12 Innovate

In my previous blog I mentioned that there were possibilities to offer guarantees for users in case of bankruptcies of SaaS-providers. The reality is that most of those guarantees are not used. But know we see that the market does its work and that there are companies that fill in this gap.

So has the company ESCROW4ALL developed a service that offers more guarantees than until know was possible. ESCROW contracts are not suitable for the SaaS companies as I mentioned earlier. ESCROW4ALL solved partly this problem by offering a service where they sign an agreement with the SaaS-provider and the hosting-provider. De main part of the agreement is the guarantee that the hosting-provider paid for a period of 3 months for continuation of the service offered to the SaaS-provider. This offers the customers of the SaaS-provider the possibility to look for a definite solution during this period. It is not clear yet if every hosting-provider wants to accept a certain agreement due to the fact that the infrastructure changes during the course of this agreement. But it is certainly a step the right direction.
Another part of the agreement is that ESCROW 4ALL will do their upmost best to get all the relevant information and contact persons information so that in case of bankruptcies the right persons can be reached.
SaaS-providers can know give answers to the objections of their prospects. The SaaS-market becomes more adult. SaaS-providers need to be willing to invest in this service. In the end they will get either more sales and will close the deals more quickly. Furthermore customers are likely willing to pay for this service.

This type of service does not solve all the continuity issues. For instance the following two issues are not solved.
1.    SaaS-providers with their own hosting
If SaaS-providers do their own hosting, no SaaS-Ecrow agreement can be signed. This brings us back to the director carrier who will try to keep the organization alive as long as possible. Selling a working service is better than selling no service at all.
2.    Web services
More and more SaaS-companies integrate their service with third party web services. If those services are crucial for the customers of the SaaS-provider, a SaaS-Escrow needs to be signed also with those providers. This is not part of the offering of ESCROW4ALL, but who knows what the future brings.