How to choose the right SaaS provider? Part 2

Before reading this blog I would suggest you read my previous blog in which I talked about the benefits of SaaS and why it’s only going to grow in the near future. Now if you have decided to go for SaaS, the next step is to choose the most suitable SaaS provider for your business and that’s what this blog is going to be all about.

Why is it important to make the right choice?

I believe that these days due to limited barriers to entry and the nature of the cloud industry, it’s not surprising to see a myriad of SaaS providers that offer a large number of services.

This makes selecting the right provider difficult, especially when everyone is claiming to be the best. This post discusses some key factors to consider when selecting a SaaS provider, which helps businesses and individuals evaluate them and make better decisions.

How to make the right choice?

Now that you understand why it’s important to make the right choice, let’s talk about the factors you need to consider to choose the right SaaS provider.

1: Your expectations

Defining what you expect from a SaaS provider is the foremost step you need to take in the process of choosing the right one.

As part of this, make sure you can identify any integration points with other systems and softwares, what kind of response time you expect, and how many users will access the software, besides the functional capabilities you need. This information will help you find the right provider.

2: Integration

One of the most important considerations when moving to SaaS is to make sure the cloud application can effectively integrate with your other relevant upstream and downstream softwares and systems including in-house softwares.

A good global SaaS provider will support those integration points, but you should still study the options carefully. Make sure that you ask if any additional development or customization will be required to get the applications working together. You’ll also want to find out if the integration is an extra cost.

Remember that the end goal is to make sure your users can navigate between the SaaS product and other applications without trouble. A clunky interface will reduce productivity, and you’ll lose some of the gains of moving to SaaS.

3: Browser Fit

A common misconception with going to SaaS is that you don’t need to worry about how you’ll access the software. Since it’s online, you should just be able to have an internet connection and log in.

To some degree that’s true, but your browser choice is also important. You’ll want to find out if the SaaS solution requires the use of a specific browser, and if you’ll experience any difference in functionality by using something else.

For example, Microsoft Internet Explorer might behave very differently than Google Chrome or Safari. Some functions might not work at all on one browser, especially if you’re using an older version.

You should also think about mobile devices. While not all applications work as well from a phone or tablet, many people use those devices to get online these days. If this is something your users will be doing, you want to make sure that your SaaS provider supports mobile options.

4: Data migration

There are SaaS providers that cannot fully support you in data migration, so they might suggest using third parties. Make sure the service provider can help you at every step of the way and help you be at your desired level of digitalization.

5: Scalability

Another factor to consider is if the SaaS solution will be able to scale with you as your company grows.

Unlike running your software in-house, you don’t need to think about how many servers to buy or maintain. Even so, you should still make sure to ask the SaaS provider about support for growth, including from a pricing perspective.

Another thing to consider in this aspect is Geographical expansion. Let us say you want to go to Europe but the SaaS provider does not comply with the regulations or has Deployment to comply with data residency requirements. It would be wise to make inquiries about similar conditions.

6: Service availability and Reliability

Moving to SaaS has many benefits, but it also means you’re relying on the provider to keep your business up and running.

No one likes to think about service unavailability, but it can happen. Instead of hoping that you won’t suffer from this, find out the uptime SLAs committed by the SaaS providers and what will happen in the event of a disruption to your service. When you’re evaluating a company’s reliability, consider their past SaaS sales and how well they’ve performed.

Many SaaS companies have redundancy plans in place, with a backup strategy. Get the details about this to confirm whether it meets your needs.

If it doesn’t, you could also explore the option of creating your own backup. It’s not as ideal, but at least you’d be covered in the event of an emergency.

7:Transparency of pricing

Another thing to remember with SaaS is how differently the pricing works. Instead of paying a single fee up-front, you pay over time.

Additionally, you should make sure you won’t encounter any unexpected fees. Some of the pricing models for SaaS have variable prices based on the number of users, how much bandwidth you’re using, and more.

You might also want to ask about the cost in the events of customization and exit.

8: Service Level Agreement

With a SaaS solution, you’ll also have a Service Level Agreement (SLA). This describes in detail what services the provider will cover, and their performance commitments including throughput and response times. It might include response time when you contact them, and what penalties they might incur if they don’t meet the expectations.

Averages may not prove to be robust indicators most of the time so you should also look for the 90th or 95th percentile SLA matrices.

9: Support

It’s crucial to confirm the vendor’s support process and the quality of the support.

The best way to find out is by doing a trial. Create an account that isn’t related to your company and create a few tickets. See what kind of response you get.

Also, make sure you understand the support model. Will you have to go through your own IT department first, to make sure nothing is wrong on your end? How will you communicate with the provider?

If possible, talk to an existing customer to learn about their experience of the support process. This will give you a lot of information with real-world examples.

10: Exit-strategy

Your service provider also should be flexible with your commitment level. It is important that the SaaS provider offers a trial period, to let you test the water before officially launching the product. Most SaaS providers offer a sandbox environment, yes, but you really need to see how it works for your company and if the need is matched. You need to have an exit strategy if things don’t go well and take your data with you. However, if you chose the right provider, it is best to stay with that partner rather than having multiple third-party companies. Stitching all those services can be really hard and really inefficient.

5-Step Approach to choosing the right SaaS provider

This approach is all about knowing your criteria before getting too deep into the decision-making process which can be very beneficial. So here are 5 steps process which can help you make the correct decision-

1. Business Roadmap:

Once the business owner decides the roadmap of the business, the market, and the target customers, and how the business solution is going to impact the business outcomes, it becomes easier to decide on the tools to choose for the business owner or decision-maker which can help in reaching the business goals.

2. End-User:

The user who will be using the tool is the best person to be involved in decision-making. The user is the one who has been using the process with existing sources and he/she knows exactly what solutions can help to make his or her work decisions faster eliminating existing roadblocks.

3. Budget:

It is important to keep in mind that sometimes allocated budgets can pose a challenge in choosing the best tool. Hence it is important to keep a range in the budget and there also needs to be a scope to evaluate the benefits vs the costs involved.

4. A Complementary Platform:

No business owner can be happy if the tool they purchase is colliding with the existing management of Information systems, and strategies and conflicting with the interests of the internal team who is already hands-on in the business. A solution that provides additional value and expertise that complements the existing resources of a company and adds value with new external expertise is what the buyer should look for. Also in today’s digital world, a solution that is AI-powered and secured in terms of cyber security and upgrades with changing needs is another feature to be considered for decision making.

5. Proven Cases:

A solution that can prove by evidence or past instances what it is capable of achieving, and what it promises, should be the choice. Often Industry-specific use cases help in decision making. Sometimes a free demo or a trial can help in convincing and hence a buyer should ask to check once before investing.

Wrapping up

I am sure the above factors and steps must have helped you get a better understanding of how to choose the right SaaS provider but to wrap up I want to share a few more additional tips which can help you make the choice.

1. Provider understands you:

It is important that the SaaS provider truly understands and matches your business needs and strategy, better yet if the provider can offer scalable software to your foreseen vision and continuous growth.

2. Timeline:

Having a clear roadmap and timeline is also key to your decision-making process. Sure every company is different so the timeline also varies.

3. Certification:

There are many licenses the SaaS provider can acquire such as GDPR, ISO 27001, SOC 2, etc.

4. Security:

Thoroughly check your provider’s security measures and policies before and ensure your system’s security and data privacy.

5. Update process:

Make sure to ask your service provider how your service and product can be updated after its launch.

So, best of luck with making your business up and going with the right SaaS provider.