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Written by: Tosh Tambe, VP of Business Transformation and SaaS Strategy, Siemens Digital Industries Software

As products become smarter and more connected, they require a multi-domain engineering approach that often includes mechanical, electrical, electronics and software technology. This leads to increased design complexity. Additionally, it’s not just that the product design is complex; the engineering, validation and manufacturing requires putting together multi-level systems of systems.

On top of that, consumer demands for customization and personalization are rising on a backdrop of growing market and supply-chain volatility. The expectation, regardless of the size of the company or overall market conditions, is to develop viable, competitive products in an increasingly shorter amount of time.

To succeed, companies of all sizes must be agile, flexible and nimble, so that they can turn complexity into their competitive advantage. As the future of work continues to lean toward more remote workers and contractors, companies also need flexibility of access and scale.

Software as a Service (SaaS) and cloud-based digitalization can provide this flexibility so that companies can invest in product development and optimization instead of IT infrastructure optimization.

Challenges Facing Smaller and Medium-sized Companies

When building complex products in a complex environment, the IT infrastructure must be able to accommodate quick interdependent changes. Therefore, it is imperative to have flexibility in development capabilities, deployment and computational power. Smaller companies often lack the many resources—such as people, capital or facilities—that large enterprises have to accommodate such changes.

In spite of limited infrastructure, cloud-based digitalization can give these businesses the flexibility to thrive. It can connect design, engineering and manufacturing information from various sources so users can find it, use it and act in a timely manner. It can also help small and medium-sized companies verify and validate their design options faster in order to speed up time to market.

When companies have the capabilities to use a comprehensive digital twin, which can mirror the real-world physical products and physical processes, they can boost their efficiency by ensuring everyone from product developers to manufacturers can operate in a closed loop of rapid innovation.

Being able to reach an optimal solution faster enables teams to explore more opportunities to innovate and can open up a greater competitive advantage in the marketplace.

Another challenge smaller companies face is working with distributed teams, internally as well as people and organizations distributed globally in different time zones through the supply-chain. With limited resources, they must find a way for these teams to work together and share information so that all users have a single source of truth. This presents the challenge of providing the distributed users access from any device and any location while ensuring security and IP protection.

Industrial businesses often need additional capacity for a limited period of time during the product lifecycle. Unlike larger businesses that can better balance these requirements across product lines, smaller companies are challenged with scaling their resources up and down. They struggle with having to expend capital resources on buying hardware or software that will likely be used sporadically, or to have talent on-hand when not needed. It doesn’t make sense to invest in hiring talent or upgrading technology for a short-term project.

Saildrone is a company that designs, manufactures and operates a fleet of uncrewed surface vehicles to provide data solutions for maritime security, ocean mapping and ocean data. They have been able to conquer many of the challenges smaller businesses face by finding the ability to innovate faster and more collaboratively across their entire organization using the Teamcenter X Cloud SaaS solution.

They have recognized that their products have become more complex, so by easily integrating mechanical and electronic design information, Saildrone has improved data and collaboration between disciplines. They have also leveraged the cloud for greater levels of accessibility, flexibility and scalability, keeping their IT infrastructure light and putting their trust in a secure SaaS solution.

Saildrone is at the leading edge of technology, giving them the digital tools to compete, build complex products and ensure sustainability in a maritime environment which is subject to stringent rules and regulations.

By taking solutions to the cloud, companies can take the next leap forward in their productivity and gain additional competitive advantage — the barrier of entry is lower without increasing IT costs.

Accelerating Innovation

For a company like Harsh International, a manufacturer of farm machinery and other industrial equipment, SaaS has been a proven strategy for reducing design and development times. When collaborating on their newest truck hoist design they used Solid Edge 3D CAD software, which they have used previously. This time, though, they used the hybrid SaaS version that includes cloud-based collaboration capabilities.

This decision meant product development teams could synchronize their files, which opened up the capability for users to view, measure and mark up models within the 3D space using a browser-based interface. What once took them three weeks to design and develop, now took them just three days.

Leveraging Xcelerator as a Service, Siemens’ SaaS offering, as the foundation of their digitalization strategy, companies like Harsh International are achieving their goals more quickly and efficiently.

What SaaS Means for the Future of Work

SaaS is both a licensing and a delivery model. Companies have more flexibility in licensing software though a subscription model and flexibility in access to capabilities delivered via cloud. Applications are hosted and managed by the software vendor, which minimizes the investment in infrastructure so that companies can spend on innovation rather than on hardware and administration.

Another advantage to SaaS is automatic updates, backups and security as part of the SaaS offering. There is a misperception that cloud-based access may not be secure, but reputable SaaS providers have stronger security expertise and processes to support their most security-sensitive customers; it’s a core tenet of their operation and infrastructure to stay competitive. While IT infrastructure security at a small business is supported by one or two people from a local talent pool, SaaS application providers invest heavily in creating a robust team of security experts, tools and processes.

Hence, the cloud is often a substantially more secure way to provide software access to the team.

Considering the accelerating pace of technology, it has never been more important for companies to stay current to remain competitive. SaaS provides an economical way to accomplish this. It’s an ideal approach for companies regardless of their size—but especially for SMBs and startups—because it provides instant access to innovation and equal opportunity to use the technology employed by the largest companies.

SaaS solutions enable companies to embrace digitalization, empowering them to get to market faster, turn complexity into their competitive advantage and thrive in an ever-changing marketplace. Most importantly, it allows SMBs to invest in their engineering and design teams to more effectively turn ideas into innovation.

To learn more about how smaller companies are taking advantage of cloud-based solutions, watch the webinar SaaS for Small to Medium Businesses: Leveling the Playing Field for Small Companies and Startups.

About the Author

Tosh Tambe is an experienced business leader with a demonstrated history of working in the information technology and services industry. He is skilled in leading through technological and organizational transformation with a bias for action and innovation, and has experience in building product and go-to-market strategy, leading R&D, Sales/Business development and Operations teams, and forging partnerships through CXO-level engagement. Tosh has a degree from The Wharton School of Business, University of Pennsylvania.