Is integrating mobile and web apps the future for SaaS firms?

By Stefanie Yeo

The new frontier for enterprise software as a service (SaaS) providers appears to be in mobile apps. From cloud storage services like Dropbox to video conferencing tools like Zoom, the number of SaaS mobile apps on the market is on the rise. Almost all the software that enterprises use to manage their businesses and work effectively are available on mobile devices, 

giving workers greater flexibility and access to whatever they need, whenever they need it. According to Statista, the size of the SaaS market is projected to hit US$157 billion in 2020. While desktop platforms are still the backbone of any SaaS product, mobile apps are becoming increasingly important, with the corporate mobile SaaS market expected to be worth US$7.4 billion by 2021.

Mobile on the rise

The increasing prevalence of mobile apps in the SaaS space is the result of shifts in how people access and consume information.

Globally, users spend an average of three hours and 22 minutes a day on their mobile phones. That number is much higher in emerging markets, where users in countries like the Philippines, Thailand, and Indonesia spend around five hours a day accessing the internet via their phones.

In India, meanwhile, mobile use has overtaken desktop, with the market share for mobile phones amounting to double that of desktops.

“The rise in mobile applications is a direct outcome of the usage of mobile phones across the world,” says Saurabh Srivastava, vice president of product at cloud-based business software provider Deskera. “[People] are spending more time on their phones, and they’re used to doing everything on mobile, like ordering food or doing their banking.”

Deskera, for one, is no stranger to running a mobile app – the company launched its own app earlier this year in a bid to make its business management solutions more accessible to a wider audience.

Mobile apps also serve as a way for SaaS companies like Deskera to introduce their products to smaller enterprises, who may be less comfortable with technology and more hesitant about shelling out for expensive business management software.

A survey conducted by Ernst & Young in 2019 also found that 54.9% of SMEs in Southeast Asia were still in the early stages of digital innovation.

Mobile SaaS apps, therefore, create an opportunity for these companies to test out new software on a smaller scale.

“[Mobile] gives smaller and less tech-savvy companies an easy way to experience the benefits of such SaaS apps,” explains Saurabh.

Toward integration

As prevalent as mobile SaaS apps are becoming, Saurabh thinks desktop platforms are not going away anytime soon.

“There are certain things that work better on the web platform and on desktops,” he says. “If I’m looking at a spreadsheet or a large amount of data, desktop is still better because mobile screens are not designed to show that kind of information.”

And it might not even be about picking one over the other: Enterprises are increasingly conducting their operations across both desktop and mobile platforms.

As such, SaaS providers are working toward creating products that can flow easily between the two modes.

Such mobile-web integrations, according to Saurabh, give users greater flexibility and allows them to work effectively across whatever platform they choose to use.

User experience is key

That being said, the integrated approach has its challenges. After all, just syncing data across mobile and web platforms is not enough. Companies also need to ensure that their products are designed with user experience in mind.

“How does the user want to carry out their business? What do they want to do? Making it more configurable, easier, and intuitive for users is what’s important,” Saurabh says.

Deskera aims to do just this with it’s platform, which features a streamlined, user-friendly interface on both its mobile and web app.

By consolidating information between its mobile and desktop platforms, Deskera also ensures that both apps are able to work in conjunction. The magic for this lies in application programming interfaces – or APIs – which the company uses to make sure that there is only “one source of truth,” says Saurabh.

This creates a seamless experience for the user, who can flawlessly switch between mobile and web versions depending on their needs.

With Deskera’s platform, for example, companies can set up a database with their customer information, product details, price lists, and other relevant data using the web app. A salesperson can then use the mobile app to create and send invoices on the go using the information in the database. The same salesperson can then go back to their desk and use the web app to analyze large volumes of data, such as the company’s sales for the quarter, and run reports in order to see how the business is doing.

Such integration is particularly helpful for businesses that have to manage inventory, such as food and beverage firms or retail establishments.

Barcodes are another use case. In order to receive information about their inventory, companies often need to upload large amounts of data around their products to the database, which is where the desktop platform comes in useful.

However, to use barcodes effectively, firms must invest in equipment like barcode scanners. With Deskera’s mobile app, though, scanning barcodes using the phone’s camera is intuitive, allowing workers to scan products and carry out transactions in-store without needing any additional equipment.

Integration between the mobile and web apps enables employees to adapt the software to suit their needs, providing greater flexibility and choice in how they work.

The future of SaaS

In the future, Saurabh predicts that integration between mobile and web apps will feature as a dominant part of the SaaS landscape. Ultimately, what SaaS companies need to focus on is creating the best user experience for their customers and continuing to provide them options that meet their needs.

“User experience is what makes or breaks a SaaS product,” he says.