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Faced with intensifying competition, as well as a desire for more stable revenue streams and stronger customer relationships, software companies are increasingly turning to the Software as a Service (SaaS) delivery model.
Adoption of SaaS is driven in part by end-users, who benefit from access to any application, from anywhere, on virtually any web-enabled device; better licensing and cost control; and assurance that the most recent version of the application is in use. SaaS is built on the legacy of the ASP model, but modernized and enhanced by today's robust web services integration capabilities, increased bandwidth and bandwidth availability, and more mature infrastructure.
As a strategic offering, SaaS has already shown that it can:
- Open new markets, revenue streams, and distribution channels
- Provide a stable, recurring revenue model
- Afford consolidation of development and support efforts around single versions of code
Now, software companies are facing the complex issues involved with building the service delivery capabilities necessary to support SaaS offerings. Building an SaaS infrastructure is a complex undertaking, requiring a committed team and a focused effort. End-users demand 100% uptime, appropriate Service Level Agreements, and 24x7 call center support. Meeting those demands requires 24x7 application and systems management, hosting, networking and security infrastructures, disaster recovery capabilities, change management policies and procedures, and more.
The Steps:
1. Understand your business objectives and definition of a successful outcome
2. Select and staff your services delivery team
3. Define and understand the infrastructure needed to deliver your SaaS application
4. Select your hosting facility and Internet Service Providers (ISPs)
5. Procure the infrastructure and software required to deliver your SaaS application
6. Deploy your SaaS delivery infrastructure
7. Implement disaster recovery and business continuity planning
8. Integrate a monitoring solution
9. Establish a Network Operations Center (NOC), Client Call Center and ticketing system
10. Design and manage Service Level Agreements 11. Document and manage the solution
In this white paper, we describe this high-level, step-by-step methodology for successfully starting operations with SaaS.
Page 2 ? A Step-by-Step Guide to StartingUp SaaS Operations ? ?2004 OpSource, Inc.
1: Discovery - Understand the Objectives for Your SaaS Offering
To successfully deploy a Software as a Service offering, you must be guided by clearly defined business requirements, objectives, and timelines. It is critical that these objectives are identified before starting the process. A detailed investigation and discovery process will set the direction for the subsequent decisions related to deploying the offering. Among the areas for investigation:
- How is the on-demand application designed to run?
- How is the on-demand application designed to be accessed? Where are the users of this application located when accessing the systems?
- Is the on-demand application designed to handle multiple users? If so, how?
- Is the on-demand application designed to meet scalability, security, and failover requirements? If so, how?
It is essential to understand the intricacies of your on-demand offering, and the challenges faced in transitioning dedicated applications to an SaaS platform that is traditionally operated by your client's ITorganization, prior to starting infrastructure design and component selection.
2: Designate the Operations Team
The SaaS task force then designates the Operations Team, comprised of seasoned veterans with both engineering and operational expertise, to design the scalable architecture for hosting the SaaS platform, based on the application's requirements. To be successful the Operations Team will need to have expertise in multiple technologies. Some of these include: system and application management; network and security management; change control expertise; infrastructure design; and deployment experience.
The Operations Team is tasked with developing design solutions that meet the stated objectives. Typically, this is approached one of two ways: from a bottom up, cost-based perspective; or from a top down, maximum needs perspective.
Unfortunately, neither of these approaches will result in an optimized, competitive offering. A cost-based approach may result in an under-built infrastructure that may not be as effective, efficient, scalable, or secure as is required. A maximum needs approach may result in an over-built infrastructure that is never fully utilized, incurring unnecessary costs and dragging down profits. A middle ground is best, resulting in a scalable solution that is logically linked to revenues.
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