Top 10 Myths About SaaS

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The Top 10 Myths About the SaaS Service Desk

1. The SaaS Service Desk is not enterprise ready

Commonly perceived as a new idea, SaaS has been around for years, and in that time has become enterprise ready. Today the question isn't "Is SaaS ready?" SaaS is undoubtedly ready, the question really is, "how many areas can I reduce costs by implementing SaaS-based solutions?" InteQ's InfraDesk, for example, delivers reliability scalability and high performance to large, enterprise clients including one that has over 40,000 users located around the globe.

2. The SaaS Service Desk doesn't save you money

There are several cost-models (espoused by traditional vendors) which maintain that over time, because the initial investments are depreciated, the cost of traditional software solutions will decline. However, this statement does not take into account the cost of imminent, mandatory upgrades that require re-implementation of the service desk each time a new version is released, a common occurrence in the traditional implementation. SaaS also eliminates the traditional infrastructure costs (such as hardware and extended storage capacity) and any additional resources required to maintain and administer traditional solutions.

3. The SaaS Service Desk lacks integration capabilities

SaaS Service Desks come "out of the box" today with a wide variety of integration modules. Single sign-on integration and Active Directory synchronization are two common implementations within SaaS delivered solutions. In rare cases in which an "off the shelf" integration does not exist, SaaS vendors use technology such as XML, and Web Services to provide full integration capabilities to meet any business need.

4. The SaaS Service Desk lacks flexibility

SaaS Service Desks are completely configurable to satisfy the unique needs of the environment. In fact, they are frequently more user-friendly as they have been designed to use web-based technology. There is no workflow configuration or ticketing needs that the SaaS Service Desk cannot meet.

5. The SaaS Service Desk restricts access to data

The SaaS Service Desk provides the customer with transparent access to all their data through either Web 2.0 interfaces, or pre-configured data-download facilities which allows the customer to have all their data in whatever format they require. Internal restrictions may be defined within the environment based on the users' role.

6. The SaaS Service Desk is not secure

SaaS Service Desks use strict policies and controls to manage industry standard security control objectives. SaaS solutions use dedicated database instances for maximum data segregation between customers and are accessed over SSL connections. SaaS Service Desks provide high availability (>99.97%) that meet and often exceed the levels of traditional on-premises software and are delivered with encrypted data and transaction backups to ensure quick recovery in the event of any failure.

7. The SaaS Service Desk doesn't remove my need to "program"

While this depends on your choice of vendor, modern SaaS Service Desks allow you to freely configure your workflow based on business rules and fields within the database. However, some vendors will embed scripting languages into their products, which introduce the need for programming back into the environment.

8. The SaaS Service Desk has few features

Today, leading SaaS solution providers ensure full-function products upon implementation that include integrated Incident Management, Problem Management, Request Fulfillment, Change Management, Configuration Management, in addition to benefitting from add-on features delivered through seamless upgrades.

9. The SaaS Service Desk has large implementation costs

The SaaS Service Desk has minimal implementation costs. This delivery method entirely eliminates the need for infrastructure (software/hardware) and technology implementation costs that are required for traditional apps. Another benefit is the accelerated implementation cycle resulting in a much higher return on overall value against on-premise software solutions. While traditional applications may take up to a year to implement, SaaS solutions process implementations are simpler, due to more modern, web-based interfaces and are able to be configured within a few weeks.

10. SaaS will only have a minor impact on the software industry and will fade over time

Companies of all sizes are turning to SaaS delivered applications for several needs, including the Service Desk, to reduce operational costs without sacrificing functionality. In fact, the newly appointed CIO of the United States, Vivek Kundra, is encouraging government's use of software-as-a-service. We can anticiapte that the acceptance and implementation of SaaS delivered solutions will increase and the providers who develop these app's will continue to ensure needs are met.

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