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Software as a service (SaaS) applications have a lot to offer businesses of all sizes and in every sector. Developed by specialists to perform a selection of functions, SaaS offers enterprises access to common or industry-specific tooling that would be time-consuming to develop in-house. SaaS products evolve in response to requests and suggestions from their users and offer excellent value-for-money.
However, as with everything that sounds too good to be true, there is a downside. Introducing SaaS to your organisation can create unexpected problems. For example, sales and marketing might love using HubSpot, Dynamics or SalesForce but they still need to be included in the corporate infrastructure and applications.
Getting the various SaaS programs to play nicely with each other, and with the existing infrastructure, can be challenging. Users expect around the clock continuity no matter how complex the environment is. This can put your IT department under extra pressure – they’re responsible for the end-to-end working of all software, including the interaction with SaaS, which is hosted externally and out of sight.
SaaS benefits
SaaS risks
While SaaS offers many business benefits there are 4 main challenges:
Integration is essential so that you can have a complete view of everything you need to know about your business operation. Without effective integration, data is isolated, scattered, and stored in multiple locations. When integrated, your business processes can work seamlessly across interconnected solutions in harmony with each other.
Setting up SaaS subscriptions for an application is affordable and can be done with a few mouse clicks. Connecting it with existing systems is a different matter. Integration efforts are often underestimated, or even overlooked, in budgeting exercises. Because the applications evolve and change at a pace outside your control, integration is an ongoing process. Managing and monitoring are sometimes forgotten – users assume that integration is a one-off project, rather than a process that evolves constantly as the applications themselves do.
Before you implement a solution, you need to identify what is causing the problem. Doing this quickly in a scattered and disconnected landscape of multiple applications is complicated. The more systems that are involved, the more complex it is to find the root cause. Downtime while you figure out what is causing the problem can impact your business. How can you monitor external services in your organization’s ecosystem? Is it even possible to predict and avoid future problems?
Chris, in Sales and Marketing, is using HubSpot to track sales leads and manage customer journeys. The marketing automation it offers is perfect for his department’s ambitious plans. However, they want to connect it with Microsoft Dynamics 365 which operates on their main corporate CRM platform. This is a challenge because Chris is not sure if they have been following the IT department’s rules. The Sales and Marketing Director is concerned that the IT department might not prioritize the changes, or worse, that they will tell Sales and Marketing that they cannot use the SaaS applications that they rely on to meet their targets.
Other examples include:
Of course, these challenges should not mean that your business stops using SaaS applications. That would be unrealistic. It would put you at a competitive disadvantage.What you need is a way to eliminate those blind spots, illuminate the shadow IT, and make sure that your security and data guidelines are not inadvertently breached.You need end-to-end integration between all applications, no matter how big or small. Enter iPaaS.
Some see it as the digital glue between the data, applications, and partners. It works no matter what the software is, where it is running or how it is deployed. You could compare it to Nightvision goggles, giving you 20/20 vision on every hidden corner of all the applications being used throughout your organisation. No more gaps or data silos, no more broken processes or alternative paths. Simply put, it brings order to the digital chaos.
Whatever you compare it to, using iPaaS gets rid of those Monday morning headaches when something seems wrong. You’ll have the 360-degree view crucial to keeping things running smoothly and securely. You’ll be able to detect potential issues before they develop and have an audit trail of data organisation-wide.
iPaaS gives you a universal and secure way to use third party services. Your company’s departments will continue to have all the business value of the SaaS products they love. Your IT department will have the confidence that everyone is using SaaS securely. Service credentials are stored in a secure vault and managed by your IT department. It’s a win-win for everyone.
Eliminate potential downtime and bring order to the digital chaos with iPaaS.
Advantages of iPaaS
Introducing a SaaS component without disrupting business processes
Even the smallest organization runs myriad tools and applications to support their business. Systems may be operating from the cloud, on-site servers or on mobile platforms. Ensuring that these systems run smoothly together so as not to disrupt business processes is a challenge.