Main types of SaaS solutions

Creating software as a service product involves assessment of the platform features and costs, and requires developers to have relevant expertise in the saas application design field ✔️ Read on to find out more!

How to Design a SaaS (Software as a Service) Application | WTT Solutions

SaaS architecture overview

Why Software as a Service architecture is so popular among startups

How to design a SaaS application: 5 Tips to help you get started

Final thoughts

Horizontal

Vertical

The popularity of SaaS applications has been going through the roof over the past few years. Global digitalization and the development of cloud-computing have spurred companies all over the world to rethink the way they have been handling their business processes and start integrating more effective technologies into their workflows.

How to Design a Successful SaaS Application?

MVP allows you to validate assumptions about the product you want to develop.✔️ Learn how to create an online marketplace MVP from this blog.

How to Create an Online Marketplace MVP [Complete Guide] | WTT Solutions

What is Marketplace MVP and Why is it Important?

What You Need to Know to Create an Online Marketplace MVP

Key Features of a Minimum Viable Product for a Marketplace

How to Build a Marketplace MVP: Step-by-Step Guide

Summary

All businesses start somewhere. If we turn our heads backwards and take a look at the most renowned names in the marketplace industry like eBay, Zappos, Etsy, Airbnb, Uber — none of these companies were very big back in the day. In the early development stages, all they had were niche- or region-limited digital products, each with basic functions and little-to-no investments at all.

How to Build an MVP for an Online Marketplace

The importance of LMS software and modern remote education tools grows by the day.✔️ Take a look at the vivid social learning platform examples and pick the best.

What is a Social Learning Platform?: Top 5 Examples | WTT Solutions

What is a Social Learning Platform?: Tasks and Benefits

Social Learning Platforms for Education: Impact on modern life

Best Social Learning Platforms

5 reasons to pick LMS for social learning

So, Is SLP a Hype or Successful Future?

Start investing in the future right now — contact <a href='https://wtt-solutions.com/platform-development' target='_blank'>WTT Solutions</a> and get a social learning LMS tailored specifically to your company.

In 2019, the total share of the e-learning market exceeded $200 billion and, according to trends, will grow by 8% annually until 2026. The emergence of new technologies such as cloud computing and artificial intelligence, coupled with the increase in remote tendencies worldwide, will drive growth. And solutions that provide flexibility in storing, sharing, and accessing content remotely and in a collaborative fashion will prevail.

Social Learning Platform: 5 Best Examples For Education

Thinking about some of the world’s game-changing startups, you’ll quickly realize a lot of them are marketplaces — eBay, Uber, Airbnb, etc. The “platform economy” is the future, and marketplaces are its vital components. The competition among marketplaces is cutthroat, though — 

, online platforms account for 40% of online retail.

As a marketplace developer or business owner, chances are that you are wondering how to make an impactful presence for your platform, and where to find funding to get a next-generation marketplace off the ground. In this post, we will take a look at the top methods for how to raise funds for a marketplace startup.

Online marketplace startups funding helps get investments to cover operational expense.✔️ Here are the top strategies to raise money for online marketplaces.

How to Get Funding for an Online Marketplace Startup | WTT Solutions

“We were surprised by the number of startups that had made it to the list, including many relatively unfamiliar names”

Investments for Online Marketplace Startups: Key Major Trends

Online Marketplace Startups Funding: Companies That Got Most Investors' Attention

Top 5 Ways to Raise Money for a Marketplace Startup

Review of Top Platforms to Find Funding for Online Marketplace Startups

Final Thoughts

Thinking about some of the world’s game-changing startups, you’ll quickly realize a lot of them are marketplaces — eBay, Uber, Airbnb, etc. The “platform economy” is the future, and marketplaces are its vital components. The competition among marketplaces is cutthroat, though — statistically, online platforms account for 40% of online retail.

How to Find Investments for an Online Marketplace Startup

The main goal of a successful BI implementation is to get all your business data organized in a way that facilitates and speeds up the decision making process.✅ Read on to find out more benefits of business intelligence!

7 Business Intelligence Implementation Steps | WTT Solutions

Why Does Your Company Need Business Intelligence Implementation?

Successful Business Intelligence Implementation Steps

1. Analyze the current state of the company's data

2. Gather a team of subject matter experts

3. Create a strategy and a business intelligence implementation plan

4. Identify important KPIs

5. Educate Staff & Stakeholders

6. Choose a software and setup BI infrastructure

7. Roll out pilot project and adjust system based on the results

Implementing BI with WTT Solutions

When it comes to the concept of business intelligence, we should picture not just the mere technology but a set of tools, software, and practices used for the collection and presentation of the company's data.

BI systems consolidate different sources of data into a single information stream. This is all done in a way to allow decision-makers to easily analyze and manage information.

Business intelligence helps companies move from 'guessing' to 'understanding' the real cause of a particular problem. Here's a simple example:

The importance of business intelligence becomes evident if we look at the fact that today's global <a href=https://www.seagate.com/gb/en/our-story/data-age-2025/ target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>datasphere is growing exponentially</a> and will reach 175 ZB by 2025 (175 x 10²¹ bytes) — compared to 45 ZB generated in 2019. According to statistics, <a href=https://www.g2.com/articles/big-data-statistics target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>2 QB</a> (2 x 1018) of data are generated across all industries every day.

Data needs to be organized somehow, and it's no secret that legacy systems and outdated infrastructures are no longer able to aggregate such large chunks of incoming information. On the contrary, BI systems can help structure end-to-end workflow — from data collection to preparation to interpretation and storage.

To put this all into perspective, the implementation of business intelligence can be beneficial for: 

All these aspects that come with business intelligence systems are extremely important for the fast-paced environments businesses are faced with today. That brings us to the next question of how to implement business intelligence.

Before implementing a BI strategy or integrating corresponding tools, it's necessary to understand in which state your data is, currently. This process includes examining all the existing sources of data, and evaluating how data is stored, managed and shared.

Keep in mind that not all sources can be valuable for BI — some may provide incomplete data, some duplicate information, overlap stats, etc. So, select those that are clear and carry the most value in terms of information relevance and retrieval.

Obviously, the BI integration process would be impossible to carry out without a dedicated team. Your team has to consist of data-driven experts that have expertise in different domains — finance, IT, marketing, HR, etc. These can come from your various intercompany departments.

A mix of members with different backgrounds ensures that the BI team will be able to introduce changes to all the necessary areas of your company and not overfocus on a single component.

When it comes to the team members' roles, in particular, your group of BI evangelists may consist of: Data Quality Analyst, Data Mining Expert, Lead Developer, Infrastructure Architect, Data Administrator, Project Manager, and Business Representative.

Once you have assembled a BI team, it's time to develop your strategy. Here, your main task will be to understand how data will be processed within your company. To correctly define the scope of business intelligence implementation, you need to answer three basic questions:

Getting answers to those questions beforehand will help to lay out a clear road map for successful BI implementation.

At this stage, you need to understand what you want to measure. Identifying key performance indicators will help you ensure your BI strategy stays on the right track throughout the whole business intelligence implementation process.

The choice of metrics solely depends on your goals, but we advise you to break them into sections based on the objectives (or departments) they relate to. For example:

If you are just starting to work with business intelligence, we recommend concentrating on the most important KPIs first in order not to overcomplicate the data gathering and analysis processes.

For many people, it is quite difficult to break established habits, and business intelligence adoption is no exception here. If your employees have never had experience working with the BI before, chances are they will resist adopting new tools.

To make sure that your staff understands the necessity of change, hold training sessions and make them a part of the implementation strategy. Help employees see the bigger picture and value behind the new software; explain how new tools will improve their work and what the reasons are for introducing such changes. Data analytics has to become a part of a company's culture.

Oftentimes, all business owners have to do to minimize the effect of this phenomenon is simply communicate with their employees to get their input (before actually implementing BI tools). When people — whose work will be affected by the changes — know their considerations are taken into account, and that their concerns are addressed in advance, it is much easier for them to start using new technologies.

The integration of actual BI tools will be a major part of the whole process. At this stage, you will need to choose your BI software. Luckily, there are a lot of ready-made solutions on the market from SAP, IBM, Oracle, and Tableau. Your developers, in turn, will need to configure data storage and data environment components.

For data storage, you can go with either of two repositories: a data lake or data warehouse. A data lake assumes storing raw blocks of data, the purpose of which is yet to be defined. A data warehouse, on the other hand, is a repository that stores structured and filtered data. The latter is considered a better choice for BI architecture.

For the data environment, you can choose between three options: On-premise — where the BI system is located on your internal physical servers; Cloud — where the BI system is stored in a public/private cloud; and Hybrid — where some components are stored internally, and some are deployed in the cloud.

If you don't have enough expertise in the Big Data domain, you can always onboard a <a href=https://wtt-solutions.com/our-work target='_blank'>ready-made development team</a> who has the relevant know-how and is experienced enough in developing custom business intelligence systems tailored to your needs.

After all the components of a system are tuned to work together, it’s time to test them. Start with the smaller chunks of data and expand later on as you adjust system requirements. The testing process of a BI system normally covers all main reporting functions and consists of several phases:

Once all of these tests are done, you should run your customizable system to get results across your KPIs. This is an ongoing process so, after introducing changes to the areas of your audit, run the system again to see the changes in key performance indicators. After that, you can scale — adding more data and more detailed KPIs.

7 Key Steps of Business Intelligence (BI) Implementation Process

Modern online marketplace revenue models aid companies in getting sustainable revenue growth and seizing their potential.✅ Read this blog to find out which revenue model would be the best bet for your business.

Marketplace Business Model: 5 Best Revenue Models for 2021 | WTT Solutions

Types of Marketplace Revenue Models

Commission-Based Model

Listing Charges Model

Membership/Subscription Model

Freemium Model

Advertising & Featured Ads Model

Pros and Cons of Marketplace Business Models: Comparison Table

The Commission-Based model is the most popular business model for a marketplace. Here, users are charged with a commission for each transaction they make. When a user buys from a service/product provider, the marketplace facilitates this payment and charges a percentage or a flat fee. The platform can also charge fees from both buyers and service/product vendors.

In terms of pricing, there are a few options of fee policies:

Oftentimes, this marketplace revenue model is combined with other revenue models.

The subscription model is not a new one. In fact, it's been around for hundreds of years, emerging first in the <a href=https://www.forbes.com/sites/valleyvoices/2017/05/17/not-so-new-promise-of-subscription-economy/?sh=6b0840a04343 target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>17th century</a> in the publishing industry. In the last few decades, it has deeply penetrated the digital world, and there's almost no single industry that hasn't seen subscription-based startups and corresponding success stories.

Users are charged a recurring fee — on a monthly, quarterly, or yearly basis — to access the platform and its features. Membership packages and monthly plans are another common practice used by marketplaces to offer access to different sets of items/features at different price points.

There are three most common kinds of products or services to be accessed under this revenue model for an online marketplace:

In recent years, this business model for modern marketplaces has gained significant traction — according to <a href=https://www.gartner.com/smarterwithgartner/top-10-trends-in-digital-commerce/ target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>Gartner</a>, 75% of organizations selling their products directly to customers will move to a subscription-based model by 2023. Traditional industries are not going to lag behind, either. For example, it is predicted that the market for automotive subscriptions* will reach the $40 billion mark by 2026.

Top 5 Online Marketplace Revenue Models in 2021

Building an e-learning platform is a complex process that requires careful planning, relevant expertise in software development, and a lot of team effort.✅ Find answers on how to build a successful e-learning solution in this blog

How to Build a Custom E-Learning Platform? | WTT Solutions

Types of Online E-Learning Platforms

MOOC

Learning Management Systems (LMSs)

Learning experience platforms (LXP)

Student management systems

Web conferencing software

Proctoring software

Authoring software

Benefits of Custom E-learning Solutions

How to Build a Successful e-Learning Platform

1. Do audience research and niche analysis

2. Shape your product idea and define its key features

3. Prepare a business model

4. Assemble a development team or choose a reliable outsourcing partner

5. Create an MVP

Building an E-learning Platform with WTT Solutions

In broad terms, e-Learning can be identified as a learning experience delivered electronically to a user. This concept unites all the methodologies, tools, and other means used to create, organize, and communicate educational content in a digital environment.

E-learning has many benefits over traditional education, it:

Now, let's take a look at the most popular types of e-learning systems one can find on the market today.

This is the first and most important step in the process of building an e-learning platform. Here, you need to figure out what value your future product will bring to its users (i.e validate your startup idea). You’ll need to define:

Your task is to also determine potential product demand, as this will help to lay a foundation for future growth. If you are not sure of the path to take, get assistance from business analysts or a team with relevant <a href=https://wtt-solutions.com/platform-development target='_blank'>expertise</a> that can help develop a custom e-learning solution.

Now, gather your findings from the previous step, and shape them into a product concept. Define which key features your e-Learning platform needs to have in order to motivate users to start using your service.

You can start with standard components, more-or-less (like Course pages, User Profiles, Rating System, Messaging, etc.) and get more advanced as your project grows (live video communication, multi-language support, dashboards, etc.)

Once the features are outlined, you can proceed to creating a business model and developing architecture for your product.

At this stage, you need to determine how the platform will generate revenue. We advise that you dedicate a significant amount of time to this task, as the development of a viable business model is critical for startup success.

The most popular monetization model for e-learning platforms is to charge learners for specific courses. This is very simple to implement; however, maintaining your retention rate on a significant level may become a challenge here.

Another option is to opt for a paid certification model where courses are free but, if learners want to receive a course completion certificate, they are expected to pay a fee.

If neither of these two models suit you, you can consider a subscription-based model, where users are charged monthly/quarterly/yearly payments to get access to platform courses.

For more about different monetization models, read our article <a href=https://wtt-solutions.com/blog/top-5-online-marketplace-revenue-models target='_blank'>here</a>.

To create an e-learning platform, you'll need to onboard a dedicated team of developers. You can assemble an in-house team or work with an outsourcing partner. While gathering an in-house team might seem like the most reliable option at first glance, it is a time- and money-consuming option. In this case, business owners are taking on the burden of recruitment, onboarding activities, taxes, office expenses, etc.

On the contrary, opting for an outsourcing software development company allows you to access an already assembled team of programming experts who can start building a custom e-learning platform right away. On this path, you will also see significant cost reductions since you only pay for the end result when working with an outsourcing development team, and all other expenses are covered by the outsourced partner.

After you have assembled a team of developers, validated your e-learning platform idea, and created a business plan, you’ll need to develop a prototype and test it on early adopters (first users of the platform).

A Minimum Viable Product (MVP) is an early version of your product with basic functionality, which is created to collect maximum feedback from users in early stages and help developers fine-tune a product to their e-learning niche. Startups with little initial funds can also acquire investors by demonstrating the results of their prototype performance.

From here, you will need to get into a feedback loop, where you roll out enhanced versions of a product, gather user feedback, and adjust accordingly.

More information about MVP development can be found <a href=https://wtt-solutions.com/blog/how-to-build-an-mvp-for-an-online-marketplace target='_blank' rel='nofollow'>here</a>.

How to Build a Successful e-Learning Platform to Sell Online Courses

If you think about building a SaaS product, this article will provide you with detailed information on the development process and application areas of SaaS software

How to Build a Successful SaaS Product [Complete Guide] | WTT Solutions

What is a SaaS Product?

Main Types of SaaS Products

Project management (PM) software

e-Commerce platforms

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software

Customer Relation Management (CRM) solutions

Billing gateways

Accounting platforms

Human Resource (HR) software

How to Build a Successful SaaS Product

1. Analyze the market & find a problem

2. Validate your SaaS idea

3. Choose a pricing model

4. Have your business plan laid out

5. Gather SaaS development team

6. Develop a prototype

7. Test results and adjust SaaS product accordingly

Our Experience

SaaS — also known as Software as a Service — is a widely popular model of software distribution where users, instead of installing software on their devices, get access to it over the Internet.

While traditional business software is normally located on the employees' computers, SaaS applications, on the contrary, are hosted on the vendor's servers. Such an approach frees the business owners from the hassle of maintaining the software and keeping it up to date. The SaaS product provider manages everything — from performance and data storage to security and support.

SaaS product model carries lots of benefits for business owners, but the three most important ones are:

Now after we have defined what is a SaaS product, and examined the main benefits of the SaaS model, let's check what types of SaaS products there actually are and how to build a SaaS app.

Market analysis will help you to figure out 1) the needs of your target audience, and 2) current competition. Identify whether the existing SaaS solutions completely cover the problems of the audience. If not, assess which areas are overlooked in particular as it will help you better understand in which direction to move in with your future product.

Some important questions to ask yourself at this stage are:

On this step of building a successful SaaS product, you need to get more specific about your findings from the market research and target audience analysis. Here, you need to create a customer journey map and outline all the important touchpoints there. This will help you to understand how your future customers will interact with a product.

Once the journey map is complete, proceed to create paper prototypes. Basically, this is all the functionality of your future product schematically sketched on paper — all the design elements, and visual templates. It is also helpful to conduct user interviews. You want to get initial feedback on the concept you have and all the ideas (about the SaaS product) that have been written out on a paper.

It's important to know how your product will be monetized from day one. Find the right strategy that will fit your niche. Here, the best monetization plan is the one that 1) is based on the value your product provides, 2) resonates with the overall strategy of your business, 3) is tightly connected with the target audience, and 4) has quantifiable goals.

As to the business model itself, SaaS product owners commonly prefer to stick with one (or a few) options:

It is extremely important to have your business plan in place before you proceed to the product implementation itself. It will help you shape the operational scope and set all the financial objectives in advance.

The business plan should include all the above-mentioned information about your niche, ideal customers, and monetization strategy, plus Sales & Distribution plan, revenue projections, core values, and Exit strategy.

This document is your 'path of profitability' which demonstrates to you — or your investors — that the product you are about to develop has the potential to become successful and make profit in the long-term perspective

After a SaaS product idea has been validated and a business plan laid out, it's time to assemble a team that will create your software. You can either recruit programmers in-house or outsource the entire development process to a third-party Contractor.

With the in-house team, you get more control over the product and can connect with each member of your team on-site. The in-house team comes with great expenses though, such as office rent, salaries, taxes, hardware, bills, etc. For startups, budgeting has always been a sensitive question, so putting together an in-house team might not be the money-wise decision there.

Instead, business owners can go outsource and cut the development costs by three or even four times (if hiring a team from Eastern Europe). Some might object that outsourcing strategy is not that effective as in-house, and the time-zone difference is still a thing. However, if you are working with a <a href=https://wtt-solutions.com/platform-development target='_blank'>professional development company</a>, all these risks can be reduced to a minimum.

Now it's time to build a SaaS product prototype — or Minimum Viable Product — of your product. We recommend not to dig deep into the functionality and try to do it 'all at once'.

When creating a prototype your goal is to create a product with the basic set of features that will allow you to get the initial feedback from your audience.

A prototype has to be simple yet functional enough to deliver the main value to your users so don't try to fit in all the features pouring the entire budget into it.

More about MVP development read in our article <a href=https://wtt-solutions.com/blog/how-to-build-an-mvp-for-an-online-marketplace target='_blank'>here</a>.

After testing a prototype and receiving the first results, it's time to analyze them and understand what worked out, what didn't, and why. If you see that the product concept didn't perform as expected you can adjust the strategy and product functionality to test the hypotheses once again.

Blog

would you like to receive notifications about our updates?

SOLUTIONS & EXPERTISE

SERVICES

TECHNOLOGIES