Learn from the SaaS choices of OneOffice™ leaders: Part three—software development tools

The Situation: Enterprises valuing OneOffice™ outcomes are most likely to create business value through their software choices. They want their SaaS (software as a service) to deliver improved customer and employee experience, and they want to see how it makes outsourcing business processes easier. As part of our SaaS XXV research, we identified the SaaS choices made by these OneOffice enterprise leaders and compared them with those made by less mature tactical laggards. The focus in this instance is on software development tools.

How we identified the leaders and the laggards

We asked enterprise decision makers how SaaS is changing their business. We identified OneOffice leaders as those who agree or strongly agree with survey statements indicating SaaS improves employee experience, improves customer experience, and makes outsourcing business processes easier. These responses indicate the realization of outcomes indicative of greater maturity in the adoption and use of SaaS, thus a tighter alignment to the HFS OneOffice mindset.

In contrast, tactical laggards agree or strongly agree SaaS is changing how their business operates by improving the flow of information across the business, improving data and information access, improving security, encouraging the business to bypass IT, and making it harder to budget. These responses we identify as indicative of an enterprise that has not yet moved beyond the technical functionality of SaaS solutions and is missing how SaaS creates real-time “connections” between the company and its customers. We analyzed 411 responses and compared the strength of preference for the use of particular technologies by either leaders or laggards.

The gap in use between OneOffice leaders and laggards is at its greatest for GitHub and Atlassian; Microsoft is the universal leader

Our data—an enterprise customer subset of the overall SaaS XXV responses—shows the gap between leaders and laggards is at its greatest for GitHub and Atlassian. OneOffice leaders are working with Microsoft in 30% of our surveyed group (see Exhibit 1), but almost as many laggards (29%) are doing the same. Overall, OneOffice leaders are more likely to be using Microsoft, GitHub, and Atlassian than their rivals.

Exhibit 1: OneOffice leaders are most likely to be using Microsoft, GitHub, and Atlassian

Sample: N=411 responses from enterprise leaders, January 2022 SaaS XXV survey. The total is greater than 100% because some enterprises use more than one software development tool. Respondents were asked to select all that applied.
Note 2: Despite Microsoft’s 2018 acquisition of GitHub, we ranked the brands separately based on the variance in their Go-To-Market approaches, GitHub’s focus on open-source development, and Microsoft’s focus on development tools for the Azure environment.
Source: HFS Research, 2022

OneOffice leaders in Exhibit 2 applied their highest NPS (net promoter scores) to GitHub. In our graphics, net promoter scores range from -1.00 to +1.00, where 1.00 = 100%. Anything higher than 0.70 (70%) is usually regarded as outstanding, .50 to .69 (50%–69%) as strong, and .49 or lower as needing improvement. The average NPS across the software development tools category in our survey was .32 (32%).

OneOffice leaders gave their software development tools higher NPS on average than laggards. Our analysis found both laggards and leaders were likely to be more satisfied with their software development tools than their service provider partners were. Generally, performance is strong across the board, with GitHub proving exceptional.

Exhibit 2: Software development SaaS vendors should target scores greater than 0.7; they average 0.32

Sample: 411 responses from enterprise leaders, January 2022, SaaS XXV survey. Leaders gave Microfocus a 0 score on average; hence, no bar shows in the chart.
Source: HFS Research, 2022

OneOffice leaders plan to increase spending with their chosen software development SaaS across the board, but Microsoft appears set to benefit most. GitHub’s delivery of NPS for satisfaction is reflected in it taking the second spot for additional investment from OneOffice leaders. Atlassian completes the podium in this category.

Exhibit 3: OneOffice leaders are increasing their investment in leading software development tools faster than laggards are, suggesting the gap between leaders and laggards is likely to widen

Sample: 411 responses from enterprise leaders, January 2022, SaaS XXV survey.Only those with significant data are shown.
Source: HFS Research, 2022

The Bottom Line: OneOffice Leaders are placing their software development SaaS bets on Microsoft, but the message from enterprises is “could do better.”

Microsoft is the big beast in software development tools, just as it is in several SaaS categories. That gives it a head start on the investment question in Exhibit 3 since it begins from a huge install base. Potential and current customers should pay particular attention to the NPS supplied by OneOffice leaders in this category. GitHub is putting a smile on the faces of OneOffice leaders, while the message to Microsoft from the enterprise leaders in this survey—whether OneOffice leaders or laggards—is a clear “needs improvement.”

Read the results of our broader SaaS XXV survey here, and watch out for a SaaS XXV-based Software Development Snapshot coming soon.