Why does the TRUXT Label help you stand out from the crowd?
A label serves to distinguish and differentiate the company from its competitors, and for users it's an indicator of trust, enabling them to identify and give preference to those who proudly display the label because they meet a certain number of requirements. When we said that, we didn't say much. So what makes a SaaS vendor adopt the TRUXT label? Find out in our dedicated section.
How do you stand out in a highly fragmented market?
The SaaS market can be portrayed as a wasteland, seen as an opportunity for some and a necessary transformation for others. Software publishers of all sizes (VSEs, SMEs, major accounts) are rightly jumping into the breach, transforming their software solutions into SaaS solutions. Of the 3,000 software publishers in France, only 15 have sales in excess of €50 million. According to the PwC / PAC / AFDEL Top 100 ranking of French software publishers, most of the rest are between €5 and €15 million. As a result, the market is divided between very large and small players.
With this in mind, SaaS vendors need to focus on differentiation. Differentiation through functional advantages is no longer enough: software publishers need to forge non-functional advantages. By transforming themselves into service providers, SaaS vendors are extending their scope of intervention beyond that of traditional on-premise software. Security, continuity, recovery and integration are just some of the issues that key accounts outsource to suppliers. And let's not forget that one of the advantages of SaaS for key accounts is that it enables them to free themselves from certain tedious, non-value-added administration activities, and focus on core business tasks. Even if they delegate tasks, they also delegate the responsibilities associated with continuity, security... Depending on how sensitive the key account is to these issues, and on the type of solution and its impact on the business, the key account customer will choose the supplier offering the best guarantees. There's no question, therefore, of providing your tool on shared hosting, all without preparing the aforementioned non-functional aspects.
From now on, differentiation means providing guarantees on these issues, and these guarantees must not simply be displayed. They must be provided and consolidated by a third party to be considered reliable and trustworthy. Confidence in the editor's capabilities is at the heart of the relationship. Key accounts may be more mature on these subjects than the software vendor, especially if they are in the financial sector, where the Solvency and Basel waves have forced them to put in place reinforced control processes. During pre-sales negotiations, the vendor will be confronted with IT managers who are well-versed in continuity and security issues. It is therefore more comfortable to communicate the results of third-party controls and the associated improvement plan, rather than "rowing" in the demonstration of its capabilities for lack of tangible elements.
Service issues to be covered by vendor warranties
We have mentioned the various guarantees to be provided to customers, the first of which is security. Cloud experts have identified security as both an obstacle to SaaS adoption and an advantage. The theme of many a blog post is, "Saas is more secure than your in-house IT". How else can we solve this conundrum than by answering "it depends"? Some companies have much more mature IT teams than some publishers, and conversely, there are no regulations in this area. In this context, software publishers need to benchmark themselves, so that they are better acquainted with these issues, and their sales forces need to be able to explain the resources deployed, so as to better highlight the added value of the service. In the opposite case, insidious questions can make you "pshitt!" and lose you the sale: how do you check the security of your source code? What anti-DDoS measures are deployed? Can your staff view and print my data?
Business continuity is also a major concern for key account customers, all the more so in the case of e-commerce and ERP systems. Here again, there's no question of passing the problem on to the hosting provider: the application layer is the responsibility of the SaaS vendor, and the latter is a stakeholder in the service chain. The same applies to disaster recovery: the choice of hosting provider must depend on the target customer, the nature of the service and continuity constraints. Publishers must choose their hosting provider carefully, depending on their target market. Publishers must obtain continuity and recovery commitments from their hosting provider, since these are essential to their own commitments to customers. The SaaS model is a layered approach, and service commitments are the result of a pyramid of commitments over which the publisher has full control. These elements need to be well understood by the software publisher, without which "soapbox" questions can be uncomfortable: for example, what is the Recovery Point Objectiv of your solution? How do you calculate your availability rate? The software publisher becomes a player in the customer's continuity and recovery plan. To be on the safe side, software publishers need to be well-versed in their own continuity plans, in order to provide the guarantees needed to win the customer's confidence.
Reversibility is also a central theme in the adoption of SaaS: what happens to my data in the event of termination? How can I get them back, and in what format? These are issues for customers, and now for publishers too, as the absence of a reversibility mechanism can be a selling point. The ease of use of the cloud is likely to lead customers to jump from one cloud to another, and publishers will have to choose between a defensive strategy of proprietary data formats and an open format. At first sight, the defensive strategy seems riskier, given the sharing values conveyed by the cloud.
Differentiation through innovation is also a selling point, and SaaS reflects the image of innovation. The innovative nature of Saas solutions is a priority criterion for some large companies: innovation has become a principle of governance, enabling key accounts to communicate this value of innovation; seeking solutions from the big market leaders is sometimes considered counter-innovative. But for those organizations for whom innovation is a value to be conveyed beyond simple communication, but within the company itself, how can they benefit from innovation without taking risks? The ability of the SaaS provider to deliver can be a source of concern, but what happens if the innovative service provider fails?
The TRUXT label supports the confidence and maturity of service providers
Because we're in the middle of the wave imposed by the Saas model, many publishers have positioned themselves as "Service Providers", and it's vital for them not to miss out on the transformation, because the law of the market will take over again in the medium term. These publishers are faced with groups that are structuring themselves, evolving their purchasing processes, and rightly adopting a broader vision of their needs. They are moving away from "software products" towards "services", in order to offload (without getting rid of) prerogatives outside their core business. In this context, differentiation is achieved by demonstrating the vendor's ability to win over key accounts, in areas already mastered by key accounts' technical experts: security, continuity, recovery, reversibility.
These capabilities can be demonstrated by experience, but if they are not there, the renewal rate will suffer from the disappointments of the first customers. Before that happens, and to avoid missed first appointments, we need to be proactive and position ourselves pragmatically on the issues that customers care about: continuity, security, availability, recovery. If the few questions in this document leave you without answers, it's time to put in place the means to meet customer requirements, and to look for ways to differentiate yourself from the competition. The TRUXT label is a differentiator, because it is the only label capable of providing comprehensive guarantees to SaaS publishers' customers on security, continuity, recovery and reversibility. Sales teams also need to be trained in these issues.
The Truxt label audit
The Truxt label audit is designed to specifically address these issues. These technical and organizational points do not, however, completely prefigure the company's long-term viability, so the control of sales forces, resource management and company management are also part of the control points (financial audit, accounting audit, internal audit and external audit). In addition to operational analysis, financial analysis through an accounting and financial audit enables us to establish the financial risk profile and to cross-check this risk profile with the internal practices seen during the audit.
Many software publishers are unprepared for the task of auditing their processes and infrastructure. Quality assurance of SaaS providers seems to be an irremediable practice that will, come what may, put SaaS vendors under the microscope. Rather than being subjected to this scrutiny, the rating agency exaegis, through the TRUXT label, enables Saas publishers to get a head start and demonstrate their mastery before customers demand it through an audit firm and an external auditor. The labeling exercise enables us to engage in in-depth reflection with our technical teams on the challenges of Saas. The label introduces a virtuous dynamic, and the progression in the exaegis rating grid can help to set objectives. This solution, which does not require an internal auditor or internal control, enables software publishers to take the lead and demonstrate their operational excellence. It also enables them to demonstrate their progress plans on subjects specific to SaaS issues, and in the end, can avoid the Supplier Quality Assurance exercise sometimes implemented by the customer. It's also a win-win situation for the customer, who doesn't have to pay for an audit mission by an auditor. For the publisher, the initial audit exercise is carried out once and for all, and the report and improvement plan can then be presented to all prospective customers.
As a reminder, the 7 chapters audited as part of the TRUXT label, which cover 150 points of attention assessed according to international standards, are as follows:
- Customer relationship management
- Provision of defined services
- Team management: motivation, recruitment, retention
- Quality improvement management
- Management of recurring threats (security)
- Management of service transfers for integration and reversibility
- Steering, management and administration
Article translated from French