With the experience from the Web 2.0 era, Social Media and Consumer Web Applications, modern day users have developed similar expectations from Business Applications. This phenomenon has a significant impact on user adoption rates of Enterprise Cloud and SaaS Apps.

For Cloud and SaaS applications where switching costs are nearly wiped out, the challenge is for vendors to provide end users with a compelling user experience that will increase trial-to-subscription and renewal rates.

We developed an ebook which showcases some of the applications which have undergone significant transformation by careful consideration given to the User Experience and Design aspects. Find out why you need to ensure that UX is no longer an after thought for your Cloud and SaaS apps.

Get the ebook here.

The Google Apps Market place ever since its launch in 2010, has become a vibrant ecosystem and a market place for ISVs (Independent Software Vendors) providing business cloud apps.

Today there are hundreds of applications from developers all over the world using Google Apps Marketplace to sell directly to the 30 million Google Apps users at over 3M businesses and higher education institutions. (Source: official Google blog)

This is a huge opportunity for someone like our client;  a leading systems integrator of SaaS solutions based in the UK. The client has successfully resold Google Apps to over 1300 enterprise clients and provides on-going product support.  Their first step to success was setting up a ‘Google Apps Incubator’ with Sabre.

So what does the ‘Google Apps Incubator’ do anyway?

The Incubator is geared towards taking a product idea or a concept and helping the product owner or startup, grow the product into a successful business venture. In the case of this particular client, its set up with the vision of developing product ideas on the Google App Engine.

The initial phase  is to document all product concepts and create a product backlog. We did this through an initial three day, intensive workshop with the client at our Innovation Centre.

We then start the process of defining a robust technical and business architecture. The long term evolution of the product is a high area of concern at this stage. Design mocks are produced with the view of optimizing the Application for usability.

The App is developed on a Cloud platform, Google App Engine in this case.

All of these are achieved within our FastBuild approach where the Client will get a marketable model of  the product in just 90 days.

The 1st Version has already been delivered and has received excellent feedback from the Client. The App is expected to be available shortly on the Google App Marketplace. More details to follow.

In 2009, we worked with the global lingerie brand, Triumph International’s Sri Lankan operation to develop a loyalty solution aimed at increasing the level of ‘customer intimacy’ the brand has with its consumers. The brand owns and operates a few boutiques in key shopping points but a significant portion of sales come from a ‘store-in-a-store’ network where its merchandise is sold at department stores and is manned by Triumph’s sales personnel. The challenge was to capture customer information at these sales points and for the brand to connect directly with its customers in a way that would increase loyalty and drive sales.

Sabre designed and developed ‘Insito’, a Cloud application that is available on a Software as a Service (SaaS) model which helps manage loyalty campaigns. The solution utilizes the multi-tenant efficient Sabre SaaS Framework which brings has built in Metering and Billing capabilities. This helps Triumph to avoid heavy upfront licensing fees and pay only for usage. The solution was deployed on the Amazon EC2 Cloud to bring in the scalability required. Through a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), the application is capable of integrating with Mobile phones and third party POS systems.

NFC (Near Field Communications) powered loyalty cards were issued to customers and sales personnel carry NFC enabled mobiles. To maximize the effectiveness at customer contact points, a mobile CRM (mCRM) application was introduced to run on sales personnel’s mobiles. Once a loyalty card is read by the sales person’s mobile, he or she can capture and record valuable customer behaviour information and record lost sales opportunities.
A lost sales opportunity occur when a customer decides to make a purchase but the right size, colour or style is unavailable. By recording a lost sale on the mCRm application Triumph has the ability to recover the sale when the right item becomes available by offering the customer a voucher via email or SMS; facilitated by the Insito solution.
In addition to the above, a Mobile Loyalty Wallet was introduced to the customers enrolled in the program. Customers are able to download and install an application that will enable them to view loyalty points, current promotions and gift vouchers. So far implemented to support Java (JME) based mobile phones, the objective is to increase the customer engagement with the loyalty program and subsequently the brand.
The Insito application provides extensive BI capabilities enabling Triumph to gain insight in to customer buying behavior, segment its customers and tailor make marketing messages accordingly.
This solution was a finalist at the WIMA/NFC Forum Global Competition 2009.
Contact us to find out how you can develop an innovative solution for your brand that will drive customer loyalty.

We have been sharing views on how an ISV can make smooth transition to the SaaS model.  Here we list down the next steps. If you missed the previous posts, check it out on our blog.

Step 7:  Design and Development
Our colleague and technical consultant, Tharaka de Alwis has identified some key factors that need to be taken into consideration when designing and developing SaaS applications and have put these in to good use on our projects. The SaaS model signifies a paradigm shift from the previously acknowledged software delivery models. Therefore new thinking has to go into designing and developing SaaS applications

Multi-tenancy – In order to cost effectively manage the cost of a growing tenant base, a single instance of the software is deployed.  In order to accommodate this, the software should be built on the principle of multi-tenancy.

Provisioning and Billing – An efficient provisioning system should be in place to address new requests.

User authentication and authorization – Each user of the tenant organization will have a unique ID and password. The system should have the necessary authentication and access privilege controls built in to it.

Scalability and resource management – A successful SaaS application will have hoards of concurrent users accessing the system. The application architecture and the infrastructure should be able to scale up and scale down as required.

Metering – SaaS apps are generally ‘pay-per-usage’. A robust metering mechanism should be in place to calculate usage levels of the application and generate monthly/quarterly bills based on these.

Reliability – sufficient fault tolerance mechanisms should be in place in line with the SLA to ensure a highly reliable software.

User Experience
A major driver of SaaS application adoption is the user experience. A rich, web 2.0 user interface will give a better experience to end users, leads to higher adoption rates; leads to more renewals; leads to a SaaS success.

Compliance
It’s also vital to keep a tab of compliance frameworks that maybe required in order to operate your SaaS application. Certifications such as SAS 70, PCI DSS are some of the standards that SaaS providers opt for.

Step 8: Adopting solid data security practices

A SaaS business must ensure that their application and client data is secure. Before selecting an IaaS provider, you should look into levels of security in place to protect their data centers, what backup and disaster recovery procedures they have in place and how they go about securing client data. The SaaS application should also have the capability built-in to clearly define user roles and access rights within a tenant organization. Users without the correct credentials should not be allowed to access more than what they are allowed access.

Step9: Adopting a solid support structure

You can have the best SaaS application in the market but without an efficient customer support service, you cannot expect your tenants to stick with your application. Put together a team of support professionals to handle ongoing customer support requests, carry out maintenance and upgrades.

Now if all of these sound too complicated for you to handle on your own, you can leverage on our services. We have developed a comprehensive SaaS architectural framework that will help you get a head start in your development efforts.  We will help you make a smooth transition to the SaaS model by bringing in our expertise.

During recent times, our SaaS specialization team has been working and researching in-depth in to various aspects of SaaS application delivery. Following is an abstract of a paper released by us which explains the importance of having a robust architecture and a powerful administration capabilities built into your application.

From the day you launch your SaaS product, the number of users (tenants) will start to grow. In order to cost effectively manage the increasing number of users, the SaaS application should be built on a Multi-tenant principle with a single instance of the software being deployed. However more often than not, your tenants will demand for customized billing packages, features, reports etc. Your clients will also want to test drive the application with a limited number of users initially and vary this with time.
And the more customers you acquire and start using your application, the more complicated it’s going to be in managing them. Having the flexibility within the application itself to cater to all of these needs is going to be an important differentiator between your product and your competitor’s. A multi-tenant efficient, meta-data driven architecture is the key to achieving this flexibility.

Trackr; a Software as a Service (SaaS) based GPS enabled fleet and mobile workforce management solution is developed on a robust SaaS Framework which inherently supports features such as multi-tenancy, interface customizability, billing, metering and configurability.

The paper discusses the capabilities of the Sabre SaaS Architectural Framework with an analysis of the requirements of a SaaS model such as provisioning, billing, metering and customizations. Read the complete document here.

In our previous blog we discussed how ISVs can take a measured approach towards ‘SaaS-ifying’ their products. We will continue to explore the next probable steps that can be taken on the journey to becoming a reliable SaaS provider and doing it successfully.

Step 4: Draw up an SLA
We cannot over emphasize the importance of a strong Service Level Agreement (SLA) in this industry. An SLA acts as a safety beacon for any software product company leave alone a SaaS provider. But when the software is provided as a service, this becomes even more vital. A solid SLA will be a two edged knife for a SaaS provider; it will add to your credibility as a reliable vendor, defining the services and support that will be provided and will clearly outline the limitation of your obligation towards clients (or should we say tenants?)

Step 5: Build the team
Software as a Service – see the word ‘service’ in there? Well make the service memorable and you have a winner. Delivering a superior SaaS experience depends to great extent on the level of service the company offers. The application needs to be backed by a strong team of support personnel and a customer support center. So to make sure you can back your super software with super service levels; put together a team of people who can handle it. And don’t forget to bring your current team up to speed on what’s required to succeed as a SaaS company and procure their buy-in.

Step 6: Set the time lines
You’re almost ready to start developing your SaaS application. One more boring (but important) step and you’re good to go. Draw up a project plan and set clear milestones. Remember, these are not the same as what may apply to traditional software project. Talk to us if you’d like to know more about how to manage a SaaS application development project.

That’s it for this post. On our next blog we’ll be getting in to the nuts and bolts of the development process. Subscribe to our blog to make sure you don’t miss out on this series discussing how a traditional software company can transition to the SaaS model.

If you are a software service provider and considering  a move to the SaaS model you can take advantage of our services. Find out more at www.sabretch.com

Gone are the days where a software product company makes a sale, signs a contract and hands over the project to the technical team. Thereon starts the process of customizing, tweaking and delivering all the features that your marketing team promised… well, almost. Despite the hype of moving into a SaaS based offering, software product companies are somewhat apprehensive about the whole SaaS deal. And for good reason; the hiccups of some of the early adopters.

Then there is the other approach; taking it one step at a time. While this may not be a ‘plug and play’ formula that can be applied off-the-shelf to each and every company, it does reflect a logical and managed journey towards delivering SaaS.

Step 1: Do a feasibility study

Possibly one of the most neglected yet critical areas. Before you go ahead and start developing the next salesforce.com, do an analysis from a neutral perspective. Ask questions such as why you should consider moving in to a SaaS model vs. sticking to the well known traditional one. Does the business and technology model make SaaS sense?  Also do a cost benefit analysis and research on flexibility of configuration, potential risks that may arise and licensing related issues of both delivery models.

Step 2: Set the aims and objectives of delivering a SaaS application

You’ve done the first step and determined that developing a SaaS application makes sense, great! Now set some objectives. Pen down what you want to achieve by delivering Software as a Service. It’s a good move to make a tentative marketing and sales plan at this point. This can be reviewed and altered later on.

Step 3: Consider the costs and the cash flows

The business model that SaaS operates is different to that of the traditional software product models. One of the most important dissimilarities is the nature of cash flow in a SaaS entity. Large, upfront licensing revenue is replaced by pay-as-you-go subscription income. This poses a question on the financing options available to a firm. A SaaS operator should also pay special attention to the potential fixed cost that will be incurred on aspects such as providing continuous support to the application.

In our next entry, we will look at a few more of the plausible steps that can be taken in order for software product companies delivering Software as a Service to make a glitch free transition.

The Sabre SaaS Methodology is a comprehensive tool that enables ISVs to minimize the potential pitfalls of rushing in to delivering SaaS applications. Find out more by visiting www.sabretch.com or write to us on info@sabretch.com.