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SaaS is something you touch and interact with every single day. It stands for “software as a service,” and applications like Zoom, Google Drive, Mailchimp and just about any other app or tech tool that you’re using in your business likely falls into this category.
It’s the catch-all term for software accessed online and via subscription-based payments (instead of installed and maintained on a specific computer).
More often than not, when we evaluate tech, it’s a lot of comparing features, collating price sheets, assessing where workflows can be streamlined, identifying consolidation opportunities, or trying to envision how more leads and business can be generated. However, the second S in SaaS (service) can be more than just the tech delivered to you.
The depth of service provided with the software is an area that is commonly overlooked when evaluating options or negotiating with vendors, and it’s rarely reviewed to the degree of features and functionality.
Effectively evaluating the services that a tech vendor provides upfront can help you avoid a lot of surprises, pitfalls and hidden costs down the road. Here are the things to look for and ask about:
Implementation challenges
Much of the risk and frustration of implementing and adopting new technology happens in the early days – anyone who has converted a CRM or anything similar can likely empathize with this.
There’s the time required to get data from an old system and into a new one. There’s also the time required to learn a new system, convince potential naysayers in your team or organization to transition over, and retrain muscle memory on where to click. The business disruption alone can be a major risk anytime you implement new tech.
There’s also the inherent risk of an implementation falling flat and not being used, as well as things falling through the cracks if a process isn’t set up correctly or critical data isn’t moved over.
Understanding how, and if, your vendor will support you during an implementation is often a critical aspect of a tech decision. Some questions to ask and evaluate for in this regard are:
Will the new system ingest data from your old system or will you be starting fresh?
What the right or wrong answer is here will be dependent on the type of tech you’re implementing. A new CRM should be able to easily take in your database, as that’s something that will follow you wherever you go.
In contrast, a transaction system may not need to do this, as old transaction documents can be easily stored in cloud storage, and you can more effectively begin with a clean slate in that area.