Surveys show that SaaS applications provide many benefits to end-users. Typical improvements offered by a modern SaaS platform include automatic synchronization of data among multiple devices, better collaboration with peers, reduced dependency on email, improved user interfaces, better search capabilities, and a better ability to customize the user interface . A logistics worker’s career success now depends on strong expertise with popular SaaS WMSs, TMSs, ERPs, and CRMs. Today organizations often make knowledge of their SaaS tool a specific job requirement when hiring.

I just finished reading Hit Refresh by Microsoft’s CEO, Satya Nadella, and I couldn’t help drawing parallels between his stories and the challenges we face as logistics providers. If you’ve kept up with your technology news, you will know that a huge amount of corporate IT spending has been shifting to cloud services. Nadella has led Microsoft’s transformation from a software developer to a cloud provider. Microsoft is now generating about $20 billion in annual revenue from cloud.