By David Ebel, Principal Consultant
SaaS Accelerator
When embarking on Software as a Service implementation projects, few things are more underestimated than the solution customizations which will be required to make the final product suit the enterprise operation. In my experience the scoping of solution customizations is the most critical aspect of a SaaS project.
Solution customizations are the project aspects most likely to cause delays in launch and budget-exceeding costs. Moreover, many customizations are required for launch and can hold up the entire effort if they are not properly identified and scoped early on. Your best bet is to rely on your internal staff or a hired expert to assist in determining your SaaS customization needs prior to beginning the implementation of your project.
What commonly goes wrong?
Fundamentally, SaaS providers have made a bet that their solution will work for a broad spectrum of a specific market and that customizations will be brief and superficial. Unfortunately as the role of these applications becomes more core to enterprise organizations, the critical customizations required are much more than simple bullet points on a project plan template.
In many cases clients are trusting that the solution provider will come to understand their business and have the time and expertise to make the "out of the box" solution fit their business needs. This expectation can be costly to the client, since solution customizations are not commonly core to a SaaS company's business model.
To resolve this issue it is important that the client project leads:
Taking the responsibility of determining solution gaps away from the vendor and giving it to an experienced independent client advocate is an excellent way to improve the project scoping process. Simply put, it stops the dependence on the SaaS vendor to provide critical project requirements in an area where they are reasonably not equipped to be the expert. After all, no one understands your business like you do.
The 500 pound needle in the haystack is not impossible to find or manage properly. It takes focus, experience, and decisive action to ensure that a SaaS project is scoped thoroughly and customizations are accurately identified early on. Once this often overlooked concern is addressed, the project can be brilliantly handled so that everyone will be celebrating the launch right on time and within budget.
SaaS Accelerator
When embarking on Software as a Service implementation projects, few things are more underestimated than the solution customizations which will be required to make the final product suit the enterprise operation. In my experience the scoping of solution customizations is the most critical aspect of a SaaS project.
Solution customizations are the project aspects most likely to cause delays in launch and budget-exceeding costs. Moreover, many customizations are required for launch and can hold up the entire effort if they are not properly identified and scoped early on. Your best bet is to rely on your internal staff or a hired expert to assist in determining your SaaS customization needs prior to beginning the implementation of your project.
What commonly goes wrong?
Fundamentally, SaaS providers have made a bet that their solution will work for a broad spectrum of a specific market and that customizations will be brief and superficial. Unfortunately as the role of these applications becomes more core to enterprise organizations, the critical customizations required are much more than simple bullet points on a project plan template.
In many cases clients are trusting that the solution provider will come to understand their business and have the time and expertise to make the "out of the box" solution fit their business needs. This expectation can be costly to the client, since solution customizations are not commonly core to a SaaS company's business model.
To resolve this issue it is important that the client project leads:
- Thoroughly review the “out of the box” functionality the SaaS solution contains
- Identify gaps that will need to be met with vendor or client hosted customizations
- Thoroughly describe the details of these requirements prior to project start
Taking the responsibility of determining solution gaps away from the vendor and giving it to an experienced independent client advocate is an excellent way to improve the project scoping process. Simply put, it stops the dependence on the SaaS vendor to provide critical project requirements in an area where they are reasonably not equipped to be the expert. After all, no one understands your business like you do.
The 500 pound needle in the haystack is not impossible to find or manage properly. It takes focus, experience, and decisive action to ensure that a SaaS project is scoped thoroughly and customizations are accurately identified early on. Once this often overlooked concern is addressed, the project can be brilliantly handled so that everyone will be celebrating the launch right on time and within budget.
No comments:
Post a Comment