A Framework for Selection of Software-as-a-Service Products for Small and Medium Sized Enterprises
Roy, Pradipta Kumar (2020)
Roy, Pradipta Kumar
2020
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Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2020061018148
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2020061018148
Tiivistelmä
Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), the most common form of cloud service deployment, provides the convenience of obtaining SaaS products from SaaS providers through a subscription or pay-as-you-go licence agreement. Thus, helps organizations to focus on their core business instead of support services such as IT infrastructure management, software maintenance etc. SaaS model, now offers SaaS products for Customer Relations Management (CRM), Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Human Resource Management (HRM), Accounting Management, Email Marketing etc. Thus, providing the best opportunity for Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) to take advantage of the capabilities of CRM, ERP, HRM etc. systems on cloud, avoiding capital expenditure and management costs associated with the on-premise model. Hence, increasing number of SMEs are adopting SaaS products to leverage significant cost benefit without compromising on the quality of services (QoS).
However, business needs of every enterprise vary, so does their requirements for selection of the product. Several SaaS providers offers different types of SaaS products and the choice of a suitable SaaS product satisfying multiple criteria of the enterprise needs becomes a major issue. The multiple criteria involved in the decision making of SaaS product selection makes it a Multi-Criteria-Decision-Making (MCDM) problem. Thus, selection of SaaS product becomes a tiresome and time-consuming process.
Large organizations involve their IT experts and technical teams to take care of the complex software product selection decisions. However, SMEs are challenged with limited resources & expertise and had to rely on external consultants or vendors to get the recommendations of the software product(s) or service(s), satisfying the organizational needs. This consumes significant time & money. Sometimes the process of recommendation becomes costlier than the software adoption cost.
The research paper presents a standard procedure (Framework) for using AHP method to solve the MCDM problem and to help SMEs to choose a suitable SaaS product satisfying most of the criteria and alternatives. The procedure guarantees stakeholders participation, increases end user satisfaction and makes SaaS selection a quick, transparent process for the SMEs to adopt. SMEs could take advantage of the approach for the selection of SaaS product by means of prioritizing the product features and by expert-led ranking of the SaaS products.
However, business needs of every enterprise vary, so does their requirements for selection of the product. Several SaaS providers offers different types of SaaS products and the choice of a suitable SaaS product satisfying multiple criteria of the enterprise needs becomes a major issue. The multiple criteria involved in the decision making of SaaS product selection makes it a Multi-Criteria-Decision-Making (MCDM) problem. Thus, selection of SaaS product becomes a tiresome and time-consuming process.
Large organizations involve their IT experts and technical teams to take care of the complex software product selection decisions. However, SMEs are challenged with limited resources & expertise and had to rely on external consultants or vendors to get the recommendations of the software product(s) or service(s), satisfying the organizational needs. This consumes significant time & money. Sometimes the process of recommendation becomes costlier than the software adoption cost.
The research paper presents a standard procedure (Framework) for using AHP method to solve the MCDM problem and to help SMEs to choose a suitable SaaS product satisfying most of the criteria and alternatives. The procedure guarantees stakeholders participation, increases end user satisfaction and makes SaaS selection a quick, transparent process for the SMEs to adopt. SMEs could take advantage of the approach for the selection of SaaS product by means of prioritizing the product features and by expert-led ranking of the SaaS products.