What advantages do Saas solutions offer over traditional approaches?

What are the short-term benefits?

What are the long-term benefits?

How do I select a SaaS provider?

For what type of businesses or operations are SaaS solutions well suited?

What role will my internal IT department play if I choose SaaS?

What services will SaaS provide?

How do SaaS providers price their services?

Why does SaaS cost less than traditional distributed client/server approaches?

What is Software as a Service (SaaS)?

A Software as a Service (SaaS) provider is a company that offers individuals or enterprises access over the Internet to applications and related services that would otherwise have to be located in their own personal or enterprise computers. SaaS solutions are expected to become an important alternative, not only for smaller companies with low budgets for information technology, but also for larger companies as a form of outsourcing and for many services for individuals as well.

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What advantages do SaaS solutions offer over traditional approaches?

	Cost reduction for technology. For users of all sizes from "mom and pop" restaurants to Fortune 500 companies and global multi-chain restaurants, the SaaS advantage is a monthly fee to access applications instead of having to invest thousands or millions to create and maintain IT infrastructure.
	Shorter implementation cycles compared to a typical in-house rollout of technology.
	The company can focus on its "core competency" of opening and running restaurants, for example, instead of implementing and maintaining hardware, software, help desk, and other internal IT issues.
	Eliminates or reduces recruiting, retaining and retraining IT personnel.
	Guaranteed "up time". Most SaaS solutions can provide this guarantee because they invest in high-end hardware and operating environments.
	Affordable access to current technology and tier-one business applications.
	SaaS solutions provide "one-stop shopping" in which a company can take care of all IT needs in one place.
	SaaS users do not have to pay for licenses for the software they use, install, upgrade, or fix.
	Full integration of multiple applications and software upgrades is provided.
	The customer benefits from economies of scale.

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What are the short-term benefits?

	Enables users to access state-of-the-art technology immediately without upfront investment in hardware and software.
	Implementation is usually significantly faster than internal solutions.
	Accelerates time-to-benefit.

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What are the long-term benefits?

	Software upgrades at no additional cost; avoids technology obsolescence.
	No retraining of IT personnel as technologies change.
	More available capital to fund business growth.
	Scalability as you grow and open new stores or as you change strategies and close stores.

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How do I select a SaaS provider?

SaaS Vendor Checklist: We recommend evaluating SaaS solutions on the following dimensions:

		Focus – look for vertical focus in the restaurant industry.
		Proven – select a provider with proven, field-tested applications and service contracts.
		Expertise – ensure management team knows the restaurant industry.
		Support – evaluate implementation support, help desk, and training.
		Security – require backup, recovery, encrypted data, firewalls, ID and password access.

If you're in the market for a SaaS solution, we recommend you ask the following specific questions to service providers:

		How long have you been operating as a SaaS?
		How many customers do you serve?
		What applications do you provide to them?
		How long is a typical contract between your company and customers?
		What is the technology expertise and business experience of the senior management team?
		What industries do you focus on? Are you vertically focused in one industry?
		Do you have "failover" backup to assure application uptime 24/7?
		Do you offer online support through help desks, email or other services?
		Do you offer automatic data upload and download from applications?
		Do you provide clear user logs that show user activity by application?
		How easily can you add new users?
		Do you ensure performance levels are maintained with a service-level agreement or customer satisfaction guarantee?
		Is automatic offline data backup scheduling offered?
		Do you offer automatic load balancing to assure accessibility?
		What is your software upgrade policy, ie. How often are applications upgraded and how quickly are upgrades implemented?
		Do you provide implementation and training services?

Source: CIO.com and the ASP Industry Consortium.

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For what type of businesses or operations are SaaS solutions well suited?

	Distributed or multi-unit operations.
	Businesses with high capital requirements who can benefit from higher returns by investing this capital in unit expansion, rather than investment in technology hardware and infrastructure.
	Small businesses that have the need for technology applications, but not the budget to invest in hardware and infrastructure.
	Large operations with many units who are tying up capital in technology at the store level and could benefit from the cost savings of outsourcing the high costs of maintaining a large internal IT department to support these operations.

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What role will my internal IT department play if I choose SaaS?

Choosing SaaS will enable your internal IT department to focus on strategic issues around technology in your business, rather than the time-consuming activities of hardware and software maintenance and user support. You may find that you need fewer internal resources than previously.

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What services will SaaS provide?

	Application selection.
	Application integration across your applications and systems.
	Data management.
	User training.
	Implementation across your system.
	Hosting of applications.
	User support: help desk, etc.
	Security.
	Other professional services.

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How do SaaS solutions price their services?

Typically, there is a one-time implementation fee plus a low, monthly subscription fee. The advantage of this pricing is lower cost and predictable IT costs that can significantly aid in your forecasting and budgeting, as well as acquisition of capital.

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Why do SaaS solutions cost less than traditional distributed client/server approaches?

Economy of scale allows SaaS solutions to spread their investment in hardware and software over their entire user base. These savings are passed on to the users.

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