The growth of a business depends purely on how satisfied your customer is. Here is a fact – an organization can satisfy customers only if its workforce is at peace. Dissatisfied employees are incapable of performing their jobs satisfactorily, resulting in a dip in service quality.

SaaS: An Introduction

It is important to provide employees with a stress-free work environment in order to reap maximum benefits out of a business. And how is this possible without impacting work productivity? The answer lies in streamlining workflows at the organization. This is possible by applying a SaaS (Software as a Service) system for effective data management.

This concept is reliant on cloud computing to make businesses accessible from any location in the world. SaaS offers employees total convenience while working on projects. One popular application of SaaS is Salesforce, which is an on-demand system that ensures better communication, data sharing and scheduling among employees.

SaaS enables data to remain centrally hosted in ‘clouds’ spread across the Internet. A SaaS-based application is accessible through a web browser and does not require having software installed on the local computer.

SaaS has become a widely accepted common delivery model and is gaining more popularity because of its centralized computing system concept. The whole concept is unique and provides its users a platform to share data and run businesses in an organized manner.

Benefits of SaaS

SaaS promotes the usage of smoother work flows within the organization. Let us discuss a few of the many advantages of this popular delivery model.

• Smooth and easy integration with existing technology environments
• Reduced software management responsibilities
• Economical implementation
• Easier access from anywhere. Anytime

What is Salesforce?

Salesforce ranks among the leading providers of cloud-based CRM systems. An ardent follower of the SaaS model, Salesforce helps organizations connect with employees and customers in the best possible manner. Salesforce not only helps a company ensure effective information sharing but also creates good business opportunities.

Best features of Salesforce are listed below:

• Quick and easier sharing of information
• Integration with Google ads to work efficiently
• Concept of cloud computing makes it a secure application
• Compatibility with all kinds of computing devices, including notebooks
• Efficient document and content management
• Quicker database access

Exploring SaaS in detail

It is now accepted in technology circles that SaaS is the most cost-effective software delivery model available today. A popular USP of a SaaS-based solution such as Salesforce is that businesses are not required to spend hefty amounts on software maintenance.

Irrespective of the size of the business, SaaS today is helping many organizations tackle day-to-day issues while performing the most complex tasks efficiently. An advantage is that all technical headaches are handled by the SaaS provider (a third-party vendor). You only need to put efforts in your business. SaaS only becomes better as your business grows and hence helps in achieving more profits.

SaaS has successfully been able to carve a niche in the software industry and is the preferred choice of many premier organizations. The following steps are undertaken by IT teams to monitor the quality of SaaS applications within an organization:

1. Task estimation from an end-user point of view: It is important to observe how a SaaS application behaves while interacting with end-users. When you use SaaS as an end-user, you will come to know the duration of each and every step. The time taken by a particular task may vary at different time intervals. You may come to know if a service is running slower or is not functioning properly at all. In order to ensure that this whole procedure delivers better results, you need to perform analytical tests from a secure network location.The idea is to make the SaaS-based solution as user-friendly as possible.
2. Keeping an eye on resource usage on networks: Almost all operations in organizations today are web-based and involve transfer of data packets through networks. Employees possess devices efficient enough to connect automatically to an organization’s wireless network and thus surging some high definition images and videos.It is important to check the number of applications running on the network. The bandwidth consumed by every task is different and this should be taken care of. Mobile devices used by employees should be given separate networks. Use MAC address filtering to restrict their access on a company’s network. This prevents unnecessary usage of bandwidth and results in a smoother SaaS performance.
3. Paying close attention to network architecture: Poor network architecture can hamper SaaS operations. It’s important to resolve network issues ASAP. Generally, the delivery path of SaaS is away from the firewall. You will need to monitor the network and its hosting site. This way, you will come to know if the entire setup is able to deliver a quality application.
4. Quality of equipments and network bandwidth matters: Quality of bandwidth is important rather than its quantity. A higher quality bandwidth boosts the performance of SaaS and its applications. All web applications use TCP protocol, which means delivery is guaranteed. Small loss of packets will leave a bad impact on application performance. You need to make sure that network and its equipment’s quality is under check. This is the reason why many organizations opt for business class circuits in order to achieve best SaaS performance.
5. Selection of suitable SaaS instance for users: Salesforce runs 27 instances all over the world, out of which 21 are in North America. In order to achieve best results, choose the instance which is closest to the user.
6. Ensuring useful Caching: All web applications have Cascading Style Sheets and Javascript files which provide unforgettable user experiences. Such files are generally involved in time consuming downloads. To tackle this, you should have caching enabled on your network. A cache derivative should be created locally. This enables downloads of larger files with ease to provide a great user experience.
7. Verifying plug-ins on a regular basis: SaaS-based applications use several plug-ins to boost overall user experiences. Bandwidth used by these plug-ins should be checked on a regular basis.

For a wonderful SaaS user experience, the above mentioned areas should be checked regularly. After all, a hassle-free SaaS operation is a blessing for all business processes.