After selecting an SaaS vendor, the customer and the vendor should sit down and prioritize the customer’s various business requirements using the tried-and-true 80/20 rule: focus on the 20 percent of requirements and application functions that create 80 percent of the value. Both parties should also take the time to determine what will be automated and what will be handled manually - and make sure that the customer’s processes map to the vendor’s best practices. Acceptance criteria should also be defined, as should pre-implementation and post-implementation steps. Spelling out all of this in advance can be a sure-fire way to minimize implementation and deployment problems down the road.

Prioritizing business requirements is important, but developing an effective data-management strategy is just as critical. In the preparation phase of an implementation, both the vendor and the customer need to assess the quality and availability of data. If the customer has multiple data sources, if the quality of the data is poor, or the formats of the data files are not consistent, he or she may want to leverage the vendor’s data-integration services or consider outsourcing data transformation, cleansing and validation. For example, Computer Market Research (CMR) provides a great solution for POS data collection, cleansing, and transformation.

Time-boxing and 80/20 project management should also be part of the mix when it comes to SaaS implementations. This includes requirement prioritization to implement the minimum number of processes required to solve critical problems, being able to make decisions quickly, and creating discrete projects with defined timelines for completion. Equally important is the elimination of tasks that do not produce a clear deliverable. It’s easy to lose sight of the fact that these work items can take a lot of time, but they don’t move projects closer to go-live. Establishing a rollout plan early is often an overlooked step, but it can be just as critical as the ones and zeroes of SaaS deployment. The plan should also include training for end users and administrators, a full communication plan to reach all parties who will be impacted, and identification of sample users to serve as internal beta testers and evangelists. Having some early adopters on board can play a big role in overcoming resistance to using a new application.

The SaaS model provides SMBs with a powerful option to deploy business applications quickly at a much lower cost of ownership than the traditional on-premise enterprise software delivery model. To realize these values, customers need to feel confident that their selected vendors are motivated to satisfy their needs and deliver an efficient solution. Customers and vendors must build a strong, long-term relationship to bring benefits and success to both sides.

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