Software As A Service Delivery Model Changes The Traditional Client-vendor Relationship Article

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Software as a Service delivery model changes the traditional client-vendor relationship

Software as a Service (SaaS) surpasses other delivery models by providing better customer service through greater responsiveness and adaptability. This results in a long-term positive outlook for all participants involved and is one of the factors responsible for the rapid growth of SaaS model.

Author: Knowledgesum

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The high-flying success of the Software as a Service (SaaS) delivery model may be related to a fundamentally different way on-demand vendors respond to customer feedback and suggestions. In many ways, clients may feel as though they are working with their own in-house development team.

SaaS vendors meet the challenge of supporting a multi-tenant architecture through a single instance head-on and actually demonstrate impressive adaptability and responsiveness.

One of the recent instances was offline support, recognized by research firms and industry monitors such as Gartner, Inc as critical for web-based services vendors to address. Indeed, clients with intermittent Internet connectivity or those who are on the move may have hard time using products with web-only interface.

Since that need was identified, over the course of several months, a number of SaaS vendors in diverse industries announced their support for offline functionality for their applications. ThinkFree and SocialText provided the ability for collaborating teams to continue working with their applications even if connection to the Internet was interrupted. SaaS.com made it possible to track workforce tasks and activities for employees on the move. These SaaS vendors were able to align their business solutions with their clients' needs and do it in a way that instantly benefits the entire client base.

Software as a Service providers in industries where high levels of customization are necessary are another example. These on-demand vendors expanded the web-based services paradigm by providing the means for clients to implement necessary changes themselves. Two companies, Saleforce and NetSuite provide APIs to enable their clients and partners to use their own resources to extend the basic functionality to fit clients’ specific niche requirements. In most instances, vendors are able to expand their core paradigm and "think outside the box" to anticipate and handle customer needs.

SaaS can be great news to a user organization, as long as the appropriate feedback vehicles have been set up. One of our prior articles talked about selecting the right SaaS vendor. Since responsiveness and adaptability to customer needs is an important aspect of the relationship, it is critical to set the right expectancies from the get go. It is better to get 90% today and then the other 10% than to get 95% today and the rest, well...never.

For SaaS vendors, the selling process does not stop with the signing of a contract. Subscription models, where clients often have the flexibility to control the span of the relationship, have SaaS vendors on their toes as they are expected to deliver value through the life of the account. New services delivered for one specific customer can be offered to and enjoyed by the rest of the customer base and can make more client companies successful. In this sense, a service provider becomes a partner looking out for the benefit of each user organization.

A SaaS vendor has to figure out how to create the right balance between ensuring a powerful, reliable, scalable, and stable architecture and being able to anticipate and address specific client needs. Being able to respond to changes in the marketplace is equally important. These goals can be challenging given that occasionally there are requests for opposing functionality, or creating specialty features that can affect performance of the core application to a client or that of multiple clients. The ability to handle these challenges will become an important differentiator among the SaaS firms.

In a sense, SaaS vendors have embraced the customer base as a quasi-advisory board helping to share and guide the application and service evolution. SaaS providers benefit by engaging clients to share feedback that will ultimately improve overall user experience while allowing those users to spend more time focusing on their core business.

Adaptability and customer support are critical aspects of the Software as a Service delivery model. These two areas are vastly becoming the most effective differentiators between SaaS and traditional client-installed software. Historically, an average user has been pretty indifferent to the method of software delivery, but this thought process is quickly changing.

For these reasons, Gartner, IDC, Forrester, and others spotlight SaaS quite often and comment about its success in the marketplace.

About Author

KnowledgeSum.com is a leading provider of SaaS-enabled labor management and scheduling solutions. KnowledgeSum.com communications group enjoys sharing the information about the latest online technologies. For more information visit our website at http://www.KnowledgeSum.com or call 866.405.5786.

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Software as a Service delivery model changes the traditional client-vendor relationship