One of the core guiding principles of SaaS applications is to serve as many customers as possible through a shared multi-tenant architecture of applications.
Users benefit from this sharing model because software vendors are able to leverage economies of scale to deliver value with a wide range of features and workflows, high levels of security, and availability of services.
Previously, only Fortune 500 companies could do this.
The flip side of this democratization of off-the-shelf cloud-based software solutions, however, is that enterprises must weigh a degree of flexibility when it comes to customizing solutions to their actual needs.
Before SaaS, one of the traditional approaches companies took was to buy off-the-shelf, local solutions and outsource them to contractors for customization and implementation.
Another approach is to build the software you need in-house, which is perfectly affordable for large companies with larger budgets.
Both approaches enable businesses to tailor their IT solutions to a higher degree, but both carry headaches, including maintenance of operating expenses and the risk that their ambitious projects will evaporate along with their inferred ROI.
Standardized off-the-shelf software cannot forever support iteratively changing requirements (such as business expansion or trend changes) or long-term business operations.
Therefore, if SaaS is the best available model for software delivery, we’d better take a closer look at the complexity and granularity of customization and configuration. SaaS customization is more important than you might think.
1. Understand business requirements and focus on 20% SaaS customizable feature set
Vendors can build customizations and configurations into the product or provide them through a high-touch approach.
System architects in the SaaS space need to constantly communicate with product teams and sales teams to determine the boundaries between standardization and customization.
Customer needs are complex and specific, and those are key, and business needs are often not as simple as buying a white iPhone.
When we talk about SaaS customization, we don’t just talk about development, we dive into business requirements, understand the business, and shape it.
Not only do large companies with high touch customization need to customize products to meet their unique needs, but even small companies have very different product requirements.
Software vendors need to strike a balance in order to provide enough customization and configuration for their products.
This customized product doesn’t stray too far from the core multi-tenant SaaS, because you and your IT team don’t want to be dealing with three-hour customer support calls to help them with outlier implementations.
So the key to designing SaaS products is to follow a theory-based approach to constraints on what can and cannot be changed. It’s hard to stick to this custom line, but don’t give in.
Some of the most common use cases require the ability to add custom fields, the ability to define custom workflows, the ability to customize my overview, custom quick filters to narrow the scope, subtle permission schemes, and so on.
So instead of listening to every customer need, focus on the 20% customizable feature set that brings 80% of the value.
CORNERSTONE is highly configurable and manages different business processes
A good example of a highly configurable product is CORNERSTONE, which is successful because of its superior configurability.
For this reason, many companies use CORNERSTONE to manage different business processes. For example, the sales department uses CORNERSTONE to manage pre-sale, in-sale, and after-sale processes. The Marketing Department uses CORNERSTONE to manage marketing activities. Services uses CORNERSTONE to manage service contracts, service requests, service level agreements and performance. The purchasing department uses CORNERSTONE to manage the hiring planning, application, sourcing, bidding, contract signing, delivery and acceptance processes. The Programs department uses CORNERSTONE to manage the programs and program offices. The Human Resources department uses CORNERSTONE to manage employee planning, hiring, attendance, benefits, leave, pay, performance, career and succession. CORNERSTONE is used by employees and contractors to manage documents and automate document flow. As a new generation of enterprise management software, CORNERSTONE is highly configurable and customizable out of the box, which makes it suitable for most industries, enterprises and enterprise functions.
CORNERSTONE uses a unified data definition and database model to completely connect the internal and external parts of the enterprise, enabling real-time transmission and sharing of data and information, which is a good solution to the problem of information isolation in multiple SaaS applications.
CORNERSTONE system can be single module or suite, covering CRM, project management, procurement and supplier management, personnel management, OA, finance and other functional modules.
Each module can be automatically integrated, with the fastest speed and lowest cost to achieve the goal of digital transfer and business automation.
Different enterprises have different needs for SaaS services. CORNERSTONE provides one-stop cloud customization and secondary development services for enterprises, striving to adapt SaaS to the pace of enterprise development and make enterprises truly based on business needs.
Reasonable and effective use of project management software, not only can let us work orderly, but also to the maximum extent to ensure the achievement of project objectives. I recommend CORNERSTONE, which provides modules for task/requirements/test management, iteration planning, defect tracking, report statistics, team collaboration, wikis, file sharing, and calendars and is now free for teams of 20 or less.
