You’ve probably heard the statistics – a Saas package is one of the best investments any business can make. More and more companies are fostering a SaaS-exclusive workplace. In 2016, 17% aimed to do so, and just a year later that percentage had more than doubled to 38% as FinancesOnline reports.
If you’d like to take your company in the same direction, Selecting a Software as a Service (SaaS) vendor whether it’s for print shop software or something else can be challenging. In some cases, trying to make the best selection can mean entering corporate credit card information and agreeing to countless pages of unread terms and conditions. In others, it might be part of a lengthy procurement process.
#1 Is it Truly an SaaS Package?
As more and more customers are discovering the benefits of borrowing platforms rather than building them, more vendors are naturally moving their legacy platforms to the cloud and calling themselves SaaS. But they’re really not doing anything more than shifting you from your current host to a new one. A true SaaS package means no versions, upgrades, period releases – you want evidence of continual improvement and innovation. It should be a continuously evolving system that will change and grow as your business does.
#2 Will Fees Increase?
Most SaaS packages come at various price points in order to meet the needs of your particular business, based on its size, number of users and the features you need. But it’s important to find out not only what all the fees are that you’ll have to pay, but how long they’ll remain fixed.
#3 Are Training and Migration Assistance Provided?
One of the biggest challenges when it comes to any type of new software deployment is migrating to a new platform followed by end user training. Does the SaaS provider you’re considering offer to help address these challenges by providing consulting assistance, premade training tools or data migration tools? This is a key factor as the migration should be as painless and quick as possible.
#4 What’s the Provider’s Backup Plan?
It’s critical to find out how your data will be protected and what will happen should the SaaS provider experience an outage. While they may direct you to their backend infrastructure provider, they should also have their own readily accessible backups which helps to prevent human error, or at least provides you with an interface so that you can handle your own backups.
#5 How’s the Customer Support?
When it comes to just about anything and everything, customer support is a key factor in making the best decision. Are they available 24/7 for their clients? What will happen during an emergency – will they respond quickly? Are they easy to communicate with and friendly? Of course, simply asking the vendor some of these things may not provide you with the authentic answers you need. Of course, they’ll be putting on their best possible face to win your business. That’s why it’s important to contact current and/or previous clients of the vendor to get the clearest possible picture of what you can expect.