Today’s Business Requirements For SaaS
Posted on Tue, Apr 05, 2011
By Frank Cellucci
According to Wikipedia the idea of “Software as a Service”, or “SaaS”, has been with us for just under a decade. The common thread in defining SaaS has been that it provided integrated delivery of software over the cloud with some type of subscription payment option. The composition of that cloud varied. It could be public via the Internet, private through wholly owned communication hardware over some type of leased carrier transport, or a hybrid combination of public and private. Also contracted through a Managed Service provider SaaS eases the IT Management overhead for the orgaization. SaaS has now evolved into a mature concept for software delivery.
The core value proposition being that with a SaaS solution, there were less up front costs, less ongoing maintenance cost, and upgrades and improvements made over time were part of the service that the subscription fee paid for. This is an improvement over conventional installed software that took more time and more money to get started. Also, even though you paid annual maintenance fees, traditional software was rarely updated and when it was it usually came at significant implementation and downtime cost.
Today software delivered over the Internet as something you subscribe to rather than purchase up front is fully accepted as mainstream. The reality is that before long the workforce will have only known about software delivered in this way. Having to install and maintain software will be the exception and you had better have a legitimate business driver for incurring the additional cost associated with traditionally installed software.
With this evolution in the way we deliver and use software we should rethink what SaaS is and how we characterize it. Requirements of “Software as a Service” need to be thought of outside of just the delivery model. SaaS should be:
- Affordable – Affordability is critical to any solution and SaaS is no exception. If the software that you are considering is too expensive to be available to everyone in the organization who needs it then it is cost prohibitive and not a good solution for the organization.
- Simple – In order to be “Software as a Service” it needs to be easy to use. It should be intuitive. Users should be able to focus on what their job requires them to focus on and not processes and procedures for an application.
- Available - It needs to be accessible to users through various browsers, devices, and platforms. Mobile access for iphones, android, ipad and blackberry for SaaS applications is no longer something that would be great to have. It is a requirement.
- Secure – This is a necessity. It is a must have. Security is required at every level of movement in the life cycle of the data. Compromising data security should never be a trade-off.
- Reviewable – There need to performance parameters that can be reported, reviewed, and evaluated with your Managed Service Provider.
The processes and tools that your Managed Service Provider adheres to will make sure that these requirements are being met. If they don't have these processes and tools in place ask them why. If their answer is unsatisfactory find one that does. Remember, your MSP needs to be acting as your partner. Their help ensures that your organization is using valid criteria when making a decision on implementing SaaS.