $720.44 billion by 2028, with a CAGR of 25.89% during the forecast period of 2022–2028. Due to its many benefits for streamlining operations, it’s no surprise that the global SaaS market is growing at an unprecedented rate.
The average number of SaaS applications a company uses is increasing.
If you’re like most businesses, you probably use a handful of different software programs on a daily basis. In fact, the average company now operates more than 100 various SaaS applications — seven times the amount from 2017 and 14 times from 2015, according to a recent report from BetterCloud.
And with the SaaS industry predicted to keep growing, that number will only rise in the coming years.
SaaS experts noted a marked shift from all-in-one suites to unbundling services.
In the past, software companies generally tried to offer all-in-one suites that would solve a wide range of problems for their customers. Salesforce, Adobe, and Zendesk are all excellent examples of companies that took this approach.
However, as the cost of introducing new software has fallen significantly, the concept of “best-of-breed” has become much more widespread. As such, companies are now introducing many tools to meet their specific needs in detail.
While this approach has its advantages, it can also be very confusing for customers trying to figure out which tool to use for what purpose. In addition, it can lead to duplication of effort if different departments within a company use different tools to solve the same problem.
*How Google spreadsheet is unbundled by SaaS, explained by Foundationinc.co
Unbundling isn’t quite the silver bullet everyone expected it to be.
When it comes to customer service, using multiple software programs can actually do more harm than good. Even if each program is good at what it does, the overall experience for the customer will be inconsistent and confusing.
Businesses now prioritize streamlining the process as much as possible by ensuring that everything works together seamlessly. Otherwise, you risk driving your customers away with a frustrating and confusing experience.
Creating a consistent customer experience should be the goal, and that can only be done by integrating the tools you use rather than relying on multiple disparate products.
From unbundling to rebundling — the shift that improves user experience for customers.
Since “best-of-breed” products only complicate the user experience, experts now note a trend towards rebundling — or consolidating multiple channels/functional values into one place. This allows for a much more seamless and intuitive user experience.
A good example is Front.com, which integrates e-mail, help desk, and internal discussion into one place for customer support teams.
By consolidating multiple channels/functional values into one place, we can maximize the user experience and make it much easier for people to get the most out of their SaaS products.
A customer success portal is a simple way to rebundle all unnecessarily unbundled functional features.
Customer success teams are vital in ensuring that customers can fully utilize a company’s products and services. However, forcing customers to visit a dozen different places to get the most out of their purchase is not an ideal customer experience and wastes time for your team.
A customer success portal can help to solve this problem by providing a one-stop shop for customers. It allows them to access a knowledge base, user training, event management, forum, and more all in one place.
Additionally, a customer success portal can optimize user experience across features, something that was previously not possible. As a result, this is a much better solution for both customer success teams and customers alike.
The Bottom Line
At Commune, we’re proud to be a leading customer success portal that supports hundreds of customers in scaling their customer success efforts. As a result, our clients enjoy measurable outcomes, such as a 14% improved churn rate, reducing 120h/month workload, and 900% ROI.
Our unique advantages include:
- A no-code approach
- Status-based community experience control
- Communication workflow to automate customer communication
- A 24/7 monitored secure platform
These features allow our clients to focus on what they do best — growing their businesses.
So claim your free trial today and see how Commune brings companies and customers together.
