Best Practices for Enterprise SaaS Growth
For SaaS to further penetrate the enterprise and truly become mainstream, SaaS vendors must improve the ability of their solutions to integrate into existing IT management processes.
By Scott Bils, Conformity
Jul. 20, 2009
The question around adoption of applications delivered via 'software-as-a-service' (SaaS) or cloud-based models has rapidly shifted from 'if' to 'how quickly' and 'how far'. The economic downturn has increased the attractiveness of SaaS and cloud-based applications to budget conscious executives, and is driving faster market adoption than even most analysts had expected.
SaaS adoption is now occurring in areas once reserved exclusively for on-premise applications, including mission critical applications such as ERP and HR in both small and large enterprises. With the proliferation of SaaS applications, organizations are beginning to explore how to most effectively manage, govern and control SaaS applications and users. Here are several best practices that software vendors can deploy to help smooth the operational disruption inherent in SaaS deployments - and to help grow sales in the process.
IT is Regaining Their 'Seat at the Table'
After largely sitting on the 'sidelines' for the first wave of SaaS adoption, IT is regaining its 'seat at the table'. In mid-size enterprises, as SaaS adoption has accelerated cross-functionally, organizations have begun to look to IT to centralize management and governance of both SaaS applications and users to minimize compliance risks and administrative costs. In a recent survey Conformity found that IT was involved in management and administration of SaaS applications in 72% of multi-SaaS organizations. In larger enterprises that are now taking a serious look at SaaS, IT is involved from the start to determine how the applications will be integrated into broader business processes and other on-premise applications, as well as management processes and solutions.
The emerging role that IT is playing in SaaS management is very similar to the management evolution of PCs and distributed computing assets in the late 1980's and 90's. As with SaaS, the initial wave of PC adoption was driven by individual business users, who procured, deployed and managed machines largely 'around' IT. Similarly with SaaS, the initial wave of adoption was driven by individuals and departments who procured and deployed with little or no IT involvement. With adoption now moving beyond department and functional use, organizations are increasingly looking to IT to coordinate, manage and control SaaS applications and users.
As IT becomes more involved, they also bring expectations and requirements for how SaaS applications need to integrate into their existing management approaches and solutions. This is where the problem starts.
The Disruptive Impact of SaaS on IT Management
SaaS and cloud-based applications create significant disruptions in the traditional IT management model. While web-based applications are certainly not new to IT, migrating the business application and control to third-party vendors outside the firewall is a new dynamic unique to SaaS. SaaS applications are fundamentally exploding the traditional IT management model due to:
From a broad business process perspective, SaaS applications must be integrated into existing business processes through upfront manual configuration and ongoing management by line-of-business administrators with knowledge of processes, applications and users. While data integration can be handled through third-party solutions, the ability to manage SaaS applications and users in the context of a broad business process is nonexistent, especially where SaaS administrators are acting autonomously.
SaaS adoption is now occurring in areas once reserved exclusively for on-premise applications, including mission critical applications such as ERP and HR in both small and large enterprises. With the proliferation of SaaS applications, organizations are beginning to explore how to most effectively manage, govern and control SaaS applications and users. Here are several best practices that software vendors can deploy to help smooth the operational disruption inherent in SaaS deployments - and to help grow sales in the process.
IT is Regaining Their 'Seat at the Table'
After largely sitting on the 'sidelines' for the first wave of SaaS adoption, IT is regaining its 'seat at the table'. In mid-size enterprises, as SaaS adoption has accelerated cross-functionally, organizations have begun to look to IT to centralize management and governance of both SaaS applications and users to minimize compliance risks and administrative costs. In a recent survey Conformity found that IT was involved in management and administration of SaaS applications in 72% of multi-SaaS organizations. In larger enterprises that are now taking a serious look at SaaS, IT is involved from the start to determine how the applications will be integrated into broader business processes and other on-premise applications, as well as management processes and solutions.
The emerging role that IT is playing in SaaS management is very similar to the management evolution of PCs and distributed computing assets in the late 1980's and 90's. As with SaaS, the initial wave of PC adoption was driven by individual business users, who procured, deployed and managed machines largely 'around' IT. Similarly with SaaS, the initial wave of adoption was driven by individuals and departments who procured and deployed with little or no IT involvement. With adoption now moving beyond department and functional use, organizations are increasingly looking to IT to coordinate, manage and control SaaS applications and users.
As IT becomes more involved, they also bring expectations and requirements for how SaaS applications need to integrate into their existing management approaches and solutions. This is where the problem starts.
The Disruptive Impact of SaaS on IT Management
SaaS and cloud-based applications create significant disruptions in the traditional IT management model. While web-based applications are certainly not new to IT, migrating the business application and control to third-party vendors outside the firewall is a new dynamic unique to SaaS. SaaS applications are fundamentally exploding the traditional IT management model due to:
- Distribution of management - business users themselves typically provide administrative support for the SaaS applications they've deployed. In these roles, business admins have taken on management and support responsibilities traditionally owned by IT.
- Loss of control - along with the decentralization of traditional management outside of IT's sphere of influence, SaaS is 'breaking' the traditional access and control IT has over the applications.
- Limited process integration - while multitenant SaaS models do generally provide customers a limited ability to customize a virtual instance of the vendor service, they have been architected to address specific problem sets or functional workflows, creating problems on two dimensions.
From a broad business process perspective, SaaS applications must be integrated into existing business processes through upfront manual configuration and ongoing management by line-of-business administrators with knowledge of processes, applications and users. While data integration can be handled through third-party solutions, the ability to manage SaaS applications and users in the context of a broad business process is nonexistent, especially where SaaS administrators are acting autonomously.
