AWS Marketplace named a “Leader” in Forrester New Wave: SaaS Marketplaces report

The Forrester New Wave™: SaaS Marketplaces, Q2 2020 report names AWS Marketplace as a Leader in SaaS cloud marketplaces. The report evaluates the eight most “significant providers” in the industry across 10 criteria. Each vendor is scored as differentiated, on par, needs improvement, or no capability across those criteria. Forrester rated AWS Marketplace as differentiated in the due diligence and assurance, buyer interface, transacting, contract terms, management console, and roadmap criteria. The report states that AWS Marketplace is “well suited to procurement execs and developer teams.”

“AWS has broken new ground in areas that procurement cares about and offers a new way to streamline SaaS buying and thereby increase efficiency while lowering risk,” the report states. “AWS Marketplace will also appeal to AWS developers, who like deeply integrated add-ons in areas such as security.”

Forrester also states that AWS provides “advanced features relevant for procurement in areas such as contracting.” AWS Marketplace offers standardized license terms, which allow you and your seller of choice to quickly align on contractual requirements and accelerate transactions. Private Offers allow for streamlined negotiation of custom terms and pricing and reduce friction in your procurement process. Procurement System Integration helps you centralize SaaS purchase approvals through your preferred procurement system, such as Coupa, so you can increase visibility into order compliance, billing, and budgets.

Benefits of SaaS marketplaces

To me, the consistent theme throughout the report is the importance of SaaS marketplaces in simplifying and governing SaaS procurement. SaaS marketplaces help to unlock the benefits of SaaS, mainly easy, governed access to software tools. They also help your organization maintain governance and visibility into software charges. As the report points out, “With its continued growth, many applications executives find themselves dealing with SaaS sprawl — which can result in issues such as excessive costs, redundant functionality, and increased security and compliance risk due to improper vetting. SaaS marketplaces provide a way to alleviate these issues while still supporting business-led purchasing…”

I also noticed that SaaS marketplaces are moving away from their original role as just a place to buy software. They are beginning to transform organizations’ software supply chains. Transaction and contracting processes can require repetitive negotiations, complex vendor onboarding, and many internal approvals. That means your builders can wait months for the software they need to drive growth and development. SaaS marketplaces now offer features that streamline transactions and improve contracting for both buyers and sellers. These features increase efficiency, shorten procurement cycles, and support speed and innovation within your organization.

Next steps

Read about the latest feature release, SaaS Contract Upgrades and Renewals. This feature helps you scale SaaS usage to meet business needs and streamline the way you purchase SaaS in the cloud.

Read the full Forrester report: The Forrester New Wave™: SaaS Marketplaces, Q2 2020.

Visit here to find out how to sell your software in AWS Marketplace.