3 tips for seamless SaaS procurement and integration in 2024

When it comes to procuring SaaS, 2024 has you spoilt for choice. Statista reports that there are over 30,800 SaaS companies in operation, developing and distributing tools to support every business function from marketing asset creation to human resource planning.

However, with this dramatic proliferation of software, businesses have taken to procuring SaaS solutions with little regard for the sheer volume of the platforms they are buying into. Ultimately, this can have consequences for productivity and finances when managers waste valuable time and resources procuring SaaS solutions that yield little return on investment.

In fact, many businesses have found that their cloud software contributes to the very problems it was purchased to solve, such as inefficient resource planning or manual administrative workflows.

Here, we’ll explore three ways that businesses can transform their approach to SaaS and get back to seamlessly procuring and integrating platforms into their tech stack.

Table of Contents

1. Assess existing workflows

The first step in effective SaaS procurement is a thorough assessment of your organisation’s existing needs and workflows. With this preliminary step, each procurement decision can be made fully informed of existing gaps in the organisation’s portfolio and subsequent bottlenecks in processes that may be taking place.

To conduct this audit most effectively, SaaS management platform Vertice recommends carrying out a thorough needs analysis. This process, they advise, involves a comprehensive evaluation of:

Business objectives
Required features
User requirements
Integration needs

This assessment can be conducted alongside heads of department throughout the organisation to provide full insight into the business functions most in need of optimisation. Equipped with this knowledge, managers responsible for procurement can identify the areas of the business where procuring and integrating a SaaS solution may add value, rather than overlap with existing tools and drive SaaS to be wasted unnecessarily.

2. Choose compatible SaaS solutions

The return on investment you take from your SaaS tools depends largely on the extent to which they integrate well into your existing tech stack. With the average organisation subscribing to as many as 130 different tools, the need for any new platforms to integrate seamlessly into the wider portfolio cannot be overstated.

Without a well-oiled, compatible suite of tools that integrate with one another, you may find yourself subscribed to a range of tools that silo data instead of supporting streamlined sharing and collaboration throughout the organisation.

One factor that can affect software integration is the API framework of a tool, or as Rapid API explains, “the programming interface allowing you to interact with another application or operating system.”

Robust API frameworks support the smooth exchange of data and functionality between different applications within a tech ecosystem. But beyond APIs, you should also consider compatibility in terms of the scalability, user experience, and security functionality of each tool you procure. This will help to future-proof your procurement and integration strategy.

3. Deploy data migration strategies

An integral part of the onboarding process with many SaaS tools is to migrate your existing data over. Successful migration ensures the continuity of important operations and the preserved integrity of critical information, such as sensitive customer information. To best navigate this process, organisations should take inventory of existing data, identifying essential sources and potential redundancies.

At this stage, it may be worthwhile to conduct some routine data cleansing, the process of reviewing and removing inaccurate or irrelevant data before it’s moved. This ensures the accuracy and quality of information that is migrated between systems, by preventing the propagation of any data errors and enhancing the integrity of the data. Software Testing Help recommends a range of data migration tools to preserve integrity during the exchange, such as:

Dextrus
IRI NextForm
io
DBConvert Studio

However, migration doesn’t have to happen in one fell swoop. It’s productive to take a phased approach n to mitigate disruptions and allow for testing and validation at each stage, which will minimise data loss or system downtime. Safeguarding against these issues might involve collaboration between IT teams, end-users and SaaS providers for maximum efficacy.

With due diligence, you can ensure that your SaaS procurement and integration strategy in 2024 is set for a successful year of SaaS adoption. And it’s a necessary step to take — the market shows no signs of slowing, with more and more SMEs coming on board with a range of cloud-powered tools once reserved only for the corporations that could afford them. By following some of these crucial strategies, your business can gain a competitive advantage against competitors with less robust systems in place to support SaaS implementation.