The ability of tenants to create custom views, data structures, and workflows is critical to the success of Software-as-a-Service. In this paper, we explore the variety of configurable options, typical technical challenges, and common approaches for optimizing SaaS configurability.
Configurability in SaaS User Customization & Configuration in Software-as-a-Service Deployments White Paper | Copyright Lionbridge 2009
White Paper | Copyright Lionbridge 2009 | WP-539-1109-2|Page 1 White Paper
At a Glance
The ability of tenants to create custom views, data structures, and workflows is critical to the success of Software-as-a-Service. In this paper, we explore the variety of configurable options, typical technical challenges, and common approaches for optimizing SaaS configurability.
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Who Should Read This Paper . CIOs and CTOs seeking a clear picture of SaaS configuration and customization . Product Development VPs and Managers responsible for guiding product direction . Architects wanting a broad overview of technical approaches to SaaS user configurability
Introduction As Software-as-a-Service spreads rapidly as a business model among ISVs, the importance of SaaS configurability has come to the fore. With increasingly competitive deployments, the ability of individual tenants to configure their own options, business processes, and data structures will become the key differentiator among otherwise similar offerings-and will often prove critical to the success or failure of a SaaS deployment. Indeed, SaaS implementations are much more likely to be configured by customers than on-premises software, which has traditionally been configured by vendors or third-party integrators. The art of creating these customizable options is evolving rapidly, with technical strategies growing more diverse and sophisticated every day. Everyone involved in the field-developers, vendors, and customers alike-should be aware of the challenges, limitations, and techniques in achieving SaaS configurability. Some Definitions . Software-as-a-Service A single codebase deployed at a central location, and available on-demand, via the web, to multiple customers, known as Tenants.
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. Configurability The ability of a tenant to control the behavior of the application on a custom basis, despite its single codebase. Configurability allows a SaaS deployment to serve the diverse needs of the various tenants; and in cases where a tenant has many users, to cater to the individual users' diverse needs as well. . SaaS Customization & SaaS Personalization The terms "customization" and "personalization" are sometimes used by developers to denote what this paper refers to as "configurability." For this paper, we assume that these three terms are interchangeable . Tenant Users & Tenant Administrators For the purposes of this paper, we define two classes of users at the customer level: Tenant Administrators have the highest level of rights to configure the system for the needs of their company, including assigning rights, as needed, to Users. Tenant Users have some rights to configure their tenancy, but less rights than Administrators. For example, an Administrator may have the right to determine the data fields used in a particular form, while a user may only have rights to configure the way the form is displayed. . Multi-Tenant Efficiency The ability to scale for many tenants without impacting the quality of service to each tenant provided by a SaaS system. . Multi-Tenant Isolation The ability of many tenants to store data securely and configure the system individually, without affecting other tenants. The Configurable Elements in a SaaS Application To meet the varied needs of the widest array of customers, the SaaS vendor should consider the following configurable elements: Access Rights This is the ability of the Tenant Administrator to define roles, allocate users to roles, and specify the privileges of these roles within available features and data. Branding This refers to user-interface elements like graphics, colors, etc., which allow the customer to have its own "branding" of the application. This is also referred to as "white labeling" or the ability to "skin" the application. Control of the user interface will often be divided between
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Tenant Administrators and Tenant Users, with users given some ability to change their screen displays. Features Offered In many cases, tenants a... [download for more]
