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With over 600 customers signed in a short period of just six months, SaaS solutions aggregator, Jamcracker, has quickly emerged as one of the largest players in the Indian SaaS market
By Srikanth RP, NC, October 22, 2009, 1100 hrs
As an aggregator of different SaaS solutions from different application providers, Jamcracker has seen rapid adoption of solutions offered by its partners through its network. In the last six months, the company has signed up more than 600 customers, for SaaS based solutions offered by its partners. Majority of the company’s customers are from the SMB segment—a market that is made of over 6 million Indian enterprises, contributing to 42 percent of India’s total exports.
This is a huge untapped market, and few vendors have succeeded because most solutions such as ERP and CRM applications are perceived to be expensive by companies in the SMB segment. By offering a portfolio of affordable SaaS based products and backing it up with relevant support, Jamcracker has succeeded in creating a niche that has resulted in a win-win situation for both product vendors and end customers.
For example, Delhi Freight Corporation, a mid-sized transportation company earlier relied on manual excel sheets to track its trucks and cargo. When the company evaluated the cost of on-premise software, it found out that the proposed fleet management solution would mean 3 months of development activity and 1 month for implementation. The cost proposed was Rs 10 lakh and 35 percent annual maintenance fees. The TCO for a 3-year period was Rs 17 lakh.
Compared to the above solution, the SaaS Fleet Management solution offered by Jamcracker took a development time of just 15 days, a one–time setup fee of Rs 1.5 lakh, and a monthly subscription fee of Rs 5000. The 3 year TCO for the SaaS solution was Rs 3.3 lakh. The difference between the on-premise and SaaS solution is a mammoth Rs 13.7 lakh. Having chosen the SaaS based model, the company has quickly migrated from a process based on manual sheets to a complete browser-based fleet management solution within a period of two weeks.
Another customer that has benefited from the SaaS model is Headstart School, which has gained more than 64 percent savings thanks to its decision to go in for a Student Information System based on a SaaS model.
Says M Laxmi Narayan (Lux) Rao, Marketing Director, Global Sales Programs, Jamcracker, “The economic climate has spurred the adoption of SaaS based solutions. We are signing up more than 50 customers every month. Popular product categories include messaging, anti-virus solutions, CRM, HRMS and online backup services.”
IT Supermall in the cloud
Lux says that the company would like to position Jamcracker’s platform as an ‘IT Supermall in the cloud’ wherein leading retailers display their wares, and customers walk in to pick the product they want. A self-provisioning feature allows SMBs to subscribe to the service they want, with Jamcracker taking care of help desk services, and billing and collections support.
For product vendors (especially startups), it opens new opportunities for doing business. Lux says that for a small ISV, the leap in business is approximately eight times in two quarters. This is because besides the extensive distribution network of resellers in international markets, Jamcracker also provides the ISV with sales support.
SMBs who subscribe to multiple applications on Jamcracker’s platform, just need to go to Jamcracker’s help desk to resolve any problem. “With an integrated service, SMBs have only one throat to choke. We are fully responsible for every product we offer through our platform,” says Lux.
Targeting new horizons
With more than 50 services and about 100 variants of products offered by its partners on its platform, Jamcracker is now looking at new business avenues that will further push adoption. These include exploring non traditional channels such as telecom service providers. “Telecom service providers have access to thousands of customers. By partnering with us, they can deliver business applications, security offerings and even backup services via a subscription model, just as they do for their traditional telecom services,” explains Lux.
The timing is appropriate as telecom service providers in India are keen to increase their revenues from non-voice and value added services, as margins from voice have been on a downward spiral due to increased competition.
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