By Kevin Dobbs

Montclair Advisors, LLC

According to Gartner, the Software-as-a-Service market is forecast to have a 15.3% compound annual growth rate through 2014 for the enterprise application markets, compared with total application market CAGR of 5.3%.  It is this type of growth and adoption that is causing many traditional ISV’s to seriously consider transitioning their business models to SaaS.

This is obviously easier said, than done.  According to our informal research, close to 50% of all ISV’s fail at least once before successfully rolling out a successful SaaS strategy.  What is interesting is that 35% of all ISV’s are currently in the process of trying to move to SaaS according to Saugatuck Technologies.   Because it is difficult, I am going to share my 12 best tips when transitioning to a SaaS business model over the next few Smart SaaS posts.

Tip #1:  What Is Your SaaS End Game?
This sounds basic but it is amazing how many clients don’t really know how far they plan to go with SaaS.  Will your company go all the way and convert 100% of your business to multi-tenant subscription solutions over time or will you continue to offer on premise software as well.  This diagram is helpful with speaking with your team to determine where your company fits along our Software Continuum.

Depending on your strategy - traditional, hybrid, cross-over or SaaS, this should change your game plan.  Keep in mind that a complete SaaS transition can take anywhere from 3-5 years to complete, so break your plan into 12 month phases.  For a company just looking to launch a hybrid model, offering both deployment options, the timing for transition will be less than a company looking to do a full move to SaaS.

A new SaaS start-up takes about 5 years to break even and most venture capitalists are looking at 7 years before the company could possibly go public.  On average most successful SaaS firms take about $35M in investment before they can reach an IPO stage, so you should be prepared to invest in your SaaS transition as you shift from a perpetual model to a subscription model.

Some firms who have been profiled in this blog who have gone through transitions include; Kenexa, Plateau, Intuit, and Clarizen.

Stay tuned for Tip #2: Separate Your Hunters from Farmers.