We’re entering a recession now or perhaps we’ve been in one since 07, depending who you listen too these days. I guess it’s all a matter of perspective.
During any economic cycle you have companies or industries that are going up and those which are going down. This recession is no different, so I thought I’d point out a couple of bright spots.
SaaS [Software as a Service] seems to do very well in a downturn. This business model has been growing year over year for some time now, but there is nothing like a downturn to cause people to revisit the approach. As costs go up and cash becomes king, companies try to conserve and limit capital expenditures. SaaS is a great alternative to capital expenditures as it takes fix costs that would normally be capital expenditures for systems and software and moves them into a variable cost bucket. This is why we see companies like SalesForce.com showing huge revenue growth during recessions as they did in the 2001 downturn. These company solutions have come a long way over the years and continue to do so.
Having implemented a number of these systems for clients over the years, I have to point out that these are generally true enterprise solutions and as such are not trivial regarding implementation and integration. If your solution goals are similar to an onsite enterprise class solution you should anticipate a similar level of effort in the integration side to achieve full functionality. Once done however, if thought out well, the company should be in a much better position to scale , integrate, or adopt new technologies when the time comes.
“What do they mean our training program is outdated?
We all went through it!”
Training is another area that tends to experience growth during a recession. Companies facing fewer resources opt for training solutions to drive productivity, process, projects, efficiency, and consistency throughout their organizations. Training enriches companies & employees and helps with retention during a downturn. If you look at publicly traded training companies you will find their stock price increasing right now.
Open Office