We recently conducted a survey to better understand why customers use SaaS solutions, what challenges they face and how they deal with increasing requirements for integration. Get highlights from the results of our 2015 SaaS Application Business Impact Survey—you may be surprised by what we discovered.

1. Highlights of our 2015 survey
Survey results for software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies:
Top SaaS App Challenges:
Which One Is Yours?

2. © 2015 Progress Software Corporation. All rights reserved.
Marketplace: SaaS subscription revenue is increasing
*Source: Forrester Research, Inc.
Revenue is significant and growing, roughly doubling from 2012 to 2015.

3. © 2015 Progress Software Corporation. All rights reserved.
Marketplace: Analysts predict SaaS market size will grow
Source: Forrester Research, Inc.
Public cloud market is HUGE and SaaS is the biggest opportunity.
Total Public
Cloud Markets
(US$ Billions)
~$80
~$130SaaS
BPaaS
PaaS
IaaS

4. © 2015 Progress Software Corporation. All rights reserved.
About the 2015 SaaS Survey
 Progress DataDirect conducted a
global survey to explore top
challenges for SaaS providers.
 Respondents included:
• Product managers
• Developers
• Architects
Community.Centrify.com
CloudTimes.org

5. © 2015 Progress Software Corporation. All rights reserved.
Survey question: What type of SaaS application(s) do you
provide?
Highlights
 BI/Analytics apps were the most prominent at 47%
 CRM in second with 41%
(a surprise since CRM has typically been first)
 Continued growth of types of SaaS apps

6. © 2015 Progress Software Corporation. All rights reserved.
Survey question: What makes your SaaS application(s)
valuable to customers?
Highlights
 SaaS value primarily comes from helping customers
provide a better product/service
 Top two categories “Faster Time to Market” and
“Improves Productivity” are related, both coming in
at about 70%
 Other feedback: “More successful customers and
more revenue”

7. © 2015 Progress Software Corporation. All rights reserved.
Survey question: When working with clients and prospects, which of the
following challenges or objectives do they seek your assistance with?
Highlights
 Most critically important need was “Needing to leave data in
place, but still be able to do cross-system, cross-cloud
analytics” = 43%
 Most critically and very important need was “Consolidating a
diverse set of unintegrated applications” = 85%
 Integration between applications appears to be a pressing
challenge
Summary: Customers want help with many initiatives
from their SaaS providers

8. © 2015 Progress Software Corporation. All rights reserved.
Survey question: Which of the following is your SaaS
application(s) currently integrated with?
Highlights
 Wide variety of apps that integrate with SaaS apps
 BI/Analytics highest came in at 78%
 CRM, HR, and ERP each came in at about 50%
Summary: Customers’ top challenge is the need to
“Consolidate a diverse set of unintegrated
applications”

9. © 2015 Progress Software Corporation. All rights reserved.
Survey question: What are the biggest integration drawbacks
and challenges for your SaaS application?
Highlights
 Top 3 challenges all involve SaaS apps needing access to
other apps/data
 Nearly 50% specified dealing with “On-premise
customer enterprise applications” and “Customer
legacy applications behind a firewall” as the biggest
integration drawbacks
 38% cited “…complex integration efforts…” as the
biggest problem

10. © 2015 Progress Software Corporation. All rights reserved.
Survey question: What are the biggest integration drawbacks
and challenges for your SaaS application?
Highlights
 Top 3 challenges all involve SaaS apps needing access to
other apps/data
1. “On-premise customer enterprise applications” 50%
2. “Customer legacy applications behind a firewall” 50%
3. “Not enough IT support available for complex
integration efforts” 38%

11. © 2015 Progress Software Corporation. All rights reserved.
Survey question: How is data from integrated applications
accessed by your solution?
Highlights
 More than 60% import data into their SaaS
application
 Or nearly 40% replicate data to their SaaS
application
 SaaS vendors still have a very real need to integrate
with other data and apps
 In many cases, data still needs to be moved or
copied

12. © 2015 Progress Software Corporation. All rights reserved.
 Integration with customer on-premise and
legacy apps is critical
• Legacy data isn’t going away any time soon
• Importing and/or replicating data is still very prevalent
Key takeaway: The SaaS vendors who address the challenges
identified are the ones poised to retain customers and grow their
businesses.
The big Aha! moment

13. For more information:
http://forms.progress.com/DCI-ISV-connectivity