Is SaaS as a software delivery model living up to expectations? It doesn’t look that way.
In SaaS Fails to Impress Business, Gartner says that users of SaaS rate their satisfaction levels “a little more than luke warm”. On a seven point scale U.S. businesses gave it a 4.94 rating. British business leaders scored SaaS satisfaction even lower.
As Gartner put it, “the findings do not exactly provide a ringing endorsement of SaaS.” Gartner went on to say that “the general impression that SaaS could alleviate costs and that it does not require much integration where contradicted” and “for end users it’s difficult to realize cost benefits.” It seems that expectations exceeded reality.
When it comes to their employee recognition systems businesses evaluating the potential benefits of SaaS are beginning to temper their expectations as well. Many realize that it’s a tradeoff. On the one hand they figure that the remote hosting features will reduce technical costs and minimize, if not alleviate supporting requirements. But advances in wireless technologies resulting in ubiquitous “cloud” delivery–even for customized applications–has changed the math.
They also figure that standardized file sets will minimize the complexity of designing and administering their programs, but many learn during the actual execution stages that the relevant range limits governing all components of recognition processing inherent with SaaS actually add complexity (in the form of work arounds) to the mechanics of running their programs; something that can hinder adoption, utilization and in effect jeopardizes the entire business case.
So which is right for your business? Like any answer to a complex question the answer is always, “it depends”. Madison offers both–SaaS and customized–and understands how your business environment, structure and engagement goals influence the selection. We can help you access which is right for your company and more importantly get the most out of your choice moving forward.