Our blog guest is Matthew Bertram, SaaS business lead for Micro Focus Asia Pacific & Japan. We’ll discuss all things SaaS—including why SaaS makes business sense, the most common SaaS question, and some advice for getting started.
In fact, did you know Micro Focus has been offering SaaS for over 20 years? But the truth is that many companies are still running older on-prem applications, and SaaS is not as mainstream as you might think. According to a recent Forrester article, SaaS makes up less than a quarter of the revenue in some software segments. But as companies look to modernise their operations, they’re increasingly turning to SaaS.
One recent IDC article talked about “storms of disruption” affecting the marketplace. Given these disruptions, is SaaS the right strategy now?
Yes, definitely. Let me explain. Companies are facing multiple challenges — for example, talent shortages, lower IT budgets, security threats. SaaS can help mitigate these challenges.
Our SaaS customers tell us that they’ve eased staff shortages by shifting all maintenance and upgrade work to us, and now their staff can focus on innovation and core business operations instead.
SaaS also offers flexibility for scaling your operations. You can tap into additional capacity or capabilities as you need to without high-cost commitments up front. If you’re aiming to keep your costs low, you can try out new services or onboard teams gradually.
We see customers opting for SaaS even in geographies where there are no staff shortages. Why? Because they can delegate key security responsibilities to their application provider, which means they can stop worrying so much about security incidents or application vulnerabilities. That’s hassle-free software.
Name the top two reasons for moving to SaaS today?
There are two big reasons why SaaS makes a lot of business sense. The first is to reduce costs. The second is to keep up to date with the latest software.
Let’s talk about cost first. When you run software on premises, there are hidden costs beyond the software itself. Think about backup costs, security costs, infrastructure costs, IT staffing costs. These costs can add up.
SaaS eliminates operational and upgrade costs associated with software and infrastructure lifecycles. The application provider manages all this overhead for you, so all you need to do is use the application.
The second big reason to consider SaaS is to keep your software up to date. We’re all used to our phone apps seamlessly updating, so why can’t enterprise software be the same?
All too often, I hear of customers who are two to three years behind the latest version, which means they’re not getting the most value out of their investment. The most common reasons for falling behind on upgrades are the cost, the time, and the skills required.
With SaaS, you’re always on the latest release. Instead of spending time taking care of the application, you can focus on achieving business outcomes by using the application.
Watch video: Why Move to Micro Focus SaaS?
In your role, what’s the most common question you get asked about SaaS?
“Where’s your data centre?” is the by far the most common question. Customers want to get a sense of application performance and data security when using SaaS. Understandably, highly-regulated industries must have their data onshore and that data must be managed by onshore security teams to meet data residency requirements. “Will my data be secure?” is the next most frequently asked question.
Customers also ask, “If we go to SaaS, can we integrate with on-prem systems?” The answer, of course, is yes. “Can I move from SaaS back to on-prem?” is another question that comes up for some customers who are thinking about potential changes in costs and regulations in the future. Here too, the answer is yes, though I’ve yet to see customers moving from SaaS back to on-prem.
How should companies address their concerns about SaaS data security, especially if they’re considering SaaS for the first time?
It’s about working through the process of understanding how the SaaS vendor keeps your data safe and gaining confidence in that. Talk openly and transparently through service-level objectives (SLOs), operational practices, and procedures for data backup, retention, and protection.
Here at Micro Focus, we’re very comfortable having these conversations. We’ve been delivering SaaS services for a long time, so companies can have confidence in our scale, our capabilities, and our governance and security controls. We have robust policies for information security and customer data management, and our Micro Focus SaaS solutions are ISO-27001 and SOC 2 certified.
Let’s talk briefly about SMAX—the Micro Focus service automation solution, which is available as SaaS. Based on your experience, what makes customers choose SMAX SaaS?
There are three main reasons why customers chose SMAX SaaS.
First, there’s ease of use. ITSM admins can quickly configure processes, and users can easily open requests and get the answers they’re searching for.
Second, SMAX’s built-in analytics capabilities are very appealing. Customers have been particularly impressed with predictive risk analysis for change management, for example.
Third, SMAX on SaaS accelerates time to value because the solution is almost immediately available. There’s no waiting for infrastructure to be provisioned, databases to be setup, or software installation to complete.
Can you share any recent customer stories about SMAX SaaS implementations?
One customer — an environmental intelligence technology company — was running an age-old on-prem ticketing system. They were falling behind on updates and their users were finding alternative ways to work. They knew they had to modernise. Not having to worry about upgrades and having an expert organisation be responsible for ongoing maintenance was key.
We set up the SMAX SaaS environment in one week. In a few short months, the company had SMAX up and running and integrating with their CRM, communication, and monitoring tools.
For another customer, cost savings was a big motivator. This customer was being hit by huge costs from another SaaS vendor. SMAX SaaS flexible licensing met their cost-reduction needs, and features like the self-service portal and built-in analytics met their productivity goals.
Overall feedback is very positive, and customers are happy about achieving fast time to value.
If you could give one piece of advice to a company onboarding SaaS, what would you say?
Start with the business problems you’re trying to solve. Is it enabling user productivity? Is it streamlining processes? Is it reducing costs? Then ask what the right solution is and how it should be deployed or consumed.
Having said that, we believe SaaS is the best way to consume SMAX, and that’s what most of our customers are choosing. Getting started with SMAX SaaS is easy, too. You can try it out for free, and Micro Focus simplifies your service desk transition with migration toolkits, expert services, and a network of global partners.
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