5 Reasons to Use SaaS for Your R&D

Are you wondering if a SaaS (software as a service) is a solution for your lab?

Areas such as collaborative solutions and business communication are now widely adopted in software as a service mode.

Examples most commonly used are online calendar sharing like Google Calendar, remote conferencing tools like Join.me, document management such as Dropbox, as well as corporate messaging with Hangouts.

If you are asking yourself what SaaS can do for you and your R&D, this article might be of interest.

A small definition of the SaaS model

Cloud computing and the improvement of Internet speed has allowed SaaS to develop extensively. SaaS are programs installed and hosted by the service provider on remote servers, rather than on your terminals or servers.

When you’ve installed it, you pay, not a license, but a right of use in the form of a monthly or annual subscription. The price of this subscription includes all service costs (usage, storage, security, maintenance) and varies according to the number of users and resources consumed over a given period.

SaaS is a time saver

SaaS software is pre-installed on the servers of the service provider and ready for use. It is made available remotely by the provider.

A clear advantage for companies is the speed of deployment when the SaaS software exactly matches the need (and does not require any adaptation). Since SaaS solutions are already pre-existing, deployment time is extremely low. For example, for a lot of SaaS, installation means just having a browser connected to the internet and log-in details.

Also, there’s time saved in not having to carry out any maintenance or upgrades on the application or its underlying hardware. The SaaS provider does all of this. Updates are consequently automatic, and all employees use the same version of the software, which promotes the compatibility of data internally.

The ease of use also constitutes a time saver. Using a browser is a daily and common thing for most people. This means they can get productive almost straight away, with little or no need for a training course.

SaaS is the collaborative solution for your R&D

In order to reduce time-to-market and increase the performance of new products, there are different levers:

• Intensify the generation of ideas and diversify their origins.
• Arbitrating objectively on the most relevant ideas to select the projects that will actually be launched.
• Encourage collaboration between departments (R&D, marketing, purchasing, supply chain, etc.).
• Reduce non-value added time during the development process.
• Have a comprehensive and real-time portfolio of innovations under development.

All those levers depend on collaboration. SaaS helps achieve all these objectives. Indeed, it allows all employees to use the same version of the software, share their data and therefore collaborate.

It also helps in terms of direct financial impact by increasing the return on investment for new products.

SaaS has many applications for your R&D

As we mentioned earlier, there are many possible applications: from management to video conferencing.

E-mail and instant messaging, calendar and document sharing, accounting, resource management, and collaborative tools are also some very frequent use of SaaS.

In your laboratory, you can now move into the digital era to collect and organize your data and notes, using an electronic laboratory notebook(ELN). It arises as a great alternative to the typical paper notebooks. See our review of ELN in this article.

Those applications enable you to retrieve and share your results easily.

SaaS enables to secure your data

Sharing easily, okay. But, data security is very important when it comes to your R&D and the results that are produced.

Using a SaaS enables to secure the storage of your data you are sharing. Securing the privacy of your data is the responsibility of the chosen provider.

SaaS is a low-cost solution

Historically, companies were required to buy, build, and maintain their IT (information technology) infrastructures despite exponential costs. SaaS gives companies an alternative.

SaaS can deliver significant savings for many reasons. You can get rid of the upfront cost of purchase and installation as well as ongoing costs associated with maintenance and upgrades.

Software use and maintenance costs are even lower than traditional acquisition. Why? Because strong competition between the possible providers in this market tends to keep subscriber rates quite cheap. In fact, software service providers need to stay attractive, because a customer can always choose to go to a competitor. So, it pushes them to improve and optimize their offer continuously. Updates and feature releases are much more frequent compared to the traditional software editors.

To conclude, using SaaS is more common than ever. From calendar sharing to laboratory notebook, every aspect of your R&D department can be covered.

Still, the benefits of SaaS go far beyond what we’ve discussed in this post. SaaS provides numerous benefits across many different industries making it one of the fastest growing industries.

And, there are already several examples of SaaS providers on Scientist including LabCollector, a laboratory notebook.