SFA Considerations
Should Your SFA Solution Be Hosted or Installed?
In addition to the technical and information needs of your business, a major consideration should be whether or not the SFA will be installed and maintained on-site or hosted and maintained by the vendor. Both ways can provide a similar level of features, but each has its own advantages that should be considered before moving forward with an SFA implementation.Important things to consider when weighing these options include:
- Your company's IT staff, resources, and capability - Smaller organizations might not have the in-house IT resources and experience required to properly maintain an SFA solution. Most SFA systems are "client-server" - meaning they're installed on the customer's servers and maintained by the customer's IT staff. The application is accessed through a web browser and is therefore available wherever there's an internet connection. This method offers the greatest level of control and tends to be more cost effective when extending the application to a large number of users. In addition, having control of the systems offers the potential for integrating the SFA system with other information systems. The drawback is that these systems require a considerable level of expertise, and therefore a dedicated IT staff with the ability to manage such a system. The cost of a client-server application can include a lump sum for the application, annual user license fees, as well as monthly fee for support. Also, additional hardware may be required including servers and storage should your company not already have them available. For those companies that lack an in-house IT staff or only require a limited number of users, a hosted SFA solution - termed application service provider, or "ASP", solutions - may be more appropriate. Hosted SFA systems reside on the vendor's servers and is maintained and serviced by the vendor's IT department. The customer simply pays a monthly fee and in many cases can be up in running immediately. Hosted SFA applications free up the customer from worrying about maintaining the system and allow them to focus on using the application.
- Desired level of customization - While hosted ASP solutions offer greater freedom from maintenance, the drawback can be that they typically offer less customization and require the customer to use a more out-of- the-box version that may not exactly fit the company's needs. For fully customized SFA solutions, an in-house client-server solution is usually required. However, many vendors offer a migration path from their hosted version to client-server application should your company outgrow the capabilities of the hosted version.
- Security - Depending on the sensitivity of your data, there are a few things to consider when determining whether to install your application in-house or have it hosted. If your customer information includes extremely sensitive client information, such as credit card information and social security numbers, you may want to keep your SFA solution in- house, as you are ultimately responsible for the security of that information. However, if your IT department is not up-to-date with the latest security protection measures, your data might be more secure if hosted by a vendor with a large IT staff and more experience with data protection.
- Back-ups - If installed in-house, your organization will need to make routine back-ups of your data and information to protect your business from a potentially significant loss of data and functionality. Smaller businesses may not be able or comfortable with doing this themselves. Most vendors of hosted SFA solutions provide ongoing back-up along with your maintenance agreement that will ensure your data is protected in the event of a fire, theft, or other event.
- Speed and Access - Client-server solutions tend to run much faster than hosted solutions, as the data is local and does not require a connection to an outside source. In addition, with a hosted solution, there is the risk of significant downtime in the event that the internet connection fails on either end, a power failure occurs, or something happens to one of your host's servers.