Things to Consider When Transitioning to SaaS Solutions

Introduction

More businesses are transitioning from traditional on-premises software to SaaS subscriptions than ever and for obvious reasons. SaaS model has experienced massive growth over the recent years, while the growth rate of on-premises software has been pretty stagnant. We have already covered the benefits of using SaaS solutions and how the SaaS subscription model can be a game-changer for SMBs, so you might want to have a look at these posts for more details.

Despite all the benefits inherent to moving your cloud data and using cloud computing, there are still a few things businesses need to consider when transitioning from traditional software to SaaS solutions. Transitioning into the cloud is like a chasm that businesses have to cross in order to move from present to the future. The end goal might be very beneficial for businesses for example increased efficiency through a SaaS Contract Management system by GatekeeperHQ or increased profits through a vendor performance system, however  there’s a lot at stake in the process. When improperly managed, this change can become the reason for a business’s loss of customers and profits, and in worse cases, its closure.

However, to cross the chasm, they have to rethink how they do businesses and understand the challenges associated with the transition, including operational, technical, and financial challenges. Setting the right SaaS strategy, being ready for business transformation, and learning from companies that have already made the move can help a lot in the process.

SaaS Strategy

SaaS strategies can vary according to business objectives. Although most successful providers will help businesses prepare for the transition, there is no one strategy that works perfectly for all companies. Even for businesses that operate in the same industry and serve the same audience, they will likely have different processes and will require a unique SaaS Marketing Agency when it comes to their customer retention, talent acquisition, product development, and marketing strategies. It’s common for businesses to think out-of-the-box to ensure that they stand out from the competition.

Businesses want to cross the chasm as quickly as possible, but a more measured approach helps a lot in the long run. Considering the competitive dynamics and the customer is essential when evaluating different transition strategies and picking the level of transition and speed. SaaS might be the only option for some businesses, while some might view it as the last resort.

Before you choose a SaaS strategy and create a plan on how you can implement this strategy to your business, make sure that you fully understand what SaaS is and how it will affect your business both in the short and long term. This is one of the most obvious reasons why you should spend some time to assess the current status of your business and study the available SaaS strategies today.

If you’re planning to outsource this service first before implementing in-house SaaS strategies, spend some time to compare your options. Ideally, you should reach out to at least three service providers and compare their services and costs.

This information will make it easy for you to determine which service providers are expensive or cheap. This process will also help you narrow down your options and avoid paying for overpriced services.

Understanding the Challenges

Moving into the cloud is a business transformation rather than just being a change in the pricing model. It’s not uncommon to see businesses underestimate the challenges and level of business transformation associated with the transition.

A lot of businesses immediately invest in SaaS strategies without even looking at the possible consequences of their choice. As mentioned, integrating this technology can help your business succeed. But, on the other side of the coin, when you’re not careful with your efforts, SaaS strategies can put money down the drain.

Just like any other strategy introduced in a business, you need to consider a lot of things before investing in one service first. Sure, this service might help your business progress in the long run, but you should always look at the bigger picture.

Are there any cons when using SaaS strategies? How will your employees react to this change? Can they quickly transition to this system? These questions should be answered first before you pay for any SaaS services. If you won’t, you’ll end up wasting a lot of money. This can be very crucial for startups or new businesses.

Make sure that you don’t commit the same mistake by weighing the pros and cons of every available SaaS strategy today. Conduct in-depth research and carefully weigh the pros and cons of each strategy. The more you know about SaaS strategies, the easier it’ll be for you to make the most out of it and avoid any possible consequences.

Many businesses that are hesitant to make the transition are the ones who fully appreciate the level of business transformation required and don’t want to take up the challenge yet. That’s why businesses should avoid the check-the-box approach and carry out due diligence otherwise, their huge ambitions might not get in sync with the reality later on. Not having a proper understanding of the challenges associates with SaaS can lead to bigger problems down the road and inhibit growth.

Cost Management

Although the initial cost of SaaS solutions seems pretty low compared to expensive on-premises solutions, things are not as straightforward in the long run. What makes it difficult to accurately predict future costs is the scalable and on-demand nature of SaaS solutions. Businesses experiencing rapid growth might need to upgrade their subscriptions sooner than they thought. While it’s a good thing from a business perspective, it makes it difficult to predict subscription costs.

If you’re eyeing to use SaaS strategies long-term, you should be able to consider its cost for the coming weeks, months, or years. Investing in SaaS strategies and then running out of funds to upgrade or update the system can be useless in the long run. Hence, instead of helping your business progress, an outdated SaaS strategy can become the reason for its downfall.

Better and accurate financial analysis & reporting, management reporting, and considering sales forecasts can help in this regard. Managing security is another significant challenge that businesses have to face, which comes at an additional cost. Wasted cloud spend increases the overall cost (around 30% waste on average), which makes it important to optimize cost.

Technical Expertise

Cloud computing in general and SaaS, in particular, is advancing at a rapid pace, which often makes it difficult for businesses to keep up with modern technology. As a result, this increases the cost associated with hiring highly qualified professionals. This can be an issue for small and medium businesses that want to keep up with the technology but don’t have financial and technical resources to manage everything.

Before you implement any SaaS strategy for your business, assess if your employees can handle the change and if they are sold to the idea of using such technology. Regardless of how effective your SaaS strategies are if your employees do not have the technical expertise or the willingness to learn, your investment will be useless.

Regular training and development of the IT staff can help a lot, while many of the tasks can also be automated by using DevOps tools. These tools make it easier for SMBs to manage things such as monitoring resources and usage patterns, automating backups, and optimizing security.

To make it easy for your employees to transition to SaaS, work with a service provider that offers 24/7 customer service. This feature can serve as an extension of the training you provide to your employees while giving you access to credible individuals who can help you in times of emergencies.

Regardless of how tech-savvy you are, keep in mind that you can still experience issues during the first few weeks of your transition to SaaS, which is why you need all the help you can get.

IT Governance and Compliance

Proper maintenance, implementation, and control of IT assets require well-defined IT policies, governance, and control. IT assets are meant to support business goals and strategy and not all businesses have complete control over provisioning, operations, and other aspects of their IT infrastructure. To minimize discrepancies, businesses need to include the cloud into their IT governance/control policies. This also relates to small and medium businesses that need their IT staff to play a major role in choosing, brokering, and governing SaaS subscriptions.

Compliance can especially be an issue for businesses that need to move their data to the cloud or want to use cloud backup services. The data has to comply with applicable laws and industry regulations. For example, HIPAA compliance is required for US healthcare organizations, while PCI DSS and SOX compliance is mandatory for retail companies.

Organizations have to choose a provider that provides compliance to local laws and industry regulations and is itself regulated by those standards. In some cases, both companies and vendors might have to provide additional input to ensure compliance despite the vendor offers certified compliance.

Performance

Businesses have to depend on the service providers when it comes to performance, which is tied to various critical business systems such as BI. The SLA (Service Level Agreement) determines the kind of performance and uptime companies should expect from a provider.

Although rarely, outages do happen and the provider must have the right processes to notify customers on time. The SLA should clearly define the processes and steps a provider must take when such things happen. Real-time monitoring helps mitigate most of the issues related to the organization’s lack of complete control over data processing.

Migration

Migrating an app to the cloud can get pretty complex and challenges can arise due to tight deadlines and budget. Security challenges, extensive troubleshooting, application downtime, and cutover complexity are among the most commonly cited challenges during the migration phase.

Segmented Adoption and Usage

A large number of businesses transitioning to SaaS solutions don’t actually have a robust adoption strategy. This can lead to various issues including lack of shared standards and ad-hoc security configurations. Strong IT governance, centralized IT, and robust control policies greatly help make the SaaS strategy inline with adoption and usage.

Multi and Private Cloud

Businesses, especially enterprises, and large businesses have to manage multiple clouds, while many are combining both public & private clouds for better control. Building a private cloud can quickly become a major challenge for businesses that have it as a top priority. Although building one has the significant advantage of having in-house data and complete control, businesses have to manage everything themselves. Automation of common manual tasks and orchestrating them streamlines things and ensures that each task is executed in the right order.

Conclusion

According to Gartner, by 2020, 80 percent of old providers and all new entrants will offer services based on a subscription model. However, businesses don’t have to rush and move all their products, services, and customers to the new model at once and cross the chasm quickly. The transition from on-premises to SaaS solutions can actually be a lengthy process that involves proper due diligence, following a well-defined SaaS strategy and monitoring. For most businesses that want to keep up with modern technologies the transitioning is not a question of ‘if’, but when and how well.