HFS coverage of SaaS just got even BETTER!

The Situation: HFS is expanding its software-as-a-service (SaaS) vendor coverage.

We have already announced our SaaS XXV initiative, ranking established vendors for business value, customer and partner voice, and alignment with the HFS One Office. We will be able to share insights with you within weeks. Now comes news of how we will cover the emerging challengers in SaaS.

Now we launch our new Hot SaaS initiative. The HFS Hot SaaS Vendors may not be featured in our SaaS XXV reports, but they are on our radar as having the vision and strategy to potentially impact and disrupt the market. We will be selecting Hot SaaS Vendors based on their distinctiveness, ecosystem robustness, client impact, financial position, and potential impact in our OneOffice and OneEcosystem Frameworks.

We are extending our commitment to SaaS coverage in recognition of the impact of emerging technologies on the enterprise services and software landscape. With deep, embedded analytics, APIs, and the rise of low-code, modern software makes it easier to interpret data and for users and development teams to quickly build more effective workflows.

In the HFS Pulse survey (H2 2021), more than 95% of respondents (600 Global 2000 leaders) agreed SaaS is disrupting outsourcing and delivering a better employee experience; the latter is an increasingly critical measure amid the ravages of The Great Resignation.

Keep track of emerging challengers to your incumbents with the Hot SaaS Vendors program

Just as enterprise leaders need to know how their incumbent SaaS providers rank against competitive options through the SaaS XXV, the forward-thinking leaders must stay informed of what is rising to challenge them. Our Hot SaaS Vendors’ profiles will provide the foresight you need and help you respond to elusive gaps existing solutions may not yet have closed. These Hot SaaS Vendors qualify for our selection if

• They are bold: Davids disrupting Goliaths—giant challenges or giant incumbents—they bring their own secret sauce (IP) with a fresh view of tackling the known or, in some cases, the unknown.
• They are viable: They are led by visionary leaders who’ve shown they can execute, and we’ve documented their business impact with real customers.
• They are full of spirit: They act like challengers—rattling cages, demanding attention, and pushing boundaries.
• They’ve made some money: These are SaaS vendors with revenues from $25 million to $200 million annually.

HFS will vet these disruptors. We required that they brief our team, provide two customer references, and articulate why they are a disruptive force in the market. Then, and only if they meet our criteria and we have spoken directly to their customers, we will share their story with you on HFSResearch.com.

Each quarter, we will include Hot SaaS Vendors in the HFS quarterly Hot Vendor cohort roll-ups in their own Hot SaaS Vendors section.

Introducing the Hot SaaS 100: Our expert team will scan the horizon and pick the Hot 100 you should be paying attention to

But that’s not all. As we dig deeper into the business value SaaS delivers, we recognize the need to extend our horizon scanning beyond the shortlist of those we will be able to strategically engage within the Hot SaaS program.

We want to give enterprise leaders an early steer with our new Hot SaaS 100, qualifying through HFS analyst recommendation. They may well go on to become Hot SaaS Vendors (and beyond) in time. Meanwhile, the Hot SaaS 100 represents a pre-qualified shortlist of emerging players beyond Hot SaaS Vendors and the established leaders of SaaS XXV, which both enterprises and Service Provider partners should pay attention to. You can expect us to publish the initial list in March 2022!

The Bottom Line: HFS will provide more SaaS insight for enterprise leaders and their partners.

We are looking at software differently. Our SaaS XXV initiative will tell you which of the leading SaaS providers are delivering maximum value creation to enterprises and offering robust services ecosystems to deliver this value.

The HFS Hot SaaS program and the HFS SaaS Hot 100 initiative extend our fresh look at SaaS to the emerging challengers. Watch out for more SaaS initiatives as HFS goes deeper in our pursuit of the insights to help your business grow.