Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/94708
Technicalities SaaS. Your supplier will be committed to keeping your functionality current and compliant on a regular basis, perhaps as often as three or four times a year, and you have a limited choice about when you take this new version. Along with all other clients, you will be offered a number of fixed windows in which to assess, test, and move to the latest version. How do you handle an upgrade three times a year and how is this compounded if you have more that one SaaS supplier who also provides additional new releases each year? This is a new challenge for the organisation. The need for clear documentation of what you have configured and the value of testing skills and testing tools and co-ordination disciplines will be critical, particularly in complex large organisations. Fortunately, the suppliers keep the mandatory changes to a minimum, allowing you to choose when and where you switch on any new functionality. But there's no getting away from the fact that testing and coordination skills will be critical to the success of the operation of the system. The more you have configured process variation within the system, the more your testing overhead will be with each new release. The supplier will provide much documentation to support you, but the reality is your organisation will need to work around the release dates that the provider supplies regardless of business reorganisations, tax and financial year ends, acquisitions and divestments, holidays, etc. The traditional roles for IT and the business will need re-exploring, particularly if this is the first cloud-based SaaS solution that the organisation is deploying against a backdrop of on premise enterprise solutions. Does IT and the business truly understand what a cloud-based SaaS solution really means, or as you get closer and closer to go-live data, will you hear the ever increasing alarm call from IT of "but when will we get the code?" That would be a clear sign that the new reality has not been understood. It remains critical that projects are worked on jointly, but you will have more choice about where responsibilities for operational, day-to-day running, management, and future configuration of the system sit. There will be the challenge that now that you are no longer delving into technical coding, and are rather more focussed on configuring by switching options on and off, the nature of the expertise changes and where do the new expertise best sit? You might want to consider this sitting in the business. IT's role would then become focussing on validating security, supporting integrations, and checking network and desktop performance. But you will still need all the disciplines that the IT departments have built over time around clear current documentation, sound testing skills, thorough environment disciplines, tracking tools for problem recording and SLA reporting, etc. If system support sits in the business, how will you ensure that all of these skills and disciplines are shared and applied? Taking time at the beginning of your project to fully educate and explore the implications of cloud-based SaaS solutions will pay dividends and ensure that everyone understands their role. It will result in a more holistic project plan and successful legacy for the business. Louise Aries is founder of the HR consultancy, PeopleChangeExperience. She can be reached at aries225@btinternet.com FALL 2012 | www.hroglobal.com [39]