To go for a SaaS model or not, that is the question. If you’re a taxi entrepreneur then you must have been stuck on this question for an umpteenth number of times. And that’s not your fault, since it’s a big decision for your ride-hailing business startup, you must be 100 per cent sure and convinced before you take any decision.
This state of dilemma, uncertainty, and confusion can be tackled with the help of expert’s opinions, insights, and discussions. After spending years in the taxi industry, we have gained enough experience and expertise to assist taxi startups to take the right decisions at every stage.
Through this blog, we are helping the taxi startup owners to overcome their confusion and make the right decision. So, without any further ado, let’s begin.
SaaS: A startup-friendly taxi business model
SaaS (software as a service) is a software distribution model which is rapidly getting popular among the ride-hailing business startups due to its startup-friendly nature. SaaS is the right choice for startups since it overcomes all the major hurdles faced by start-ups in general.
The SaaS model helps taxi startup to overcome the below major hurdles:
- Budget Limitations
- Time Constraints
- Lack of Expertise
These problems are so big that they are not just limited to the taxi start-ups but are faced by startups across the region, industry, and niche.
So, it’s obvious that if any start-up can overcome these hurdles then they have already won half of the battle.
Read More: A brief overview of the ride hailing market in the Middle East.
The main reason behind rapid popularity of SaaS among the taxi startup is that it doesn’t require licensing, installation, hardware acquisition, and maintenance, since all of it will be taken care by the software provider (third-party provider).
These third-party hosts the applications on the cloud thus making it available to the business operators. It also enables anyone to subscribe to the software on a monthly and periodical basis.
In today’s day and age where timing has become so important, on-demand ride-hailing services prefer SaaS over buying the software. It’s because the SaaS distribution model comes with a plethora of benefits.
In the SaaS model, the solution providers give their clients network-based access to the application. It’s important to note here that the source code here remains the same for everyone. Whenever new updates and features are introduced, then they are rolled out to all the clients at once thus updating all the SaaS-based taxi software to the newest version.
In SaaS-model, the clients also enjoy the liberty to integrate their SaaS-based taxi software with any other software via APIs. As per the SLA (service level agreement), the client’s data may be stored in the cloud, locally, or in both.
SaaS for ride-hailing business is not just limited to these benefits. The list of benefits is quite long. Let’s have a look at it one by one.
Benefits that make SaaS perfect for taxi startups
Choosing SaaS for your taxi business comes with many benefits for all the stages which include pre, peri, and post-stage.
Start your ride-hailing business at a low initial capital
Initial capital is one of the major challenges faced by all the start-ups. This is also the element which increases the risk factor thus discouraging entrepreneurs to go ahead with their plans. If we talk about ride-hailing, then taxi entrepreneurs can either buy the entire software or can go with the SaaS model.
If you choose the former, then you’ll require a huge amount of sum for which you may have to face a lot of struggle. This sum will include the cost required to buy the software, money needed to rent or set up a server, and other additional costs.
On the other hand, if you choose the latter, then you can start your ride-hailing business from a low initial capital itself. With SaaS model, you’re billed once as per your billing cycle which can fortnightly, monthly, quarterly, etc. It means that you don’t need a huge sum of money to kick start your ride-hailing business.
Read More: How to start an e-hailing app in your city/country?
Also, in the SaaS model, you’ll only be billed for the number of trips, vehicles, drivers, and passengers that you have. This means that you’ll pay for the number of trips that you make. Nothing more, nothing less! Moreover, SaaS also eliminates costs associated with hardware installation and control maintenance.
Faster time to market
If you go for developing a ride-hailing solution from the scratch then it can take months and even years. This long time span can prove to be fatal for your ride-hailing startup since the ride-hailing industry is very dynamic and things might totally change in that time period.
Instead, you can get preconfigured, preinstalled, and ready-to-use cloud-based SaaS taxi solution. With this, you can start your ride-hailing business in the market with no downtime.
Maintenance
If you build your ride-hailing solution from the scratch, then you’ll require too many things at a time such as:
- Team of well-trained and skilled developers
- Infrastructure and office space
- Server management
Here you not only have to manage these but also bear the costs associated with it.
On the other hand, with the SaaS model, you don’t have to worry about any of the above-mentioned components as they are already taken care of by the solution-provider. The solution provider has a team of well-trained and experienced professionals which monitors your solution and manages the server.
Furthermore, with SaaS, you don’t have to bear the additional costs associated with these elements as its cost is already included in the subscription cost.
So, it’s safe to say that apart from saving money at the start, you will also save cost every month on office space, infrastructure, and the team. To give you a perspective, the cost required to manage an in-house team for developing a taxi solution from scratch is way more than the monthly subscription cost of a SaaS-based solution.
System reliability
Every taxi entrepreneur who wants to start their ride-hailing business wants to have a reliable system in place. However, if you’re building a taxi solution from the scratch, then you won’t be able to know about its reliability until and unless it’s fully developed. Even when it’s fully developed, there may be chances that it won’t be reliable and consistent.
There’s another easy option, where you can simply take a SaaS-based ride-hailing solution whose reliability and performance is tested and proven. For example, you can go for Yelowsoft’s ride-hailing solution which is also a SaaS-based solution. Here you can view Yelowsoft’s testimonials, clients, and success stories. These facts and data ensure that going for Yelowsoft’s SaaS-based solution is a safe choice.
High scalability
Another reason why a SaaS-based solution is perfect for the ride-hailing startup is its high scalability. The SaaS-based solution enables clients to integrate third-party tools via APIs for analytics and marketing purposes.
Furthermore, it also facilitates you to scale up your taxi business. For this, all you have to do is simply upgrade the subscription plan by adding more number of drivers and vehicles in the same system. One major advantage of a SaaS-based solution is that you don’t need new software or license to scale up your taxi business. Similarly, a SaaS-based solution also enables you to scale down your taxi business at any point in time.
Comes with universal features
SaaS-based solutions are developed in such a manner that any taxi entrepreneur hailing from any part of the world can use it for its taxi business. That’s the reason why it has all the required basic as well as advanced features which every taxi business needs irrespective of the country.
So, if you go for a SaaS-based taxi solution, then you also get a feature-rich ready-made solution. Whereas, in case if you develop a solution from the scratch, then you have to integrate all those features by yourself which can be a time-consuming and difficult task.
Auto-upgrades
The SaaS-based solution providers also update their solution by introducing product updates on a regular basis. These product updates are either new features or a change in the system to fulfil the market requirement.
These changes are rolled out to each solution. All you have to do is simply update the system to get the new version. Another advantage of SaaS-based solution is that unlike in the case of the one-time solution, here you don’t have to spend any extra amount for the server maintenance.
Conclusion
As discussed earlier, time, money, and expertise are the three factors that play a pivotal part in any ride-hailing startup’s success. And SaaS-based solution is such that it can help any taxi startup to leverage these factors for their own benefit.
I hope this blog has made the picture quite clear for all the taxi entrepreneurs out there. SaaS is the way to go in today’s day and age which requires you to be quick, smart, and technologically advanced.
If you’re looking for a SaaS-based taxi solution provider to kick start your business then Yelowsoft is the way to go. Yelowsoft is a robust and advanced SaaS-based ride-hailing solution which comes with all the cutting-edge features and state-of-the-art technology.
Yelowsoft also has a team of extremely experienced and skilled professionals that can resolve your queries at any time and help your taxi business to grow by providing you with their valuable tips and insights.
One thing that makes Yelowsoft stand out is that it takes care of your brand image. Yelowsoft provides a white-label solution in the truest sense. It’s because you can rebrand the Yelowsoft’s SaaS-based solution with your logo and branding UI.
It’s important to understand that the other SaaS-based solution provider doesn’t provide complete branding whereas Yelowsoft provides its solution with your complete branding. Yelowsoft’s SaaS solution will give you the feel of a hosted solution. If you want to know more about Yelowsoft’s solution, then you can contact its representatives at any time.
