More and more companies are now offering Software as a Service (SaaS) solutions boasting greater accessibility, flexible pricing models, access anywhere and reduced maintenance costs.

The model also benefits software vendors in that they have greater control over the software versioning available in the market and the software on offer usually involves the hosting of the customer’s data. This is a powerful move for software vendors, in that allows them greater visibility of their customer’s usage and needs of the product as well as greater control over pricing and licensing fees.

Exactest, like many successful companies uses SaaS as part of our normal organisational model. This includes general software for documentation and specialised software for financial management. By in large, the experience is a positive one.

In our experience, the biggest risk facing SaaS software vendors is their level of commitment to their non-functional testing approach. Those who inadequately invest in Performance, Security, Stress, Scalability, Maintainability and Failover testing do so at the peril of their reputation. This is particularly true for larger well-known software brands with a large customer base.

SaaS and You

Our advice to those looking to purchase SaaS products is to ask the vendor questions about the robustness of the infrastructure employed, performance, volume of customer’s users and the vendor’s ability to scale the product. By the nature of the SaaS vendor model, the vendor has at their disposable greater insight into their customer’s operation and this is a powerful shift. As the saying goes, with great power comes great responsibility.

Exactest can provide clients with a solution to help manage the transition to SaaS and for vendors of SaaS; a tailored Non-Functional testing approach.

Exactest is an independent software test consultancy providing software testing solutions to quality concise and market driven clients utilising experienced test professionals and innovative technical solutions.