Project Managing Software as a Service Supplier Selection

Unfortunately, when failure of the procured software services or supplier is realized, the contract has already been signed with the supplier; hence, a “first time right” approach becomes extremely crucial in selecting SaaS suppliers and services.

This white paper attempts to provide insight into the following:

• The need to consider SaaS supplier selection as a “project”
• Some key considerations while managing a SaaS supplier selection project

SaaS Supplier Selection is a “Project”

SaaS suppliers are usually viewed as specialists in a business domain, with good experience and wide expertise. Most of the time, teams doing the supplier selection are heavily influenced by this view; so much so, that they tend to look at SaaS supplier selection as an activity. There is a tendency to think: “Let’s see what the supplier(s) has(have)to offer and if we can change our business process or model accordingly.”

Implementing the SaaS model in itself presents some inherent risks that have to be managed. While you are relinquishing the control of your corporate data and allowing it to be hosted on external systems, you are definitely risking a potential breach of data privacy; this requires evaluating the data security mechanism provided by the supplier. When you are implementing SaaS…