Death by a Thousand Cuts in SAAS
If you are a business today you are faced with a dizzying array of SAAS tools across all your core business functions: accounting, marketing, sales, payroll, recordkeeping — the list goes on. While every tool that is adopted brings benefits (time saved, better visibility etc) each tool also comes with its own learning curve, upkeep needs and unique requirements.
Today if you are a business — of any size — you face what I call the ‘Death by a Thousand Cuts’ problem in SAAS. The learning curve and time required to manage and get the best out of each individual tool keeps adding up until you reach a point where — because of limited resources — you aren’t getting the best out of any of your tools.
To frame it another way the first 20% of SAAS tools you adopt as a business (say a CRM, payroll platform and marketing suite) are going to bring you 80% of the operational gains. As you start adding more and more tools though, there comes a tipping point where you no longer have the time as a business to manage and get the best out of any of them. Additional tools can even reverse some of the gains you make by creating new unforseen inefficiencies (everyone is familiar with CRMs where data accuracy is patchy at best).
