Experience transitioning on-prem software to SaaS?
October 08, 2021
by a searcher from Stanford University in San Diego, CA, USA
Target company (small software business with recurring revenue) is currently on-prem and would require a rebuild of the product to turn it into SaaS. Curious to connect with folks who have been through this process before - pitfalls to watch out for, how to transition old customers to new platform, etc.
from Indiana University at Bloomington in Austin, TX, USA
Among the issues you'll need to address:
- Do the benefits outweigh the risks and costs of migrating from on-prem to cloud?
- What information is stored in the software. By delivering via cloud, does this open up new cybersecurity attack surface that they'll need to manage differently than other systems? What is the cost/ complexity in this?
- How would customers feel about paying monthly or annually for software (particularly if previously they paid once, and then only for as needed updates).
- What are the compliance, legal, and technical hurdles of moving them from on-prem to cloud (this is perhaps the biggest risk/ point of failure - particularly when dealing with customers in regulated spaces. It could take years to move a customer base to cloud.
from Stanford University in Pleasanton, CA, USA
Did this at a past company for a large-ticket, enterprise/system-of-records software. It takes planning to avoid/reduce disruptions, customers delaying decisions (Osborne effect) etc..
You will also have to plan to support both versions during the transition and that will increase your engineering & support costs. Also think about migration & training costs. If the product is highly customizable then migration costs will be higher. If there is a change in UX and/or work-flow, users may have to be trained to use the new solution.
Pl DM me if you want more details and I will glad to get on a phone call with you to discuss.