IT leaders have their sights set on reducing time to value for SaaS solutions

Adoption of cloud services is skyrocketing, with enterprises embracing the many benefits that SaaS solutions deliver. As spending on public cloud services continues to grow, three words are top of mind for IT leaders. Time to value. 

Getting to that ‘aha’ moment – the point at which the budget you’ve committed to a new SaaS solution finally pays off – can depend on the complexity of the solution you’re rolling out. And it can be hard to quantify. But, regardless, IT leaders want to get there as fast as possible. According to new research from Docusign, a massive 96% of respondents rate time to value as extremely important or important. 

No wonder, given that it leads to tangible business outcomes. IT leaders cite growth, competitive advantage and productivity as key benefits when time to value falls. And this all makes it easier to gain executive buy-in for further SaaS investments. 

Here’s what respondents in the research had to say about why time to value is so important.

It’s a great growth driver

One respondent said, “Time to value is critical with any platform choice. You want to reap the cost versus reward as early as possible to ensure revenue growth.” 

Another explained it this way: “My company has a high ROI per customer. If the cost is reasonable enough, and if we can decrease the time to value, then we can net more revenue by attracting more customers.”

In other words, there’s an inextricable link between getting up and running with a SaaS solution, and boosting the bottom line.

It delivers a competitive advantage

To stay one step ahead in today’s competitive market, organisations seek out SaaS solutions that are quick and easy to implement. Downtime or disruptions while implementing new solutions are far from ideal. As one respondent explained, “We need to see results fast, because we can't afford to stay disrupted for a prolonged period of time.”

It boosts productivity

Finding ways to help employees become more productive is essential to ongoing success. It’s why IT leaders are always on the look-out for SaaS solutions that are not only fast to implement, but make life easier for teams to get their work done. “Time is money in this day and age. The shorter the time to deploy technology, the higher the value gain from the deployment,” said one respondent. 

Fast adoption has a snowball effect. As more employees realise the benefits of using the solution, they will be quick to tell their colleagues and encourage further uptake. 

And it promotes further investment

The icing on the cake when a SaaS solution delivers fast time to value? Executive buy-in, both for the initial SaaS solution and future plans. One respondent summed it up, saying, “Time to value is one of the basic factors that encourage stakeholders and senior management to approve SaaS solutions.”

Another said, “Value realisation can increase customer satisfaction and loyalty, and lead to more cross-selling and upselling opportunities, as it can help customers communicate the success of the project to key stakeholders, thus justifying the renewal of the agreement.” 

How to work out a SaaS solution’s time to value

With all this in mind, how do you know if a solution you’re considering will deliver value, fast? Look for SaaS solutions that provide great onboarding and support, tutorials and case studies – anything that will help your teams hit the ground running. Seek feedback and reviews from like-minded businesses who have already adopted the solution. And appoint champions within your teams to support the roll-out. 

Indeed, as the research found, organisations rate comprehensive staff training (52%), expert support staff for onboarding (49%) and dedicated customer success managers (48%) as the most valuable strategies for reducing time to value. With such strategies in your corner, you’ll start realising value from new investments much faster.

Want to learn more?

For more perspectives on time to value, you can find all the research findings in our eBook.