Lots of people are speculating right now that with possible economic hard times coming, SaaS could end up getting a boost because companies don't want to invest in large-scale software installations. Graham Barnes, CEO of BidShift, is one believer in the idea that SaaS might be a wise choice for these reasons. BidShift offers SaaS-based staffing tools for the healthcare industry. Barnes recently offered some thoughts on that specific industry, as well as SaaS overall.
Are hospitals and healthcare organizations (as well as other industries that use this sort of software) facing increasing pressure to cut costs for IT operations?
Barnes: Hospitals and healthcare organizations continue to face increasing pressure to cut costs in all areas, including IT and labor costs, while maintaining and improving outcomes and patient satisfaction. BidShift's SaaS solution is primarily aimed at reducing hospital labor costs, which represent approximately 60 percent of the expense budget, without increasing IT costs. As BidShift's SaaS solution requires almost no IT involvement once approved by executives, the benefits of allowing nurses to select and fill open shifts themselves can be realized with minimal expense and no capital expenditure.
With all the talk of an economic recession, do you agree with predictions that companies may try to cut costs by shifting some applications to SaaS and if so why?
Barnes: With or without a recession, the SaaS delivery model offers the lowest and most predictable cost of ownership. As all companies will look to constantly improve their operations, SaaS applications become more attractive. In the face of recessionary pressures, the need to improve services to maintain revenues becomes even more important to companies. Simply trimming costs without paying attention to quality of service is unacceptable, especially in healthcare.
How does BidShift's solution work through SaaS (how is staffing management handled through SaaS as opposed to a locally installed software package)?
Barnes: BidShift offers hospitals full access to our software by anyone with an Internet connection. Nurse staff managers can set up profiles for each nurse position in each hospital unit. Configuration of the various incentives and work rules are installed during initial set up through the Web site. Then, specific open shifts are posted in advance and individual nurses can log in to view and request the shifts, from anywhere (even from home). BidShift's engineering department maintains all the servers in secure, reliable data centers and handles all software upgrades to ensure minimal downtime.
Installed software can take months to set up and usually has problems surrounding hospitals’ firewalls and other security measures. These obstacles make it difficult to quickly and efficiently manage staff. Using a SaaS solution minimizes these challenges, as full installation happens within weeks instead of months. Software maintenance is managed through the SaaS provider, thereby relieving the company’s (or in this case a hospital’s) time spent on software problems and maintenance.
If SaaS provides functionality benefits in addition to reduced cost, do you feel that the overall software industry will eventually shift to a majority of applications being delivered via SaaS?
Barnes: The only barrier to majority deployment of SaaS application delivery is the need to provide constant client visibility and improvement of the software value over time, in order to justify the recurring monthly cost. If this is not done, customers may look for a conventional software product with a one-time cost, forgetting the challenge and cost of maintaining current versions and operations support.
I think if these issues are addressed and remembered during the evaluation process and throughout the use of the SaaS solution, I do believe we will see a huge shift toward SaaS application delivery. As an example, BidShift addresses these issues by not requiring the installation of any hardware, no initial capital expenditure, little to no corporate IT involvement or support and hosting of the application on BidShift servers.
Leave a comment