What your company needs to know to select the right SaaS software solution

1. SaaS Software Basics
What does your business need?
Presented by
Greg Robin

2. 2
The Appeal of Software as a Service (SaaS)

3. 3
Categories of SaaS Apps
SaaS can mean many things to many people. For purposes of this
presentation, we look at three different SaaS models.
1. Single purpose SaaS
• In areas like file collaboration, projects, HR, CRM, ERP
- apps tend to be singularly focused around a function
• App customization tends to be limited, except for other SaaS
vendors who may have built specific integrated solutions
2. App building SaaS platforms
• Force.com, QuickBase and Zoho Creator impose no pre-
configured schema that you need to build-to or work with
• These platforms provide the greatest customization
capabilities but also require app development skills
3. Hybrid SaaS app/platforms
• Salesforce.com and Zoho CRM are good hybrid examples due
to their extensive CRM capabilities that can be both adapted
and extended, in complex ways

4. 4
Evolution of SaaS AppsPLATFORMINTEGRATION
2000 2005 2010 2015

5. 5
App Universe We Work In
App Building
CRM
eCommerce
ERP/Financial
HR
Teamwork

6. 6
4 Critical Questions
You Should be Asking
•Given your business requirements, are you looking for
a category app, an app platform or a hybrid?
•What are your “absolutes” vs. the nice-to-haves with
regard to selecting a vendor (given requirements)?
•What do you need to integrate? Are there existing
vendors who have existing solutions?
•Make sure that internal resource cost and team
training are part of your cost of ownership analysis.

7. 7
What are your Business Requirements?
Does your organization suffer from?
 Inconsistencies in data (multiple versions of the truth)
 Mismanaged projects & costs
 Inefficient customer care and support
 Lack of team alignment
 Accurate time tracking and billing
Would you like to enable?
 Shortened and better coordinated sales cycles
 Better understanding of expenditures
 Easy viewing of your organization’s key performance
indicators (KPIs)
 Improved data and version collaboration –
e.g., getting teams “on the same page”

8. 8
Vendor Selection “Best Practices”
•Criteria to consider (re: Vendor)
• Breadth & quality of features, at each license level
• Cost vs. Value
• Configure vs Customize, what is possible?
• Platform integration capabilities
• Viability of vendor business
•Criteria to consider (re: your Organization)
 Budget (are you willing to pay more to get more?)
 Will your Org conform to fit a solution or do you need more flexibility?
 Are you transitioning from an existing system or is this a new system?
 Be honest -- how technical adept is your team to own the solution?
 Develop an ongoing feature roadmap for adopting the solution

9. 9
EASEOFUSEMOREDIFFICULT
CONFIGURABLE($)  CUSTOMIZABLE($$)  CUSTOM($$$)
Vendor Selection Thoughts (cont.)

10. 10
Org Adoption “Best Practices”
•Rolling it out
• Identify roles
• Use cases
• Systems to integrate with
• Training
• Software System
• Business Systems
• Support
• Documentation (Embedded Help (in App), FAQs, videos, etc…)
•Ownership across Org
 Assign an exec sponsor, a domain expert and a system owner
 Incentivize ($$$/Culture) & Measure Usage
 Elicit user feedback & recommendations
 Utilize an ongoing feature roadmap

11. 11
About Us
Productivity Advisors is a software consultancy
that advises both small and large companies on
how to select, design and deploy web-based
apps for their businesses.
Our Goal: Collaborative Productivity. Fostering a
greater level of effectiveness in our Client’s firms
through the adoption of web-based apps.

12. 12
Discover
• Understand your
business story
and processes
• Review business
requirements
• Understand data
currently being
used (systems,
reports, forms)
• Is there legacy
data, systems or
processes to
consider?
Design
• Can an existing
solution be configured
or customized?
• Data: fields, field
types, relationships,
data entry/loading and
reports
• Business layer:
calculations, use
cases, workflows and
alerts
• User base: profiles,
roles and security
Develop
• Prototype
• Review with
Stakeholders
• Get Feedback
from User
Community
• Iterate &
Repeat…
• Test throughout
• Migrate legacy
data
Deliver
• Stakeholder
acceptance
• Train team (or
trainers)
• Document
• Understand
maintenance and
support needs
• Drive organization
adoption
Our Methodology
for Delivering Solutions

13. 13
Reference Links
Greg Robin, Founder & Principal
Productivity Advisors
email: greg@productivityadvisors.com
phone: 415.935.1776
web: http://prodadv.com
blog: http://gregrobin.com
linkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/gnrobin
youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/productivityadvisors
twitter: 4productivity