Saas, or software as a service, applications are growing in popularity in demand across smaller the mid sized companies across the globe.  Two of the key attractive features of these applications are the low cost of entry and the fast up time of the enterprise solutions that greatly increase the projects ROI. In a nationwide survey, one out of six mid-sized businesses were using an SaaS solution.

Saas, or software as a service, applications are growing in popularity in demand across smaller the mid sized companies across the globe.  Two of the key attractive features of these applications are the low cost of entry and the fast up time of the enterprise solutions that greatly increase the projects ROI. In a nationwide survey, one out of six mid-sized businesses were using an SaaS solution.

 IT managers need to make sure that the implementation of the application with the back-end is indeed “fast” as delays and problems in this area could negatively impact the positive return on investment of these ERP, enterprise resource management, initiatives.   In fact, implementation of SaaS sytems is the number one concern of CIOs and IT managers when choosing an enterprise application for their company and why many managers are not going with SaaS solutions.  Security concerns with Saas solutions is another reason for hesitation as many IT manager feel that  SaaS vendors do not have adequate hosting or back up facilities.

There are a variety of implementation approached IT manager can take when bringing on an SaaS solution.  Two examples are and extract, transform and load approach versus an integration appliance approach.  A solution to help decide which integration methodology is right for you is to decide what approaches would be best for your organization, and then test out a trial integration with one data record with both methodologies and perhaps with multiple integration consultants.  You may be surprised to find that one consulting firm may be able to load the record up in a couple of hours while another implementation team may not be able to load it at all using the same methodology. 

Integrating with your current back end system may be one thing but choosing a system that can grow with your company is another factor when choosing an SaaS solution.  You may find that with your current growth trajectory that your current SaaS solution may not be able to keep up the pace with your organization 3 years down the road.  Enterprise solution strategies and products should have

There are also a slew of third party solutions, appliances, and off the shelf tools that can help with your integration as well.  There are also a new array of consulting firms in the marketplace today that specifically focus on third party integration consulting with SaaS solutions such as Informatica, and even a new division in the large consulting houses like Accenture.  It is clear that traditional integration approaches are the wrong methodology for Saas solutions.  Integration appliances, which are designed to work with SaaS solutions are the way to go, and the consulting firms specializing in SaaS integration know, or should know this.

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