You’re surrounded by Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions in your daily professional and personal life. You can access your bank accounts on your computer and phone via a browser or app. So can your clients.
Does the service you provide to your clients look like the rest of their experience in life and business? Is the technology and access you provide in the best interest of your clients?
While legacy (desktop) software may work, you’re burdened with more overhead to provide fiduciary services to your clients. You become an IT professional keeping their data safe. You cannot do a quick check of their reports and numbers without pulling out your laptop or waiting until you visit the office. Your client’s data isn’t accessible to them without your intervention.
How do you know it’s time to move to online SaaS tools even when things work? I look to an unlikely analogy – the tire.
We can agree tires are better than wagon wheels
Tires offer a great perspective on why wagon wheels are no longer used on cars. The wheel was a game changing invention. The physics perceived prior to or learned later behind the wheel changed the way produce was made and transported which meant more business opportunities for farmers and merchants. Things could move at a pace never thought of at the time, yet wheels have gone through iterations and innovations that made moving at faster speeds safer.
SaaS is to legacy software as today’s tires are to the wagon wheel
You’ve committed your hours in the days and weeks to make decisions on the services you provide to your clients, and you have the responsibility in doing so with their best interest in mind. It’s important to consider, in today’s technological landscape, the software you use as a part of that fiduciary commitment. Most SaaS offerings allow for more accessibility and iterations which means your tools just keep getting better versus waiting for downloads on individual computers. You can leverage your expertise and increase accessibility for your clients and change how they interact with you for the better. When you open new doors, new conversations can happen and help your clients achieve their goals.
SaaS offers a better way of keeping your clients’ best interest in mind
Legacy (desktop) software was built to be stored on local machines where the processing and storing of client data remained unless backed up to separate servers—which were often local. You might still reside in this current infrastructure. This puts the responsibility on your shoulders to act as information security and fiduciary all in one.
Consider moving where sensitive client data is stored more securely than on your local machines to a true SaaS partner. Much like tires are continually innovated on to make driving safer, a SaaS solution provides you with the necessary traction to keep client data secure and introduce you to more ways of automating your business processes, which increases your bandwidth for client engagement.
Making the switch from legacy software to a SaaS solution makes you more agile in your service to your clients. A SaaS partner relives you of your duties as an information technology specialist and makes you a better fiduciary, and this shift frees you up to give each client and prospect more of your focus, attention, and expert advice.
Connect with me on LinkedIn and follow me on Twitter @krisrsimmons.
