Three ways to achieve mobile SaaS apps agility

Grazed from TechTarget. Author: Tom Nolle.

Software as a Service (SaaS) applications have to track the needs of the workers they support, but they don’t always do that successfully. According to enterprises, mobile SaaS applications change for one of the following reasons, in increasing order of likelihood: changes to regulations governing the application, changes in mobile device policy, changes in worker activities and changes in mobile OS features. There is no perfect strategy for making mobile SaaS apps Agile with so many drivers of change, but picking the right SaaS provider, customizing the SaaS service for mobile use or even creating your own SaaS can help.

Evaluating SaaS agility

Whatever forces drive mobile application users and their SaaS providers in different directions, the ability of a SaaS provider to respond to regulatory changes that impact an application is a key indicator of their determination to track the market. One of the questions every SaaS evaluator needs to ask is how rapidly the application has accommodated changes driven by regulations. A response measured in months will almost certainly create issues with regulators, and it also suggests that the provider isn’t able to change the application quickly. That same inertia will likely impact the SaaS provider’s response to other demands for change, so it may be wise to pick a different provider…

A careful review of provider application programming interface (API) options for SaaS should also be included in a provider assessment. APIs are critical because users who have SaaS problems with handset bring you own device (BYOD) policy changes, handset OS changes or work practice changes are most often users who directly employ mobile apps from SaaS providers. These apps are almost always platform-specific and so will always present challenges when the platforms change, and they typically can’t be changed by the users themselves. The obvious solution is to avoid consuming SaaS via provider-supplied mobile apps, and that can be done either by developing mobile apps for SaaS services in-house or replacing app-based SaaS services with browser-based services…

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