"From the first quarter of 2018, our goal is becoming clear: we are going to fight to the death on the SaaS track!"
The person who said this is Wang Hanchao, founder of i Place, who has been engaged in SaaS product development since 2013. He was a small man, but his expression was calm and firm.
This is at odds with the roller-coaster ride of SaaS over the past few years.
Around 2012, a significant number of SaaS startups began to enter the industry. The average financing amount of SaaS services was 37 million yuan, and the number of financing was 31; After a period of product development and user accumulation, and catalyzed by the capital tide, 2015 to 2106 began to show a blowout development. In 2015, the scale of SaaS market reached 38.2 billion yuan, the average amount of financing reached 169 million yuan, and the number of financing soared to 195. By 2016, almost all SaaS enterprises are frantically financing, expanding the recruitment of marketing team, a time of easy sales, sharing customers and other companies advertising is overwhelming, Dingding simply use free to break the practice of "enterprise service fee", "regardless of the cost to capture users, use big data to do value-added, Finally, "financial realization" becomes the unspoken business logic of SaaS enterprises.
Paradoxically, this logic didn't work in reality in 2017, and SaaS as a whole went back to the business intent of "how to provide value to the customer, and the customer is willing to pay for value". At this point, this round of SaaS wave in China returned to a rational logic, capital promoters are becoming more and more professional, said by the industry that the second half of SaaS enterprise services really began.
The return to reason is the beginning of our fight back
In 2013, Wang Hanchao left Sohu to lead his team into SaaS. 80% of the team of less than 50 people are technical background personnel, and Wang Hanchao is the chief product manager. He basically relies on his own hematopoietic ability to support the development of the company. His company i in place is very similar to the style of Wang Hanchao. He is rigorous and low-key, and has been upgrading products generation by generation at his own pace. Even though most SaaS enterprises focus on marketing, Wang Hanchao still puts all his energy and financial resources into product research and development, and his only marketing behavior is to attend business activities of partners. However, the purpose is to obtain the actual situation and problems in the management and operation of enterprises. Not only that, Wang Hanchao also refused to do other SaaS enterprises during this period of branding, refused to do customized projects for large enterprises to develop invitations. The reason is that it hurts the company's focus on product development.
"Doing projects and doing products are two concepts. If you do custom development for an enterprise, there is no fundamental change from the previous software development, and the customization of SaaS is to emphasize the breadth and depth of the enterprise scenario adaptation. Second, if the project cooperation for others to do OEM or customized development for enterprises, there is no way to concentrate on their own product research and development, so that more enterprises can use better products, because it is extremely complicated and long process to really use."
"Two rights and interests to take the heavy", Wang Hanchao as the direct person in charge of the development of the company, in front of commercial profits, to make such a choice is obviously not easy, but in his, it seems not difficult.
"SaaS companies should not only avoid going beyond the enterprise usage scenario, but also return to the essence of the product and not add too many impractical services. Larger, more extensive customization features to improve ease of use and market acceptance. This is the key factor for SaaS companies to break out."
The rest is king, with the product to prove that they are right
"But 2017 was a tough year for the company. It is not the performance level, because we have been solid product development, did not invest too much marketing, so the number of customers did not form an exponential growth, so that the annual revenue is relatively stable growth. The hard part is the direction of the future, especially as giants like Alibaba and Tencent move into enterprise services, what will the SaaS industry look like in China?"
According to new data released by IDG, China's SaaS market has entered a period of rapid growth, but compared with foreign countries, it is still in the early stage. SaaS or the whole enterprise service circuit, unlike 2C is a sprint, it is more like a long-distance race, the competition is patience, is a persistent battle and tough battle, what will the final race? How will it end? Who can predict clearly in the initial stage?
"In the past five years, we have seen some companies engaged in SaaS starting with OA, seeing Dingding.com addicted to the free model of users, forced to make a transformation, including the original hope to be a platform, but later returned to a specific management field. Not only do I lose customers, but I also lose time polishing the product."
"Ten years ago, when we were doing Sogou map, there were a lot of map companies to do map services for a certain enterprise, used in infrastructure, tourism and other large projects. Who would have thought that with the popularization of smart phones and the development of mobile Internet, each of us can't travel without maps today. Map from the enterprise service completely evolved into a 2C product, now looking back, many people will not understand the practitioners of the trance feeling, that is because the entire map industry has entered the 2C occupy oligopoly competition pattern - only Baidu and Autonavi two giants, naturally clear."
"So doing SaaS today is like doing maps 10 years ago. Is it free and paid? Is it depth vertical or 2B product 2C, generalization? Whether a single function is strongly powerful or emphasizes the synergy of the overall operation, the whole industry is constantly exploring and discussing in 2107."
It is normal for every startup to constantly adjust its product direction, profit model and even corporate strategy, especially in the fast-changing Internet industry.
Wang Hanchao is the only one in the SaaS field that has not made a general adjustment on the management level of the company. If there is, it is the product that changes very fast. Now there are more than 50 modules, version 9.0.
As a result, COSS will refresh the understanding of SaaS
Despite the ups and downs of the SaaS track, i was always a steady runner, but when the competition really started in the second half of 2018, Wang Hanchao changed his normal state and began to enter the stage of fast running.
"At present, according to the analysis of SaaS application types in enterprises, the highest proportion of administrative office SaaS applications is 84.7%, and the proportion of marketing management SaaS applications is 60.1%. The basic core is differentiation around price, rather than differentiation of real product features."
"Enterprises need SaaS products that not only truly understand the characteristics of their own industry, can provide services to solve the pain points of the enterprise scene, but also in the process of enterprise operation, the most efficient and orderly operation process to cope with the daily market environment. However, there are few products in line with this standard in the market at present. In short, the domestic SaaS market is still a little impetuous, too shallow, need to sink down to deep cultivation.
"But where you go deep in the enterprise application scenario is going to be a key factor in the competitive advantage of SaaS companies, because all use scenarios are perfect, which is obviously bragging. Therefore, we first cut into the most core part of the enterprise - customer operation. Centering on customer operation and maintenance, all the people, money and things involved in the operation process of enterprises are incorporated into the digital management platform, breaking the barriers between traditional OA, CRM and ERP, carrying content marketing, customer management, order management, billing system and decision support system, and realizing vertical and horizontal management in the unified enterprise framework. Organizations run themselves like a spider web."
Wang Hanchao has no hobbies. His only hobby is to play golf. And in one year, from amateur to professional golf, his best score is 77. Rather than talent, he is a man whose ability to orchestrate small products is beyond average.
"Golf is about 'don't put the ball in the hole if you don't get it. The most common mistake beginners make is to hit the ball as far as they can, always feel that they try to force the ball straight to the hole, often two strokes later the hole is a little bit more interesting, but did not want to partner a beautiful cut directly placed the ball on the edge of the hole, a gentle push, into the hole, to protect the Par. At this time, you begin to worry, want to push the 'catch the bird', the result is big... There's still a chance to make Par, and then again, it's not going to happen, so you're out of rhythm. A good player plays every hole steadily, rather than trying to 'catch a bird' or 'eagle'. 18 holes in a game, the occasional high tide does not help you win, and sometimes you lose more strokes. The winner is the one who is focused and steady."
I know it well, and I use it well. Wang Hanchao spent five years focusing on the development of COSS cloud service platform. In five years, China's business environment and the competitive landscape of Chinese enterprises have changed dramatically. Batches of building - grade enterprises collapsed, batches of new enterprises rise and grow.
"In this process, we have found that product teams that focus on consumer experience and consumer operations are the type of companies that can grow and expand quickly, and only they can achieve absolute advantage in this fast competitive environment. The rest is to serve that purpose. The core concept of COSS cloud service platform is to make the operation of enterprises lighter, mobilize social resources, use mobile Internet technology to help Chinese enterprises to better let products and customers for a straight line, efficient link, get rid of the execution process of the operation of the poor, heavy and tired traditional operation, so as to achieve light, rapid growth of the beautiful vision."
Wang Hanchao says this is also his company's vision: to work with high-performing people to create a "light and beautiful" company.
Pessimistic idealist, is the best interpretation of Wang Hanchao, he always according to the worst plan to implement the best things. Therefore, we have reason to believe that the COSS service platform developed by him according to the operational pain points of Chinese enterprises will be just like the BOSS system of applied telecom enterprises in the past to fully assist the digital transformation of Chinese enterprises and lead the development direction of SaaS industry.
