Choosing the best SaaS provider is essential since more and more companies are looking to externalize their IT systems. Given the nature of the cloud sector and certain entry obstacles, it’s not unusual to see a multitude of SaaS companies offering a wide range of services. This makes it challenging to choose the best service, particularly in situations where there are multiple contenders. In order to help consumers and businesses assess SaaS providers and make informed decisions, this post outlines some important considerations.
Recognizing Business Requirements
Once the basic and specific business criteria are clearly identified, choosing or benchmarking a service provider becomes easy. While each company may have different needs and specifications, there are several crucial factors to consider while assessing any SaaS provider. To make it simpler to compare different providers and select the one that offers the best value, these categories have been separated into different sections.
There may be gaps in the technology and migration help provided by many top-tier providers, therefore you may need to look into third-party support to address them. In addition, some suppliers suggest technology and support partners, which potentially simplifies things since they should know more about the inner workings of the systems.
A firm must be fully aware of the provider’s expectations as well as the scope of work for each step in both situations. This comprises:
- Assessment of workload
- demonstration of concept
- Refactoring applications
- Migration of workloads
- Network topology and interconnectivity
- Testing
- Monitoring
- Management
- Roadmap for Service Deployment
Determining if a supplier would align with your long-term objectives involves knowing how it intends to develop and expand. This covers the supplier’s dedication to particular manufacturers, features, technologies, integration schedule, and compatibility. To obtain a better understanding of how things should operate in the future, it is best to ask a supplier to show deployments that are comparable to what you are planning.
Data Management and Governance
When creating a data classification plan, the location of your data and any applicable local legislation are important considerations. Simply put, SaaS suppliers with choice and control over data processing, administration, and jurisdiction outperform those without. It may be your obligation to find out where their data centers are located as not all suppliers make this information readily available.
The likelihood of illegal access is reduced by the ability to encrypt only sensitive data or secure in-transit data. Clear procedures for handling data breaches and losses should be included in the SLA (Service Level Agreement), which should also be in line with the company’s legal, regulatory, and risk-management responsibilities. For cloud service providers, the CIF Code of Practice is a fantastic place to start when figuring out data and security governance procedures and guidelines.
Data Protection
An organization’s security procedures, guidelines, and controls ought to be risk-based and in line with those of a supplier. In the long term, it’s important to confirm that a supplier is dedicated to dedicating resources to them, even whether they are in compliance with standards like ISO-27000 or hold additional certifications. Security roles should be made explicit in the SLA, and user activity and access should be auditable across all available channels.
If a large number of your employees work from home, you should also consider monitoring software such as Controlio. This allows you to see what your employees are working on and ensures that the correct work is being completed.
Partnerships and Vendor Relationships
Understanding a provider’s partnerships and interactions with suppliers is crucial, particularly for businesses operating in multi-vendor environments. In these situations, the services ought to work well together and interact with a wider network of services that you require help for. CRMs, for instance, are more valuable when they are able to be coupled with other platforms, like marketing and finance.
It is important to understand service dependencies and subcontractors before committing to any cloud-based service. It is important to understand how the SaaS provider is delivering its services, as the majority of them were built on pre-existing platforms (IaaS).
A cloud service may occasionally be provided by an intricate web of linked subcontractors, thus it’s critical to make sure the main supplier publishes this information and provides service assurances for all of them. Generally speaking, you should stay away from suppliers with a lengthy list of subcontractors, especially if the data you are working with is mission-critical.
Efficiency and Dependability of Service
A straightforward way to assess performance is to contrast the performance that has been delivered ideally over the last six to twelve months with the SLA’s stated expectations. Anticipating complete downtime is impractical; instead, what counts is how the supplier handles these interruptions. The monitoring and reporting tools provided by the provider should be sufficient for making decisions based on evidence and should interface with your own reporting and management systems.
Lock-ins with vendors
SaaS providers which use a lot of proprietary components run the risk of locking you in and making data portability very impossible. The easier it would be for you to relocate, the less proprietary technologies a supplier uses. The advantages of dealing with several suppliers or subcontractors must be weighed against the risk of being forced to use only one. The SLA should specify the exit strategy, which should cover data transition, storage, and access.
Conclusion
When selecting a service provider, there are several factors to consider in addition to financial stability and business health. Prior performance history and legal concerns aid in the process of narrowing down the pool of possible vendors, and compatibility and alignment of your business’s IT goals are guaranteed by a vendor’s or technology’s commitment. In order to verify certifications, service dependencies, performance, and reliability, further investigation would still be necessary. However, case studies and testimonies from current clients can be helpful in this respect.
