How Development Teams Buy SaaS

Over the last decade, most organizations have transformed into software companies. As Marc Andreessen famously said, “Software is eating the world, in all sectors. In the future, every company will become a software company.” Additionally, you often hear expressions like, “In the application economy, software developers reign supreme.” And yet, there is a persistent stereotype that executive management holds all of the power in how organizations evaluate and purchase technology. We wondered: is this still true? Do developers and technologists actually hold more power now? Can the way a company buys technology to be a competitive advantage?

To uncover the answers, Auth0 partnered with SD Times to survey developers, managers, and executives in application development across the globe. We discovered their views on the importance of SaaS components to their teams and on how they research, evaluate, and purchase these platforms. All of the research findings have been pulled together into the Auth0 Report: How Development Teams Purchase SaaS. Here are a few of the insights we found:

• Companies that innovate fast (speed/frequency of releases) use SaaS components far more often than those that don’t.

• Outsourcing authentication can help companies reduce their time to market.

• Company size does not have a large impact on how they research third-party SaaS components.

• Developers initiate 34% of SaaS component purchases, which is slightly higher than both technology management or technology executives.

• Developers care greatly about being consulted in SaaS component purchase decisions. It impacts both job satisfaction and productivity.

• These are just a few of the insights for the How Development Teams Purchase SaaS report; you can download the full research report here.