SaaS - Software as a Service
User experience design at every touch point in the SaaS life cycle
Successful Return On Investment (ROI) From SaaS Requires User Experience Design Across All Phases of the Customer Life Cycle
Companies in industries from finance to CAD are increasingly adopting and creating greater business value from Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). Expertly designed application UI creates the building blocks that make it possible to adapt, pilot, launch and scale new capabilities incrementally and at speed.
UI design for SaaS is not subjective
Development executives are accustomed to thinking that the design of the application user experience is subjective. But with SaaS, the effectiveness of the UI design and application flow are not a matter of opinion. The user experience of the application translates directly to measurable ROI through greater participation, use of services, upgrades and lower churn.
Scalability & Performance
A successful SaaS combines user experience design, technology and application workflow optimization to drive automation, increase customer self-service, and scale without increasing fixed costs or overhead. Essential life cycle design components include self-provisioning, adaptive flow, discoverability of features, user monitoring, modularity of the application interface, frequent planned releases, high performance and the aesthetics & responsiveness of the interface.
Augment or redesign existing on-premise applications as SaaS
Catalyst has extensive experience redesigning and migrating existing on-premise applications for delivery as SaaS. We evaluate your current product UI, identify business needs, define SaaS strategy across all components of the customer life cycle, and of course, design the application flow, screens, modular UI components library, and specify connections backend data services.
We design the entire application functionality - everything the user experiences
Catalyst can enter a SaaS project at any stage in the development. For new projects we can identify and design all of the functionality and application flow in an application. For projects where functionality is already defined, we can design the way the user experiences the application.
The right user interface let you add new customers at low incremental cost
The user interface demands for SaaS are very distinct from on-premise applications and other software models. With SaaS most of the touch-points in the customer life cycle are exposed directly to the user in software. So in addition to the design of the user experience and information flow of the core application, we also design the application to address the full progression of steps a customer goes through when exploring, purchasing, deploying, provisioning, using, referring, and upgrading a product or solution. A key to profitability is to develop a user experience that adapts to the customer's environment without customized development, and that scales without increasing overhead. The benefits to your bottom line are shortened sales cycles, faster deployment, reduced customer churn, and better margins.
Faster time to implementation
Catalyst Resources has the specialized strategic and application design experience that is required for a successful SaaS. We can design an adaptable and user-validated application UI quickly and effectively. Your customers will be able to take advantage of your application's value sooner, with fewer support demands.
Using RIAs and/or mobile apps, performance and SaaS can go hand in hand
SaaS applications that rely on traditional HTTP/HTML can't offer the dynamic user interfaces of native enterprise applications. However, using Rich Internet Applications technologies such as AJAX/HTML 5, Flex and Silverlight, SaaS browser-based or mobile app-based solutions can provide a dynamic and rich user experience. Catalyst is an expert in the design of Rich Internet Applications. Based on an assessment of your SaaS project requirements, we select the application framework that provides the best UI components, tools and scalability for development.
Experience across a broad range of SaaS application segments
Catalyst Resources has helped to migrate a broad range of applications to a Software as Service model. It takes lots of forward planning and user validation to create a superb piece of software user interface that adapts when deployed into any customer environment. The benefits to your bottom line are shortened sales cycles, faster deployment and reduced support.
The types of SaaS applications we have designed and helped deploy include:
ERP & HUMAN RESOURCES
- Payroll and benefits
- Records Management
- Procurement services
- Sales force automation/CRM
- Insurance policy adminstration
B2B SERVICES
- Teleconferencing
- Digital Advertising
- Market Research
- Training
- IT Sourcing
- Security & Network Mgt.
FINANCE & E-COMMERCE
- Trading communications
- Credit Card Services
- Hosted Banking
- Real Estate
- Call Center Management
CONTENT & PROJECT MANAGEMENT
- Document management
- CAD/CAE collaboration & Project Mgt.
- Health care collaboration
- Medical Records Management
- Marketing automation
Three Core Principles of SaaS Design
Catalyst Resources has delivered application and UI design for nearly 400 SaaS and mission-critical pieces of software. From this work, we have defined and refined a set of tested principles for the successful design of SaaS user experience.
The SaaS Design Principles white paper details three foundational principles.
- Don't just "port"
The application and UI design principals for multi-tenant SaaS are different than for on-premise or web applications. - Design for the full customer life cycle
Successful SaaS is more than just the core application. Design the software to manage everything from acquisition, to on-boarding, to support. - Design for modular sales & upgradability
Services need to componentized so they can be sold separately and upgraded independently.
Whether you are migrating an existing on-premise application to SaaS, designing a new SaaS application, or updating your existing SaaS, these principles will help your project come in on-time, on-budget and on-value.
To download the SaaS Design Principles white paper, complete the form below.
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Reduce Risk and Increase ROI with Your Next SaaS Release
Have your customers or stakeholders expressed any of the following:
- The interface is not intuitive; it takes too many clicks
- Your software looks and feels out of date, not reflecting its value
- Features and functionality do not meet customer expectations
- Performance is sluggish when compared to desktop applications
- You don't have a mobile solution
A Catalyst Resources $3495, 10-day Rapid UI Assessment provides a low-cost, high-value service to identify the most compelling usability issues and prioritize the top 20 UI enhancements required to enhance and revitalize the user interface, streamline workflows and create an engaging user experience for your SaaS web or mobile offering.
Why you need it
A Rapid UI Assessment is the quickest and most cost-effective wvay to understand how your current application measures up to the needs, expectations and future demands of your target market as well as the costs and specific steps it will take to move your SaaS to where you want to be.
How to use the results
- Prioritize initiatives and budgets based on ROI
- Provide expert diagnostic and justification analyses for executive buy-in
- Present a roadmap to internal or offshore development teams
- Solicit competitive bids for full application and UI design services
- Understand the priorities for a compelling, long-term solution for mobile users
Our approach
- During an initial web review meeting our SaaS UI team will look over your current application, reviewing key screens and important workflows.
- We then bring together the resources a UI designer, UI architect and UI presentation layer technologist with over 36 years of combined experience to focus on your application and your specific challenges.
- Ten days after the initial review, we deliver the final assessment as actionable recommendations for improvement, next steps, resources and alternatives.
Deliverables
During the final consultative web conference we typically cover:
- Review of target user profiles and a user story catalog
- Identification of high-value scenarios and user-desired functionality
- Analysis of optimal, high-engagement conceptual models
- 20-point mapping of your current UI architecture, UI design & UI technology relative to where you want it to be in the next release
- Prioritized list for the 10 user experience and design changes that will deliver the best return on investment and take your SaaS application to a new level of performance and competitiveness
- Recommendations for scalable, high performance RIA UI modular functionality and technology
- Proposed mobile strategy as a companion solution
- Agile roadmap and work plan for what to implement, in what order, what resources you need, and a clear mapping of dependencies
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