This article comes from Imran Anwar’s insightful talk, ‘From SaaS (software as a service) to SaaS (service as a software) to $aaS (results & outcomes as a service)’, at our 2023 Future of SaaS Festival, check out his full presentation here.

Ready to stop selling hollow promises and start delivering confirmed outcomes?

As someone immensely passionate about innovation, particularly in my role as Director Customer Success, Innovation, Digital Transformation, Sustainability, at Microsoft, I'm thrilled to share a vision I believe will fundamentally reshape how we do business.

This’ll be a shift from simply selling software solutions or services to directly providing guaranteed outcomes that create quantifiable value. Let me explain what I mean.

Instead of paying upfront for an offering with no certainty of results, imagine if you could purchase a specific outcome itself - like increasing revenues by $1 million or acquiring 50,000 new customers. 

That's the core idea behind "Outcomes as a Service" or "$aaS."

The technological forces finally converging to make this $aaS model viable are AI, cloud computing, big data analytics and automation. With their united progression, optimized providers can now precisely engineer and deliver confirmed outcomes rather than just offerings.

For leaders able to capitalize on this paradigm shift, the $aaS opportunities across industries are tremendously exciting. So let's explore this $aaS frontier together. 

Whether a fresh startup or established enterprise, it presents a radical new path to sustained value creation - if you commit to real, quantifiable outcomes over empty promises. 

The choice is clear: remain anchored to fading models, or sail boldly into our outcomes-driven future. The $aaS revolution has begun. What side of this evolution will you be on?

How to create a value-based dashboard for your users
Dashboards are often a place where impact can be had when it comes to design improvements. A dashboard done well can increase retention, utilization, and boost your NPS score, but how do you create a value-based dashboard and reap these rewards?
Future of SaaSPeter Loving

The convergence catalyzing change

At the core of this metamorphosis is what I've termed the "convergence of convergences." 

Computing power, connectivity, storage, virtualization, and AI have already merged to deliver supercomputer-grade tech into our pockets via smartphones. 

But the real paradigm shift is new advancements creating shock waves across multiple industries simultaneously.

AI-enabled crossover effects  

A prime example? Artificial intelligence upgrades allow radiologists to detect cancers from X-rays and MRIs with unprecedented accuracy. 

Such cross-disciplinary convergences can only intensify as AI develops, and this confluence of technologies has effectively level-set the playing field. 

Innovators and entrepreneurs from all backgrounds now have access to the same powerful digital canvas to create groundbreaking products, services, and solutions.