The way businesses view software has changed over the past few years. In the past, businesses would purchase software and keep it until they needed to upgrade or use another software. Now, businesses are switching to SaaS (Software as a Service) models where the software they need is available in a subscription model. This removes many of the technical needs businesses have to meet to use the software. Because most of the software businesses need is now provided as SaaS, it is important that those making purchase decisions know how to choose the right software. Below, we are going to look at the steps businesses should follow to ensure they end up with the right SaaS.
Understanding User Dynamics
In a business setting, a user is a person using the software and not a customer or website visitor as the term would be used in many cases. When selecting software, it is important to keep in mind who will use the software. The three instances to think about are a single user in an organization, a single user using specific software, and multiple people using multiple software programs.
With each of these scenarios, the software must be able to serve their needs without doing much else to keep the cost of the software down.
Identifying Problems and Opportunities
SaaS is supposed to either help solve problems, help the organization take advantage of emerging opportunities, and resolve workflow issues. As the complexity of workflows increases, businesses need to start thinking about software that will help them solve these problems. One of the problems that may arise is two people working on the same problem leading to redundancy and repetition of tasks. Here, the right software would help prevent this and ensure everyone is working on a different distinct problem.
Opportunities may arise and a business might want to hire new employees to take advantage of these opportunities. Businesses must consider software that has a simple onboarding process so new employees do not keep messaging their team leaders or department heads to help them work with the software provided.
Understanding Requirements
As mentioned, SaaS should be used to solve a problem and to provide solutions, but the user has to understand their requirements before choosing a particular software. A common scenario is where businesses need to collect user information. This information can be used to understand the market or customers. Understanding this requirement makes it easy to choose from the numerous software options available in the market.
The person making the purchase decision has to also talk to their peers and others in the organization, especially if the software will be used by multiple people. This is to ensure that the software the organization ends up with can fulfill the needs and meet the requirements set by the different software users.
Once businesses understand software requirements, they can begin the process of engaging vendors. These are the vendors who have developed software that meets the criteria set by the business such as the number of concurrent users and requirements. The business has also to come up with other criteria to evaluate vendors and their software such as ease of use, pricing, ease of implementation, and more.
Engaging Vendors
Once a business understands what it needs from a SaaS and has evaluation criteria, it is time to choose the right vendors. The internet has made it a lot easier for businesses to find the right vendors. Additionally, there is a lot of information about the different SaaS solutions different vendors provide, which makes it easier for businesses to narrow down their list of vendors.
Once identified, the best way to engage vendors is to go through the list of vendors identified to have software that meets the needs of the business and the software’s users.
The aim here is to consume the product, see its pricing options, and find out if there are resources to give guidance or help should users ever be stuck using the software. To do this, the person doing the valuation should sign up for a free trial of the software and start test-driving it.
The primary objective after signing up is to see whether the software performs at the bare minimum level and to gauge the user experience. Ease of set-up and use should be the main objective.
The other objective when using the trial version of the software is to see how good customer support is. SaaS will sometimes have some quirks and issues that need fixing or explaining and great customer support should make figuring things out easy.
Software Evaluation
In the trial phase, the software should be used for 2-3 weeks by someone dedicated to finding everything there is to find out about the software. If the software does not need the core requirements within this trial period, it should be discarded and the evaluation process started all over again. This process should be repeated as many times as possible to ensure the business ends up with the right software.
If the software does meet the requirements as well as use cases, then the person doing the valuation should recommend the software.
Purchase
The final step in this process is making the purchase. The person doing the evaluation will recommend the software to their team leader or department head, outlining why it is a great fit. In some cases, businesses might be able to negotiate a different price for the software than is advertised on the vendor’s website due to its unique needs. Once the buying process is done, the business is moved from the SaaS trial to begin using the software as a paid user.
Make Things Easier
While the above steps will help you find the right SaaS for your business, the software buying process can be tedious and time-consuming. It can also lead to bottlenecks as employees and other stakeholders wait for the right software to be included in their workflows.
Also, there is so much information and so many SaaS options to consider that businesses might have a hard time consuming all this information and then making the right purchase decision. This is why a lot of decision-makers choose to delegate the buying process to another party. That could be someone from the business or someone outside it.
For those inside the business, they are likely one of the people who will be using the software. For outside help with the buying process, businesses can opt for services that make it easier to buy the right SaaS. Businesses can take advantage of the services provided by businesses like Vendr to simplify the process of finding, buying, and renewing their SaaS. Vendr will analyze your SaaS stack to see which software would be best for you, negotiate prices for you, and close the deal on your behalf. By doing all this, Vendr simplifies your business’ software buying and renewal process.
Finding the right SaaS for your business is crucial if you would like things to run smoothly. To find the right SaaS, businesses must consider a lot of factors including whether they need the software, how it will improve the business, the price, and whether they can test the software before they commit to a purchase.
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