The SaaS sector has experienced undeniable growth over the last decade. It has found applications in diverse sectors of commerce, both as a consumer service and in the B2B sector. Many businesses now use SaaS products, birthing the B2B SaaS sector, which is now full of established B2B SaaS companies and several startups.

We’ll be taking an in-depth look at this sector and some top companies operating currently within the industry. If you are new to B2B SaaS and how your business can benefit from the many potentials, we’ll begin by looking at the two terms, B2B and SaaS, separately, and then looking at the B2B SaaS sector itself.

B2B sales and marketing

Business-to-business, shortened as B2B, refers to the process of a company or business selling products or services to another company or business. It is parallel to business-to-consumer sales abbreviated as B2C. Business-to-consumer sales refer to the process where a business or a company sells its product directly to a consumer.

Just like B2C, standard B2B sales also have factors that determine its output factors like marketing. This is referred to as B2B marketing. B2B marketing also entails a lot of technicalities, and there are specialized B2B marketing teams in companies that deal with B2B sales. B2B sales come in three forms:

1. Supply sales

In this situation, a company sells consumables necessary for the efficient running of an organization to another company. The consumables can be employee workwear, equipment, or office supplies. Supply sales are like B2C businesses, the difference being that the quantity is more considerable. The authorization process also differs. A company can purchase up to 50 cartons of ink, for example. It will also require the authorization of the head of the organization or any other decision-maker in the organization.

2. Wholesale/distribution sales

This type of B2B sales occurs when a company sells essential materials or components that another company needs for its production or business. An example includes a plastics company purchasing recycled plastics from a recycling company. This company produces plastic products but needs to buy the materials they need from another company.

3. Service/software sales

 In this type of B2B sales, a service provider sells its service rather than a product. It also includes a company purchasing the software necessary to run their business from a software company. An example is when a company employs an external accountant slash auditor at the end of the year for book balancing. This is also the category where you find software-as-a-service.

4. Software as a service (SaaS)

Software-as-a-service is a service that allows organizations to use software hosted in the cloud by a service provider instead of downloading and installing it on their computers. The organization runs the software by connecting to the internet via a browser rather than running the software on their computers.

The software vendor may host the application on a third-party cloud host, or the software provider also host the application on their servers, which is the case with big SaaS companies like Microsoft.

There are three significant divisions of cloud computing, and SaaS is one of them. The other two divisions are infrastructure as a service (IaaS) and platform as a service (PaaS). B2C users also use SaaS, which is what differentiates it from PaaS and IaaS. An example of B2C SaaS is Netflix.

Because the application is not installed on the company’s system, the company does not have to worry about the maintenance and upgrade of the software. All they have to do is ensure constant subscription for the service.

B2B SaaS

We can define B2B SaaS from the earlier definitions of B2B and SaaS. B2B SaaS companies are companies that offer software to other companies as a service. This software is essential to the efficient running of the client company, usually by providing automated technology. SaaS helps businesses reduce expenses related to human resources.

Many businesses employ SaaS to increase performance in marketing, sales, and customer services, generating more revenue.

 Top B2B SaaS companies

There are countless B2B SaaS companies. Some of them create a niche for themselves and others exist together with the competition and try to outperform them. Below is a list of our top 10 B2B SaaS companies.

#1 Syncbnb

Several hotel aggregators like Hotels.com and Trivago provide hotels, rental homes, and B2Bs market the visibility essential to the thriving of their businesses. However, they also have a penchant for creating double bookings. This challenge is what Syncbnb tackles. With Syncbnb, hotels can easily avoid multiple bookings for the same rooms on different aggregators.

This valuable synchronization tool works by combining user input and advanced AI. Syncbnb can sync over 200 booking platforms on a single platform. It also features 2-way sync and has a near real-time response. It is easy to set up and use and also has an offseason mode for seasonal properties.

#2 Slack

Slack proclaims themselves ‘the smart alternative to email.’ Slack is a tool for collaboration and communication and is helpful for various operations and projects. It’s one of the fastest-growing SaaS applications in the market and has grown into a multi-billion dollar enterprise in four years.

  Slack allows users to send messages, create and organize chat groups and also have access to channels organizes by topics. It also allows for video conferencing, making it a favorite among freelancers and small enterprises.

#3 Userpilot

Userpilot is a cloud-based product experience software that allows businesses to personalize their user interface (UI). It also improves the user’s product adoption by setting up automated triggers that are behavior-driven. Because it’s versatile to work with a variety of user interfaces, userpilot can send user adoption ratings of applications soaring.

This makes it a valuable tool for software developers seeking to improve their product adoption and offer a smooth in-app experience to their clients. By integrating userpilot to their software, developers can improve their user experience within minutes instead of weeks.

#4 Boxxstep

Boxxstep is a Buyer Relationship Management (BRM) software that allows B2B sales teams with relationship management, opportunity planning, and sales optimization. It’s an invaluable tool that helps B2B sales professionals plan their ongoing sales strategies and improve their client acquisition.

The software provides an array of features to foster easy collaboration between sales team members, which results in improved management of buyer relationships. Boxxstep’s design features a user-friendly dashboard and graphs to aid visualization. It emphasizes factors like management lines, buyer roles, and seniority. These factors allow the sales team to decipher who to target at each phase of the buying process.

#5 Passbase

Passbase is a SaaS that provides business operations with bank-level identification. It integrates seamlessly with any application or website. It also features liveness detection, facial recognition, authenticity checks, and information extraction incorporated in the engine. These features ensure that counterfeit documentation is always discovered.

Passbase is entirely self-sovereign, and users can upload legal government documents safely for verifiable and secure user identification. It boasts a database of over 6000 documents, further ensuring factual verification. Users speedily receive updates as they consistently update information on existing cases.

#6 Shiperd

With almost every aspect of commerce having experienced a touch of the 21st century, shipping is one aspect that still feels obsolete. Many processes, like paperwork, are still done physically. Shiperd seeks to remedy the situation, ushering shipping into the new century, with all its perks. It is a cloud-based shipping management tool that removes the hassles of physical paperwork and quotes chasing that makes shipping a lengthy and strenuous process.

Shiperd introduces automation to the shipping process and allows you to manage paperwork online and compare existing freighter quotes. You can also track your shipment’s progress on the software. Because shiperd was designed for seamless integration with existing workflows, you don’t have to worry about adjusting current processes to suit the new tool.

#7 Anaplan

Anaplan is a cloud-based business planning platform named after the company that developed it. This software finds applications in almost all departments of an organization. The name was coined from two words, “analysis” and “planning”. It allows you to make real-time, data-driven decisions that result in the progress of your business by offering organizational transparency.

Anaplan works by using Hyperblock, a patented in-memory calculation, and a database engine. All a customer has to do is upload data to the Anaplan server. They can quickly analyze and organize various data from human resources, finance, sales, and other sectors of business operations.

#8 Academy Ocean

Academy ocean is a learning management system (LMS) that helps software developers teach their consumers how to use their products. A learning management system is an application used to design, execute, and assess a precise learning process. Academy ocean achieves this by creating courses with interactive videos, texts, and images.

They aim to ensure that customers can use their client’s software to its maximum potential. This SaaS product is easy to use and boasts a high rating from its users. It has several features and packages, like customer onboarding, employee training, Partner training, and certification.

#9 Datamammoth

Datamammoth focuses on offering high-quality leads to businesses. It boasts over 20 million contacts within its database, with information like emails and phone numbers. One essential factor for any business is how they can leverage data. This is even more essential in the highly competitive B2B sector.

Datamammoth offers leads you can sort based on factors like their location, title, and the company they work for. They have giants like Google, Air BnB, and Apple among the list of their clients.

#10 WorkChain

WorkChain is a payroll management system built on Blockchain technology. It speeds up the payment process of employees, ensuring they get their money quickly. This SaaS shows how automation can become a highly effective tool for payroll management.

All the employee does their shift is over, is to input the number of hours they worked. WorkChain verifies the information and releases their earnings instantly into the employee’s WorkChain wallet.

#11 AppSumo

AppSumo is a website that offers a variety of software tools and services at a discounted price. They partner with tech companies to provide the latest and best SaaS products. The enticing deals on offer daily make AppSumo a favorite for many businesses.

This SaaS seeks to provide the tools necessary for startups to drive their companies forward. They have the strapline; “the tools you need to grow your business, shouldn’t put you out of business.” companies that use AppSumo’s services can save their businesses thousands.

#12 Espressite

Espressite provides businesses the most important marketing tool they need, a website. The 21st-century advancements have ensured that businesses need an online presence if they want to grow. Every business has a potential customer online waiting to be connected with.

For small-scale businesses without resources, time, or expertise to build a website, Espressite offers a solution. They use a sophisticated AI to develop a website for you after you answer a series of binary questions. The software is so fast that it can build you a website in roughly the time use for your coffee break. The AI software uses your answer to the binary questions to design a website suitable for you.

Advantages of SaaS

  • Easy Access: The most compelling benefit of employing SaaS applications is that it doesn’t require much from the computer in terms of specifications. All you need is a good browser and an internet connection. The easy access to an internet connection in urban areas means SaaS is also easily accessible.
  • Cost-effective: Because businesses do not need to install these applications on computers, they are spared the cost of purchasing hardware like computers and servers. The cost of maintenance of both hardware and software is also eliminated. SaaS products also spare their clients the hassles of fixing bugs in the software.
  • Flexible Payments: When a company purchases a B2B Saas, they have different payment options to choose from, for example, monthly, quarterly, or yearly. This offers a preferable option, unlike that provided for purchasing and installing the software. Here, the business will have to pay at once for the product, which may be expensive.

    With SaaS, the business can structure itself to run on scheduled operating expenses, which will help control costs better as budgeting becomes predictable. The company has the option to cancel their subscription anytime they want to cut recurring costs.
  • Automatic updates: Another significant advantage of SaaS is that the hassle of procuring updates to the software is eliminated. The service provider updates the software when due. The providers always try to ensure that the operations of their business customers are not affected by the update process. Since the business doesn’t bother about updates, it saves them human resources in the IT department.
  • Scalability: Every business aims to grow. Every business owner wants to see measurable parameters that point to the growth of their business. As your business grows, you will need to increase your staff. This may mean an increase in the number of users of your business software. With SaaS, the company won’t purchase additional software licenses for the new users or need to get more server space.

    You just upgrade your existing subscription on the SaaS to accommodate the new intakes. This is also beneficial for your business if it experiences strong off seasonal trends because you can easily cut down subscription costs during the offseason.
  • Very Resilient: SaaS provides resilience for your business, which is another significant advantage. Because your IT infrastructure and data are in cloud storage in a remote location and handled by the service provider, disasters or damages within your business premises can not cripple your business.

    Whatever the crisis is, you can quickly resolve it with a minor hitch and the business back up and running from another site. All that it requires is that the new location has internet access.

Disadvantages of SaaS

  • Poor data security: Security is a significant challenge with SaaS for companies intending to use SaaS-based software. You must resolve issues like access and identity management before choosing to trust any third-party service with sensitive data belonging to your company.

    You should pay extra attention to accessibility from mobile devices. If your company uses multiple SaaS services, remember deactivating a former employee’s data may become strenuous.
  • Challenge of regulation compliance: It is more challenging to adhere to the government’s regulations on data protection when you keep your company’s data with a third-party service provider. Ensure that you know the regulations that apply to your business and the software you seek before choosing a service provider.

    You should also ask critical questions from the prospective service provider and resolve any inconsistencies through the process. It would help if you create in advance a solution that adequately tackles any data leaks or violations, should they occur.
  • Limited control: When a company operates with on-premise software, it has more control over the application, can make adjustments as it sees fit. This is not the case with SaaS products. The control lies with the service provider, a third party.

    Your company cannot decide when to upgrade the software or change some function of its function. That decision lies solely with the third-party service provider.
  • Contractual obligations: Contractual obligations may become an issue, especially if your company deals with data. This is because the contractual obligation for a prospective customer and the SaaS that hosts your company’s data may contrast. For example, the terms of confidentiality of the software may restrict your company from selling specific data to a prospective customer.
  • Burdensome data mobility: The SaaS product market is full of startups, many of which do not have the requisite experience and ability to survive in a highly competitive environment. In the event of a failure, or should you wish to change your SaaS provider, transferring your company’s data to another service provider can be cumbersome.

    You should always be prepared for the possibility and plan an exit strategy. However, such a move can be arduous because data transfer can be limited by local standards.
  • Low performance: Browser-based SaaS applications that run with an internet connection may have performance-related issues. This is because, unlike applications installed on the computer, or those operating via the company’s corporate LAN, SaaS applications are subject to internet connection strength.

    This means that until internet connection speed stops being a challenge, some operations will function better on SaaS applications than others. It is crucial for companies seeking to use SaaS products to invest appropriately in reliable and fast internet connections to negate this issue. You should also employ tools that measure application performance, to know how the SaaS applications are performing per time.
  • Cumbersome software integration: Software integration is a challenge that arises from combining multiple SaaS applications. You may also encounter the challenge when combining a SaaS application with an existing in-house application. The application programming interface (API) of these different apps may not integrate properly. This can affect efficiency and productivity. It is essential to always carry out compatibility checks with all applications involved before deciding.

Conclusion

As many businesses continue to migrate from human-resources-driven processes to automated processes to increase efficiency, the B2B SaaS sector keeps experiencing rapid growth. There are several benefits to using B2B SaaS products for your business.

Because there are several B2B SaaS companies offering the same service, you get the chance to choose from different options. This ensures that whichever service provider you choose, they’ll offer a product most suitable for your business.