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Serving Smart Information. Right. Now.
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| The MIRUS SaaS model provides all your restaurant systems and information for a low, monthly fee - accessible anytime, from anywhere via the web. |
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| What is Software as a Service (SaaS)? |
| A Software as a Service (SaaS) provider
is a company that offers individuals or enterprises access over the
Internet to applications and related services that would otherwise
have to be located in their own personal or enterprise computers.
SaaS solutions are expected to become an important alternative, not
only for smaller companies with low budgets for information technology,
but also for larger companies as a form of outsourcing and for many
services for individuals as well. |
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| What advantages do SaaS solutions offer over
traditional approaches? |
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Cost reduction for technology. For
users of all sizes from "mom and pop" restaurants to Fortune
500 companies and global multi-chain restaurants, the SaaS advantage
is a monthly fee to access applications instead of having to
invest thousands or millions to create and maintain IT infrastructure. |
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Shorter implementation cycles compared
to a typical in-house rollout of technology. |
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The company can focus on its "core
competency" of opening and running restaurants, for example,
instead of implementing and maintaining hardware, software,
help desk, and other internal IT issues. |
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Eliminates or reduces recruiting,
retaining and retraining IT personnel. |
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Guaranteed "up time". Most SaaS solutions
can provide this guarantee because they invest in high-end hardware
and operating environments. |
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Affordable access to current technology
and tier-one business applications. |
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SaaS solutions provide "one-stop shopping"
in which a company can take care of all IT needs in one place. |
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SaaS users do not have to pay for
licenses for the software they use, install, upgrade, or fix. |
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Full integration of multiple applications
and software upgrades is provided. |
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The customer benefits from economies
of scale. |
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| What are the short-term benefits? |
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Enables users to access state-of-the-art
technology immediately without upfront investment in hardware
and software. |
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Implementation is usually significantly
faster than internal solutions. |
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Accelerates time-to-benefit. |
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| What are the long-term benefits? |
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Software upgrades at no additional
cost; avoids technology obsolescence. |
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No retraining of IT personnel as
technologies change. |
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More available capital to fund business
growth. |
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Scalability as you grow and open
new stores or as you change strategies and close stores. |
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| How do I select a SaaS provider? |
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SaaS Vendor Checklist: We recommend
evaluating SaaS solutions on the following dimensions:
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Focus – look for vertical focus in the restaurant
industry. |
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Proven – select
a provider with proven, field-tested applications and
service contracts. |
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Expertise – ensure management team knows the
restaurant industry. |
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Support – evaluate implementation support,
help desk, and training. |
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Security – require
backup, recovery, encrypted data, firewalls, ID and password
access. |
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If you're in the market for a SaaS solution,
we recommend you ask the following specific questions to service
providers:
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How long have you been operating as a SaaS? |
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How many customers do you serve? |
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What applications do you provide to them? |
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How long is a typical contract between your company and customers? |
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What is the technology expertise and business experience of the senior management team? |
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What industries do you focus on? Are you vertically focused in one industry? |
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Do you have "failover" backup to assure application uptime 24/7? |
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Do you offer online support through help desks, email or other services? |
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Do you offer automatic data upload and download from applications? |
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Do you provide clear user logs that show user activity by application? |
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How easily can you add new
users? |
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Do you ensure performance
levels are maintained with a service-level agreement or
customer satisfaction guarantee? |
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Is automatic offline data backup scheduling offered? |
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Do you offer automatic load balancing to assure accessibility? |
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What is your software upgrade policy, ie. How often are applications upgraded and how quickly are upgrades implemented? |
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Do you provide implementation and training services? |
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Source: CIO.com
and the ASP
Industry Consortium. |
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| For what type of businesses or operations
are SaaS solutions well suited? |
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Distributed or multi-unit operations. |
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Businesses with high capital requirements
who can benefit from higher returns by investing this capital
in unit expansion, rather than investment in technology hardware
and infrastructure. |
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Small businesses that have the need
for technology applications, but not the budget to invest in
hardware and infrastructure. |
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Large operations with many units
who are tying up capital in technology at the store level and
could benefit from the cost savings of outsourcing the high
costs of maintaining a large internal IT department to support
these operations. |
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| What role will my internal IT department
play if I choose SaaS? |
| Choosing SaaS will enable your internal
IT department to focus on strategic issues around technology in your
business, rather than the time-consuming activities of hardware and
software maintenance and user support. You may find that you need
fewer internal resources than previously. |
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| What services will SaaS provide? |
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Application selection. |
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Application integration across your
applications and systems. |
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Data management. |
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User training. |
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Implementation across your system. |
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Hosting of applications. |
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User support: help desk, etc. |
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Security. |
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Other professional services. |
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| How do SaaS solutions price their services? |
| Typically, there is a one-time implementation
fee plus a low, monthly subscription fee. The advantage of this pricing
is lower cost and predictable IT costs that can significantly aid
in your forecasting and budgeting, as well as acquisition of capital. |
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| Why do SaaS solutions cost less than traditional
distributed client/server approaches? |
| Economy of scale allows SaaS solutions to spread
their investment in hardware and software over their entire user base.
These savings are passed on to the users. |
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