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Jamshedpur-based solutions provider, Sparx Technologies is among the first few who have embraced the SaaS concept whole-heartedly. Last November, the Rs 12-crore solutions provider took a dive into SaaS by partnering with Jamcracker and Google.
Says Jaspal Singh, CEO, Sparx Technologies, “I believe SaaS is a great opportunity for solutions providers like me. The economic slowdown has abetted the interest of customers in SaaS and we have received positive feedback from those whom we have pitched to. They are all interested in subscribing to some parts of our SaaS offerings.”
Sparx is primarily focusing on six SaaS areas—messaging and mobility services; business continuity solutions like online back-up storage, CRM application, security and remote access. In each category, the company with the help of Jamcracker is offering customers two to three options to choose from. For instance, for collaborative tools like web conferencing it offers Webex and Gomeetnow.
Sparx partnered with Google two months back and is offering Google Apps email solutions which costs just Rs 170 per month for a 25 GB mailbox.
“Some Tata companies have already moved to our messaging solutions as they were paying huge sum for licenses, hardware and maintenance. This deal opens up the market for us as most of the companies around Jamshedpur consist of auto ancillaries supplying to Tata,” says Singh.
Sparx marketing strategy revolves around offering trial packs to the customers. “So far we have run trials for 40 companies and are planning to close deals with at least 10 of them,” informs Singh.
According to him, mid-market customers are more responsive to this model whereas large enterprises are reluctant to adopt SaaS as they have a huge legacy IT infrastructure.
Singh believes that the SaaS business model is very different from selling hardware and software. “It requires concept selling—the partner needs to function as a consultant working closely with customers to understand their needs and plug more and more relevant services,” explains Singh.
The company intends to rope in 30 customers on SaaS by the end of this year, with revenues from SaaS contributing at least 10 percent to their turnover. |