Data Sciences, Inc. (DSI) has a history of nearly thirty years of service in the newspaper publishing industry, with customers that include 75 of the top newspapers around the world. For years they had used a traditional installed customer support solution, with phone support as the primary means for customer service. Upon re-evaluating this system, DSI recognized the costly maintenance of this solution, as well as the inefficient length of time it took to resolve support requests. After some initial evaluation, they began looking at hosted customer support solutions, which in turn raised a number of serious questions: 数据挖掘研究院
- How secure will our data be?
- Will I lose personal touch with my customers?
- Will I lose control of the data and software?
In spite of these reservations, DSI made a leap of faith and choose to roll out a Web-based solution due to its ease of use, quick implementation and competitive pricing. Fast forward to today and DSI is able to offer Web support to their customers at a 99.5 percent availability rate in a more cost-effective manner. When asked about their solution, Perry Gordon, the training and support specialist at DSI, stated. "Our customers are solving their own problems by searching through the knowledge base. Giving them this ability has improved our customer satisfaction levels, as well as our productivity. We have also saved money, and by adding a self-serving ability, we have been able to support many new customers without increasing the size of our support staff." As far as their security concerns, Gordon notes that "the security standards are top notch, and match those used by the financial industry. Financially it makes more sense to use this tremendous infrastructure than to invest hundreds of thousands to build our own." 数据挖掘研究院
Like DSI, many companies have similar reservations about using Web-based solutions, but in today′s fast-moving economy, the benefits usually outweigh any hesitations. In this article, I will explore why some of these questions exist, the potential advantages of a hosted solution and how you can measure its success.
Overview of Hosted Solutions
A hosted, or on-demand, software delivery method refers to the fact that these applications are distributed and accessed solely through the Internet rather than installed on company systems. Traditionally, if a company purchased a software solution, they would have to install the application locally onsite. They would also be required to buy a number of third-party products, such as database software and computer servers, to run and maintain the application. In addition to this, a dedicated team is usually needed to administer the application. Instead of requiring companies to go through this whole process, a hosted solution allows the company to get direct access to the system through the Web.
In a survey conducted by the Cutter Consortium, findings revealed that companies were quickly moving to the software as a service (SaaS) model. Respondents to this survey came almost equally from small, midsized and larger companies. Of the respondents that were already using SaaS, 70 percent had been doing so for more than one year, and 92 percent of current SaaS users were satisfied with this application delivery model. As a result of this high satisfaction rate, 87 percent of the current SaaS users expected to acquire additional SaaS offerings, and 92 percent would recommend SaaS solutions to other enterprises.1 数据挖掘研究院
Some examples of hosted applications are eBay, Amazon and Yahoo. These are extensive, high-performance solutions, written on big, scalable database servers. In the corporate sector, a number of enterprise CRM applications are hosted solutions, providing comprehensive customer support over the Web for the companies who purchase them. 数据挖掘研究院
There are a number of myths surrounding Web-based solutions, mainly because these applications are still sometimes considered nontraditional. One of these myths pertains to reliability, meaning concerns over the network going down or unavailable data. Web-based applications are built to withstand these potential issues. Many companies providing these types of solutions set up their servers and networking components in a redundant configuration with automatic rerouting rules to ensure connectivity. Additionally, all data is usually duplicated and saved in daily or weekly backups, sometimes in multiple locations, to ensure redundancy. In many instances, the reliability of a hosted solution may surpass that of an installed solution, where there is limited data redundancy and all data is stored in a single, possibly unsecured, location.
The other common myth surrounding Web-based solutions is that of security. Understandably, there are genuine security concerns over data for many industries and licensing, potential misuse of information, and privacy issues all need to be taken into consideration. Providers of hosted solutions today have a number of options they use to mitigate these risks, including multiple firewalls and systems monitored by intrusion detection systems. Additionally, many companies monitor system-access logs to identify potential security risks and ensure the system is protected from vulnerability threats. Using data encryption also protects data communications, even when data is in transit. In addition, using SSL authentication and password-protected operating systems and production servers ensure secure access to sensitive data. While many companies may be hesitant about opening up access to data, in today′s economy they really cannot afford not to be connected through the Web.
Advantages of Web-Based Solutions
The benefits of using a Web-based solution are many and impact both the overall business and the end users of the application. One key benefit is the reduction in costs. The deferred costs of not having to purchase hardware and software alone can add up to tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars. The savings on system maintenance and administration are also sizeable. Gone are the days when an administrator spent hours trying to install a patch or perform database maintenance - all of these tasks are completed by the solution provider. When a company purchases an on-demand solution, the provider normally takes care of all aspects of the implementation with highly trained teams who can customize the solution to the company′s unique needs. Looking at customer relationship management (CRM), historically many small to midsized businesses have been underserved by this industry because the cost has been too high for these businesses to adopt a full enterprise CRM solution. A hosted application helps these companies reduce cost and gets them up and running faster than a traditional solution.
Web-based solutions also have a profound impact on end users and the way. Using a Web-based solution for customer support enhances communication between the client and the support department by allowing clients to submit and track their trouble tickets right through the Web via a support portal. Additionally, these new applications also provide end users with numerous self-service tools, such as knowledge bases and discussion forums, which enable them to research their own answers to questions without ever contacting the company for support. This focus on customer interaction differentiates this new generation of support applications. As a result of using self-service as part of the company′s customer support strategy, clients of corporate philanthropy management software provider CreateHope resolve about 5,000 issues per month on their own, which consistently saves the company approximately $50,000 a month. CIO Magazine, PRTM and the InterUnity Group also conducted a survey examining the link between corporate performance and effective IT management. They found that market leaders are better at using IT to enable business strategy. Included in these findings was evidence that customer self-service is a growing focus within CRM, and that market leaders appear to be ahead of the curve in recognizing its strategic value. They found that aside from improving service quality by reducing customer wait times and providing customers with increased control over their accounts, self-service tools lower customer service operating costs by reducing the number of live service agents needed.2
Measuring Success
Key ways to measure the success of a Web-based solution include calculating the ROI), and using analytical tools to measure the impact of the application and end-user satisfaction. Many Web-based solutions have built-in analytical tools that can be used to measure the impact of the solution. Reporting tools can be used to report on everything from ticket resolution metrics to rating the content in the knowledge base. The more flexible the reporting tool, the more robust and rich the reports may be.
Measuring end-user satisfaction can be easily accomplished through online surveys. These may be sent out on a regular basis as a way to measure satisfaction levels and gather feedback. Companies can get a very good idea of favorite tools and query areas just by asking their users. Florida Atlantic University regularly surveys its 22,000 students and faculty on their satisfaction levels with customer support. These surveys have proven invaluable to their ability to create better processes, raising customer satisfaction levels even higher.
Calculating the ROI can be the most time-intensive part of determining the success of a Web-based solution, but it can also be the most rewarding. When examining the ROI, it is important to look at all of the expenses associated with a solution. When looking at the customer-support space, the ROI calculations really demonstrate the huge savings of a hosted solution. The fees for licensing an application or subscribing to a service may sometimes appear high, but these fees are comprehensive. This includes hardware and software for the infrastructure, system administration, upgrades, maintenance and, in many cases, all system customizations. ROI goes beyond measuring the actual cost of the application; it also measures how much the company is potentially saving with the solution. When looking at the costs associated with solving customer support requests, Web-based options clearly come out ahead. The availability of self-service tools enables clients to solve many of their own requests without ever contacting support, while the improvement in processes and workflow increase efficiency and productivity. 数据挖掘实验室
- "SaaS Survey Shows New Model Becoming Mainstream.′" Cutter Consortium and ThinkStrategies, October 2005.
- "Optimizing Business Performance: Using IT for Competitive Advantage." CIO Magazine, PRTM and the InterUnity Group, May 2003.
