{"id":9450,"date":"2017-09-12T16:20:06","date_gmt":"2017-09-12T14:20:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chartmogul.com\/blog\/?p=9450"},"modified":"2023-08-10T17:10:55","modified_gmt":"2023-08-10T15:10:55","slug":"invisible-saas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chartmogul.com\/blog\/invisible-saas\/","title":{"rendered":"Invisible SaaS and the dawn of zero-engagement software"},"content":{"rendered":"

Point Nine Capital\u2019s Clement Vouillon recently introduced us<\/a> to the idea of “SaaS enhancers”, <\/i>micro SaaS tools that we don\u2019t interact with in a single web app or dashboard:<\/p>\n

These tools enhance existing SaaS products. It ranges from pure platform plugins such as the Trello one\u200a\u2014\u200awhich will work on Trello only\u200a\u2014\u200ato services like Clearbit or Grammarly which make their core service available on several existing platforms instead of forcing their users to adopt a new interface.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

SaaS enhancers are like tiny super-useful packaged up pieces of functionality that exist within the web apps we already use. You could call them \u201cintegrations\u201d, but they\u2019re really something more than this. The term \u201cintegration\u201d suggests some form of add-on to an existing service \u2014 these enhancers exist solely<\/i> as an integration. Some examples Clement gave are Grammarly, Clearbit and several Trello add-ons.<\/p>\n

This idea that subscription services are penetrating more deeply into the parts of our lives where they add can add highly-specific value is reflected in a lot of thinking among VCs and creators.<\/p>\n

But what about those services that don’t require any\u00a0<\/strong>user interaction at all? A category of SaaS that sounds altogether more\u2026 sinister.<\/p>\n

What do we mean by “invisible”?<\/b><\/h1>\n

There\u2019s a term that\u2019s currently popular in the consumer world that you might have heard: Ambient Computing<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Popularized by journalist Walt Mossberg<\/a>, Ambient Computing is a term given to the increasing number of tech solutions we interact with seamlessly through voice control or whatever is the most convenient way at that time (usually without a visual interface). Products like the Amazon Echo with its Alexa voice assistant are the embodiment of the Ambient Computing concept. Alexa, in many ways, is omnipresent<\/b> \u2014 all you need to do is call her name and she\u2019s ready to carry out your commands (or just tell you the weather).<\/p>\n

In the B2B world, while Ambient Computing does <\/i>offer some value (\u201cAlexa, how\u2019s my churn rate this month?\u201d), services aren\u2019t geared so much towards enhancing our lives.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

B2B services usually have the goal of improving some metric (\u201cdecrease your churn!\u201d) or providing some critical function within the business (\u201cdeliver SMS to customers!\u201d) or being a vital system of record for your information (\u201cone place for all your customer data!\u201d).<\/p>\n

The fact that we need to interact with and operate these services at all is proof that most software is just not good enough to achieve things by itself\u2026 yet. Allow me to explain.<\/p>\n

The perfect analytics platform<\/b><\/h2>\n

What does the perfect analytics platform look like?<\/p>\n

Well, most analytics software today has a value chain that looks something like this:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. [machine] Data input<\/b><\/li>\n
  2. [machine] Data processing<\/b><\/li>\n
  3. [machine] Compute metrics & analysis<\/b><\/li>\n
  4. [machine] Present data to user<\/b><\/li>\n
  5. [user] find insight<\/b><\/li>\n
  6. [user] determine action<\/strong><\/li>\n
  7. [user] take action<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    In fact, some modern analytics platforms are successfully shortening this, automating more of the process on the machine side:<\/p>\n