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Meet the Most Successful SaaS Companies Wall Street Doesn't Know
In the past week, I've run into four of the most successful software as a service (SaaS) companies that Wall Street investors don't know -- at least not yet. Here's a quick look at the companies, and their critical importance to the SaaS industry. The SaaS experts: Autotask. Ingram Micro. Level Platforms. N-able. Confused? Let me explain. Autotask really is a fully hosted solution, and the SaaS model is treating the company well.
2 Min Read
In the past week, I’ve run into four of the most successful software as a service (SaaS) companies that Wall Street investors don’t know — at least not yet. Here’s a quick look at the companies, and their critical importance to the SaaS industry.
The SaaS experts: Autotask. Ingram Micro. Level Platforms. N-able. Confused? Let me explain.
Autotask really is a fully hosted solution, and the SaaS model is treating the company well.
Ingram Micro Seismic hosts applications for nearly 800 managed service providers. That’s 800 SaaS customers — yet Wall Street has no idea Ingram has a SaaS story to share. It’s time for Ingram’s CXO suite to correct that problem.
Level Platforms helped to pioneer the master MSP business model, where companies host Level Platform’s software in a SaaS configuration.
Roughly half of N-able’s current sales involve SaaS-driven deployments hosted by N-able, according to CEO Gavin Garbutt.
(Please don’t send me nasty emails if your company wasn’t listed above.)
How SaaS Can Drive MSP Dollars
Fact is, everyone in the managed services market needs to do a better job weaving SaaS into their messaging and corporate positioning — as long as the messaging is responsible and accurate.
Think about this for a minute: Let’s imagine it’s 2010 or so, and a company like Autotask pursues an initial public offering. (I repeat: This is a hypothetical event.)
If you were writing Autotask’s prospectus for potential investors, which one of these two approaches would you deliver:
Autotask is a leading provider of professional services automation (PSA) software.
Autotask is a leading provider of software as a service (SaaS) that empowers IT consultants across the world.
Wall Street understands SaaS and IT consultants. They don’t have a clue about PSA software. Based purely on marketing terms, I bet Autotask would receive more buzz and a higher initial valuation if the company used strong SaaS messaging in a potential IPO.
That’s pure speculation on my part. But I’m holding fast to my belief: Some of the world’s most successful SaaS companies are right here in the MSP industry. It’s time for the MSP ecosystem to recognize — and celebrate — that SaaS reality.
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