January 28, 2025
SMBs need to take
back their data –
why small business
analytics matter
There are still some people who think being data-driven matters for big companies only. Nothing could be further from the truth, as proven by research published last spring by Amazon Web Services (AWS).
AWS found that when small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) use data strategically they outperform competitors and are more “profitable and cost-efficient in the face of uncertainty, market turbulence, and evolving customer expectations.”
In other words, small business analytics are a critical success factor. Being data-driven isn’t just something SMBs might want to be: it’s a critical survival and success factor.
The trouble for many SMBs is that the data they need isn’t easily accessible. Why? Because a lot of it is sealed up in disparate, siloed SaaS applications.
Stuck in SaaS
If your company is like other SMBs, you may rely on SaaS solutions for CRM, accounting, ERP, e-commerce, logistics or other business functions. According to the 2024 BetterCloud State of SaaS Ops report, 70% of business apps used today are SaaS-based. That’s expected to jump to 85% this year.
There are plenty of good reasons for this “SaaS appeal”. SaaS solutions are flexible and scalable, require little if any in-house IT infrastructure, and are relatively affordable on a subscription basis. With them, you can access mature business process capabilities out of the gate.
Those processes, of course, depend on data. And while you can do a lot with the specific data stored within a particular SaaS solution, there’s no easy way to aggregate or cross-analyze data across different SaaS solutions to extract productivity-, efficiency- or revenue-enhancing insights.
So while SaaS apps are powerful business enablers, they can also stand in the way of being holistically data driven, limiting access to the small business analytics you need.
Set your data free
It’s hypothetically possible to manually extract, duplicate, integrate and archive SaaS data. But the process would be cumbersome and perpetually out-of-sync with apps’ real-time usage. Not to mention that few if any SMBs have the internal resources to devote to that kind of task.
The more practical alternative is a secure, automated, software-based solution purpose-built to pull data out of individual SaaS apps and integrate it in a centralized repository. The resulting integrated archive can then be automatically maintained in parallel with ongoing use of SaaS solutions, so that you can continue to benefit from each individual business process app.
Small business analytics with broader perspective and deeper insights
What specifically could you expect to gain by centralizing your SaaS data? To start with, a more holistic view of your operations. By seeing across functions and running small business analytics on the data generated in each area of activity, you can uncover opportunities for efficiencies, productivity gains, cost savings and more. You can amplify that by developing rich dashboards and with advanced analytics to support strategic decision-making — for example, identifying sales trends or operational bottlenecks.
You can also use consolidated data to automate workflows, streamline processes and win back productive time (while delivering better, more responsive customer service). Most importantly, when you’re working with your own datasets, you can tailor how you use them to your own existing business processes — unlike inside SaaS applications, where you typically have to work the way the software is designed.
Consolidating SaaS data also makes it easier to switch SaaS platforms as your business needs change. That helps you avoid vendor lock-in, getting stuck with a particular solution over the long term because all your data is held by the SaaS provider.
If you’re interested in repatriating and centralizing your SaaS data so you can run tailored small business analytics and be more data driven, let’s talk. I’d be happy to talk through your specific needs. Book a meeting here to get the conversation started.