More Case Studies / White Papers
Contributed by
David Mullens
As software moves increasingly to the cloud, it is perhaps worth pausing a moment and asking what rules one should set oneself in entrusting one’s data and business processes to a SaaS supplier.
- Business Functionality – does the supplier provide functionality that meets your business needs and in a way that keeps your investment in re-engineering your business (and perhaps your business partners’ business) at justifiable levels? Are they fixed in one place in the market or can they handle different needs? Many of the CRM suppliers for instance are very good at handling mass market campaigns and contact management, but are less good at single client sales strategies and the needs of an enhanced team-based sales approach.
- Future Plans – do they have a credible plan for developing new functionality that will enhance your business by increased automation or providing you with a competitive edge? For instance, the ability to provide your business in new markets such as EBay, or across the web in different languages, perhaps handling your payments for you.
- Security and Auditability– your business critical data will be held potentially in a number of business locations. If it is really critical to you (i.e. if downtime costs you money or if loss of data would damage your business) what Guarantees (legal or otherwise) do you have as to its availability? What physical access can you have to ensure that your data is being guarded properly and security is provided in the event of fire, flood, acts of terrorism or other disaster? What service levels are provided and what are the consequences for the supplier if the levels are not met?
- Responsiveness– to what degree is your supplier prepared to listen to your specific needs and change his solution to meet them?
- Integration– How easy to integrate is the supplier's solution? Can the service be easily integrated with other services or standard software packages, thus for instance, is a parts system easy to integrate into your back office SAP system - taking and receiving flows of information? Will a CRM supplier provide pipeline information that can be integrated into management reporting and forecasting systems?
- Business Awareness– is your supplier a generic technology provider, able to deliver a base platform at low cost; or a “business partner” understanding your business and the issues it generates. Why? – well, what skin do they have in the game - will they be able to satisfy your future needs?
- Documentation– what documentation is there of the service – both from the point of view of its usage, but also the business logic followed – so that if you need to move elsewhere or if the supplier fails you are protected?
- COSTS not PRICE– When looking at a SaaS provider it is easy to be misled by the PRICE – whereas a more sober assessment will look at the ongoing COSTS of the solution, including your own costs of modifying your business process to fit with the supplier’s solution, any staff training costs, any maintenance costs as your business evolves, and particularly any exit costs if you find that you have entrusted your critical business data to a supplier that doesn't meet your needs.