SaaS Solutions
Network World published an article about the rise of SaaS implementation, based on a study by Gartner. The article states that “More than 95 percent of organizations expect to maintain or grow their use of software as a service (SaaS).” Clearly there are a lot of organizations discovering how to maximize the Cloud for their needs.
However, there are some skeptics who are very leery of implementing a SaaS solution.
The good news is that there are numerous benefits to using a hosted application or SaaS that just aren’t available with traditional software.
Automatic Updates
When using a hosted application, you don’t have to worry about updates that are standard with standalone software. I can’t tell you how many times I have logged onto my PC to see that another one of my programs has another update available. Even worse is when my operating system updates my computer, then tells me I have 15 minutes to restart or it will do it for me (I usually postpone it for an hour but I digress). A SaaS solution will automatically update itself at the host’s end, meaning you don’t have to waste time waiting for the program to upgrade itself.
Data Backup
One of the strongest attributes SaaS has in comparison to desktop based software is the fact that your data is continually backed up. If your computer crashes, or your laptop has to get sent off for repairs, you can still access all of your data because the SaaS operates over the internet. The mobility of SaaS is perfect for those who travel frequently. Updates made across the country will show up when you log on back at home.
The Bottom Line
Hosted applications have some incredible benefits. I’m not saying ditch all of your current programs for SaaS solutions, but at least consider SaaS the next time you find yourself window shopping in the software department.
What is SaaS?
SaaS is currently all the rage. The term is a buzz word across the web, and many companies are hopping on board the SaaS train. What exactly is it? SaaS is an acronym for "Software As A Service." Okay, so there's the dictionary answer, but isn't all software a service? The difference is that with SaaS, the service is on demand. SaaS is built on the idea that companies rent Web-based software that is hosted at the provider's site, operating in the cloud, rather than having an in-house system.
What are the benefits of SaaS?
Cost efficiency is one of the key benefits of SaaS. With standalone software, companies usually have to buy licenses in bulk. The company is then left with excess licenses that they don't need. With SaaS, if a company grows or expands, the number of licenses for the program can be adjusted accordingly, as the software is being rented from a third party. [1]
Also, due to the fact that the software is rented on a month-to-month basis, the investment risk is drastically reduced. Instead of paying a large sum upfront for a system, customers pay for the services every month.
Another benefit is that the vendor manages the software. Instead of having the IT staff install and deploy the system, the vendor takes care of this for the company. Because the software is being hosted at the vendor's location, they are in charge of monitoring the program and keeping the cloud well maintained.[2]
Most importantly, everything is backed up with the vendor, so the company doesn't have to worry about employing another system to keep back-ups on file.
CRM and SaaS
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) applications hold the largest market share of the SaaS market. CRM applications are better able to be streamlined across a company when deployed as a SaaS. Instead of having individual programs in each department, all employees need is an active internet connection. This way the company stays better connected, and workflow is made more efficient.
EquityTouchTM is a leader in Private Equity/Venture Capital CRM. Created by Touch Ahead Software, EquityTouch is one of the fastest CRM's available, as it runs on a web portal. John Binda, Sales Director for EquityTouch, states one major benefit of the SaaS model is that "EquityTouch allows you to access information anywhere so that you aren't tied down to your personal computer." EquityTouch is accessible from any internet connection, even via web enabled cell phones, as the program is in the cloud.
Another benefit of EquityTouch is that subscribers don't have to worry about installing product updates as the program isn't hosted at the customer's office. This eliminates the need to maintain and support a long term system, as the provider is in charge of maintaining the system. Because EquityTouch is deployed on a per-user basis, licenses can be easily transferred from one employee to another, keeping costs at a minimum.
Touch Ahead Software focuses on bringing the benefits of advanced technology to the CRM community. These benefits include drastically reduced overall cost of ownership and time for implementation as well as dramatically higher user satisfaction and organization profitability. Touch Ahead is constantly pushing boundaries and redefining the CRM SaaS model.
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[1] King, Julia. "Beyond CRM: SaaS slips into the mainstream."
Computerworld Management 22 Feb. 2010: Web. 22 Feb 2010.
[2] Finch, Curt. "The Benefits of the Software -as-a-Service Model." Computerworld Management 2 Jan. 2006: Web. 24 Feb 2010.
Release Notes
|
Product |
EquityTouch |
|
Release Number |
1.3.0 |
|
Release Date |
12/04/09 |
|
Support |
TouchAhead |
________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Purpose
This is a major feature release. Changes have been made based on requests gathered from user feedback and on initial planning. There have been updates throughout the system that also include several bug fixes. All users of EquityTouch
™ will see these changes.
No action is required on the client side to implement these changes.
Brief Overview
-
Ability to add, remove, and edit Employees from the Company Summary page.
-
Ability to change the Primary Contact from the Company Summary page.
-
Ability to merge duplicate companies and people.
-
Easier method for adding multiple attendees to a Touch.
-
Changes to the Advanced Search including the ability to search for blank/null values and the ability to search for other people’s touches.
-
Change method for calculating the “Next Step” value.
-
Introduction of Security Groups (admin level).
-
Ability to configure Dashboard Statistics (admin level).
-
A few other design/display enhancements.
-
Assorted bug fixes across the application.
New Features
- Ability To Add, Remove, and Edit Employees From Company Summary – You can now add, edit, and remove employees directly from the Company Summary page.
1. Adding Employees – While looking at a Company Summary page, click
the Add Employee” button in the bottom left corner of the Employees
section.
This will open the New Employee form at the top of the page. Filling out this form and hitting “Enter” will save this new Person to the Company.
2. Editing Employees – While looking at a Company Summary page, click the “Edit” button in the top right corner of the Employees section.
This will open this section in edit mode. You can make changes to the person’s first, middle or last name; his/her title, primary phone number, and email address. Click “Save” to save your changes.
3. Changing Primary Contact – You can now change who the primary contact is at a company from the Company Summary page. In the Employee section, click the radio button next to the appropriate employee. His/her name will become bolded and it will bubble to the top. This name will now appear in search results for that company.
4. Deleting Employees – While looking at a Company Summary page, click the ‘X’ on the far right of the person’s row. You will be alerted that this person has been removed from the company. His/her current role of employment with this company will be made into a past role and he/she will no longer be visible on the Company Summary page.
5. Ability To Merge Records – You can now merge both People and Company records. This is done from a search result and only 2 records can be merged together at once.
To merge two companies or people, first select the two records by checking the checkboxes in the left column of the search result. Then, click the ‘Options’ menu and select ‘Merge Selected Items’.
A window will pop up with all the information displayed in 3 columns. A preview of the merged record’s information will be displayed on the left, the primary record’s information will be displayed in the middle, and the secondary record’s information will be displayed on the right. To swap the primary and secondary companies, click “Swap Primary Company” in the top part of the panel.
To merge using the default values click ‘Merge People’ or ‘Merge Companies’ in the top left. To change what information is included in the merged record, click the radio buttons on the field you would like to swap. If you would like to remove certain information from the merged record, click the ‘X’ next to the field you want removed. You will see the Merge Results column update with the new information.
Some information is hidden to start (communications information, custom fields). To see this information, click “Show Phones, Emails, and URLs” or “Show Custom Fields”.
When you are ready to merge, click ‘Merge People’ or ‘Merge Companies’ in the top left.
Notes:
o All touches are kept when records are merged.
o All groups containing the deleted record are updated to include the merged record if it is not already in the group.
o Fields that can contain multiple values (phone, location, etc) will default to be updated to include all values from both records being merged.
o The primary record is selected by taking the record with the most recent change (Touch or info). This is the one which will remain after the merge. The secondary record is the company or person being merged from. This record will be deleted after the merge.
o After merging people or companies, a touch will be attached to the merged record containing both records’ information. The touch type will be “Company Merge” or “Person Merge”.
o In the resulting Company or Person record, email addresses, phone numbers, and URLs will appear in the order of the select list they belong to.
Note about People records when merging Companies – When you merge two companies, the employees of those companies will be auto-merged based on an exact match on email or full name. You are not given an option to mix and match Person fields when merging Companies.
· Add Attendee Panel – A simpler way of adding attendees to a touch has been added. On a new or existing touch, click the ‘Add Attendee Form’ button.
A window will open up with 3 sections.
o Users - The section on the left is a list of all users in a certain user group of EquityTouch. The first time you use this it will be the default group ‘All Users’. You can change which user group you would like to see by clicking on the following menu and selecting a different group:
o Current Company - The section in the top right is a list all people at the Active Company.
o Other Relationships - The section in the bottom right is a list of all people that have a role with the Active Company, have a previous role with the Active Company (past employees), and anyone who has ever been involved with a touch with the Active Company or Person.
To the left of each person will be radio buttons corresponding to different Touch Roles. To include someone on the Touch, just check the appropriate circle for him/her. You will see them be added to the Touch fly out. To remove them, click the ‘X’ on the Touch fly out next to his/her name (this is the same as removing them without this new tool). When you are done, close the ‘Add Attendee’ panel by clicking the ‘x’ in the top right corner.
· Improvements to Advanced Searching – Several improvements have been made to Advanced Searching that allow you to search for other EquityTouch user’s touches and search for blank/null values in fields. Some procedural and display issues have also been addressed to make the process smoother.
o Other People’s Touches – You can now search through other EquityTouch
™ users' touches. To do this, look for the “Search In” field under the Touch section of the Advanced Search panel.
This drop down previously contained two options: My Touches and All Touches. In addition to those two, it now contains every user of EquityTouch
™ . Selecting a user will narrow the search down to that person’s touches.
o Searching For Blank Values – You can now search for fields that have no values. In drop-down lists the option will now appear in the Advanced Search panel. For text fields, type into the field. In a range (date, numbers), the text is only required in the ‘From’ field.
Note: Searching for in either the Company Name or Person Last Name fields will search for the string ‘’ and not for records with no entries (as those two fields are required and cannot be blank).
o Hitting ‘Enter’ Starts Search – While in the Advanced Search panel, if you hit ‘Enter’/’Return’ the search will start. Note that this will not work if you have a drop-down list selected. In this case the drop-down list will toggle open and closed.
o The Advanced Search Panel Closes on Search - Once the search is complete, the Advanced Search panel will close, displaying the search results.
- Change to ‘Next Step’ Calculation – The ‘Next Step’ date is now the date of the incomplete touch that is closest to the current date. If two incomplete touches are equidistant from the current date, the touch in the future will be displayed. This value will be updated for a Company if a new touch is added and nightly if one is not.
- Security Groups – This release contains the first steps necessary for implementing Security Groups. A Security Group is a group of users set up by an application Administrator that can be used in the application. With this release it will be used in the new Add Attendee functionality (adding People to Touches). All users will belong to the group “All Users” by default. This functionality will continue to become more important with future releases.
- Person Title Added To Relationships Tab - On the Company Relationships tab a Person’s current title is now displayed.
· Changes to the Intermediary Panel – Changes have been made to the Intermediary panel on Company Summary pages. This section now includes the Intermediary’s title, Company, phone, email, and the start date of the intermediary role with the company.
· Dashboard Statistics Now Admin Configurable – Under Customization -> Dashboard -> Statistics Panel in the Administration section. An application administrator can configure the default date range for statistics, the touch types to include, the company types to include, and the touch roles to include.
· Email/Invitation Defaults Admin Configurable by Touch Role – The ability to specify defaults (checked/not checked) based on Touch Role for Email and Outlook Invitation when adding attendees to Touches is now Admin Configurable. Previously all roles that were not ‘Initiator’ were included under ‘Participant’. The administrator can now configure for each Role. This is in the same place it used to be (System Settings -> Mail and Calendar).
· Tag Email Functionality Now Admin Configurable – Under System Settings -> Options -> Mail and Calendar there is now a setting called ‘Send emails with Tags’. Turning this on will send an email to the recipient of a tag.
· Options Button Change – The options button has been changed throughout EquityTouch
™ to the following:
Bug Fixes
- Pagination Saved Preference – The ‘Results Per Page’ setting is now saved across sessions.
- Custom Field Invalid Character - Saving ampersand (&) to a custom field no longer throws an error.
- Company Name Invalid Character – Saving ampersand (&) to a company name no longer throws an error.
- Deleting Company Address Bug - Deleting a company address immediately updates what gets returned in search results. Previously this would not always get updated.
- Export To XLS on Advanced Search - After running an Advanced Search on custom fields, exporting to XLS will now export the correct fields. Previously incorrect results were exported.
- ‘Groups’ Filter Preference Saved Across Sessions – The most recent selection for the Groups filter on the dashboard will now be saved (All Groups, My Groups, Company Groups, People Groups, Shared Groups).
- Saving Touch Without Attendees Alerts User – If you save a touch without any attendees you will receive a message explaining that you need to have at least 1 attendee on the touch. Previously the edit touch panel would say ‘Saving’ but nothing would happen.
- Adding A Relationship No Longer Changes Person’s Header - Only changing the Employee role will change the information displayed in the Person’s header (area above the tabs).
- Options Menus Close Correctly – Sometimes options menus closed prematurely if the mouse hovered over certain areas. This has been fixed.
- Deleting Initiator on Touch Already Sent To Outlook – If a Touch has been sent as an Outlook invitation, and the initiator of the Touch changes, a new invitation will be sent. The old Outlook meeting will remain. Previously, removing the initiator in this situation would have thrown an error.
- Next Step View Available from Stats Search - After clicking on a number in the stats section of the Dashboard, you can now select ‘Next Step View’ as a search result view.
- Drag and Drop of Custom Financial Fields Works - In the Admin section, you can click and drag custom financial fields into order in ‘Financial Fields Layout’.
- Person Summary ‘Save Changes’ Message - The ‘Are you sure you want to navigate away without saving your changes’ dialogue is only displayed if something has changed.
- New Group from Selected Bug - This did not always display the correct number of groups being added. This has been fixed.
- Google News Module Bug – Editing search terms in the Google news module automatically refreshes the search results.