Executive Summary
It used to be that organizations had to be in part of the tech space to hear the term
“software as a service” (SaaS), but today it has become commonplace. It has infiltrated many aspects of business and powers the infrastructure behind popular platforms like Salesforce, Google Docs, Microsoft Office 365, Dropbox, and Slack.
SaaS is shifting from being an optional investment to an essential one. And there are a whole host of reasons why: flexibility, cost of ownership, security, scalability, and improved collaboration.
Where SaaS has not been prevalent, until recent years, is in manufacturing and industrial software. Programs like computer-aided design (CAD) and product lifecycle management (PLM), which are the backbone of product development, have been slow to make the transition to SaaS. This, however, is changing. We are seeing an inflection point in technology, attitudes, and availability toward manufacturing-focused SaaS solutions.
A prudent leader, however, might want to know more before committing resources toward this infrastructure shift. SaaS is not simply a change in IT thinking (software and hardware infrastructure) but increasingly reaches into areas of employee focus, satisfaction, workplace strategy, as well as core business goals.
