The on-premise era

 

Back when software was only “on-premise” the landscape consisted in huge players dominating the different verticals with a horizontal approach (Microsoft, SAP…). For the users there was no such thing as choosing “my software stack”.

The first SaaS champions

Then internet penetration grew and the SaaS model started to make sense for businesses. The first big “SaaS” pure players got traction. They didn’t have an horizontal approach but rather a vertical one, covering many needs within this vertical.

Users started to have more choices.

 

The first SaaS explosion

As SaaS penetration grew (businesses of all sizes are ready to buy SaaS now) and as the technological barriers kept going down, many verticals saw an explosion of new players. These new startups very often focus on a more specific part of a vertical and offer products with better UX/UI than what the bigger players can do.

 

At that point users really had to start thinking about their SaaS stack and what they should use.