Small to mid-sized businesses (SMBs) can always benefit from an IT enhancement that will save both time and money. But as the application software industry continues to evolve, price and complexity have edged out some SMBs. These companies have suffered because they lack the budget or expertise to pursue the appropriate applications to run their businesses. Here's where the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model can help.

Why SaaS?

Capabilities that are delivered via the SaaS model are provided to end users over the Web, rather than being installed and maintained in-house by the customer. With SaaS, a vendor (or other service provider) owns, hosts, manages, and updates the software so that the customer doesn't spend valuable resources implementing or managing software applications. Instead they can rely on the SaaS provider to keep the service up-to-date and available.

Customers pay for SaaS on a subscription or per-use basis, which simplifies budget planning, reduces upfront costs, makes payments more predictable, and lowers total cost of ownership. This allows SMBs to eliminate many of the overhead expenses and operational concerns commonly associated with traditional software products. Also, SMBs using SaaS will be less likely to have to deal with an IT infrastructure that has become obsolete.

Despite all of its benefits, some SMBs are hesitant to make the move to SaaS applications. Why? Many are resistant to change what is working for them or worry that their unique business needs won't be met. Others are afraid the transition to SaaS won't be smooth and that the vendor won't be available to help -- or will be out of business in a year or two. Still others are concerned about the security of their information when it's hosted and/or stored offsite by a vendor. For these reasons, SMBs should take great care in choosing a SaaS vendor.

Choosing a Vendor

When choosing a SaaS vendor, every SMB should look for the following attributes and ensure that they align with their business requirements:

Service Level Agreements: Trusting data to an online service means that the service must be available when usage or recovery is needed. Make sure that the vendor is offering 99.99 percent uptime of the applications.

Datacenter Security, Reliability and Availability: Customers should expect vendors to take measures to ensure the security, reliability, and availability of their data, to take into consideration data encryption services that allow only the end-user to see what the data contains, and to ensure redundancy and availability of the application and data in times of disaster by hosting them in multiple data centers.

Industry Expertise: The SaaS vendor needs to understand the market. The vendor should be a leader in IT infrastructure offerings and services.

Affordable and Easy-To-Use Solutions: The vendor's solution should not require additional IT staff or infrastructure and should be easy to use, with service plan structures that support your needs.

Buying Direct vs. Channel

Until recently, SaaS solutions were only available for purchase direct from a vendor, but more and more these offerings are available for purchase from a vendor's channel partners.

Channel partners have the ability to build deeper relationships with their customers and are better positioned than vendors to offer SaaS along with additional value-added services to their clients, ensuring the best overall solution and experience for the customer.

Channel partners are also able to achieve economies of scale and can pass those savings along to their SMB customers. This results in a lower-cost solution as compared to purchasing, configuring, and maintaining a comparable on-premise solution. Additionally, channel partners who implement and maintain SaaS solutions have targeted expertise in the specific solution area, reducing the risks typically associated with the adoption of new technology.

Delivery Options

If a SaaS solution is well-built, vendors can deliver it to SMB customers in multiple ways, enabling them to cater to both the tech-savvy and non-tech-savvy customer.

Tech-savvy companies want direct involvement in the management of their solutions, and will seek to provide input and help manage their network. Vendors can set these customers up with the ability to log into their own dashboard and easily control the SaaS solution from anywhere in the world. In this scenario, the vendor plays the role of "trusted advisor."

On the other end of the spectrum, a vendor or its channel partners may need to take a more hands-on approach, acting as technical advisor - or even IT adjunct - fostering a deeper relationship with the customer via hands-on, day-to-day management of the solution. This way, the provider focuses on the technical aspects of the customer's IT infrastructure while the SMB focuses on the business.

SLA (server level agreement)

In-depth Service Level Agreements (SLAs) allow vendors to guarantee that they will meet the needs of customers. SLAs also monitor the service expectations as well as the repercussions of failing to meet these agreed-upon terms.

While customers have depended on their IT departments to manage typical software products, the new SaaS model turns the SLA into a tool that provides protection for both the software provider and the customer. With SLAs, customers can expect a certain level of accountability from their software provider, including a way to check and assess the performance of the service. In turn, SaaS providers enjoy the solidity of clearly defined expectations and the repercussions if these expectations are not met. Ultimately, SMBs should expect enterprise-class capabilities from their SaaS providers.

Conclusion

The SaaS model provides SMBs with the ability to eliminate a large part of their IT costs, reduce the risks of acquiring new software, strengthen their relationships with service providers, and satisfy usage demands as the business grows and develops. SMBs can also roll out, implement, or eliminate applications as their unique needs require. Overall, SaaS provides a much less risky investment while giving SMBs access to enterprise-class applications they otherwise might not be able to afford.

» posted by abennett

Symantec Corp.

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