The latest edition of Microsoft's Windows operating system brings back many features familiar to users of previous editions, such as the "Start" button interface that had been skipped over in Windows 8. In fact, Windows 10 could be described as one of the least radical redesigns of the operating system that holds the world's largest market share. With this in mind, it might be easy to overlook the new, very different direction Microsoft is taking its flagship product. Microsoft's most recent decision signals a movement away from software-as-a-product towards software-as-a-service.

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Here are the top 10 reasons to purchase a cloud-based application vs. building them in-house:

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Making the switch to cloud Software as a Service (SaaS) can offer a variety of benefits, such as lower electrical bills and maintenance costs. Implemented properly, SaaS can be an inexpensive, flexible solution for your business. However, if hastily implemented, cloud-based software can leave your firm in a very difficult situation.

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Stanford professor and former Oracle president of on-demand business, Timothy Chou, discusses his perspective on the software economy's future in his new book Seven, the follow-up book from his previous work, The End of Software (2004).

Within the last ten years, many Software as a Service (SaaS) companies that were once small private firms have become large corporations.

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In a previous blog post, we discussed how important it is to have a variety of contact options for today's consumers, based on findings from the 2015 Global Contact Centre Benchmarking Report. However, many companies are finding it difficult to integrate these new options into their contact centers.

As expected, a majority of call centers have the capability to support customers over the phone and through email. These capabilities line up with the previous generation's expectations in a support center, as most customers over the age of 40 prefer support over telephone or email. However, the next generation's first choice of webchat is only supported by 45% of organizations, and 35% of organizations without webchat have no plans of offering it in the future.

According to data from the Report, an average of 79% of companies are afraid that their systems will not meet demands in the future. However, the cost of integrating a new support system can be expensive, and new software may not be compatible with older machines. One solution that the Report proposes is hosting contact centers in the cloud, which can reduce the cost of integrating a brand new system greatly while expanding support options.

In fact, the Report found that 89% of organizations currently using cloud architecture agree that it has reduced costs. Other benefits from cloud technologies noted in the Report include access to new functionality, improved flexibility, and better reliability. Yet half of the organizations surveyed do not even use hosted technologies.

Giva's customizable cloud technologies are easy to use and can save your company time and money. Read about how the Giva Difference has changed the way many companies handle customer contact on Giva's case study page!

Saving time, in the long run, saves money. The new Apple watch discussed at TechCrunch is in the business of saving people time by making it easier to see important information throughout their workday without having to pull out their smart phone. This equates to precious time saved. According to Matthew Panzanaro at TechCrunch, "There are very few products that allow you to hand someone cash and be given back TIME."

Working around-the-clock to meet a client's needs is what a great attorney does. If that clock is slowed down in any way it costs extra money. Miles & Stockbridge P.C. has enjoyed a rich history of well-planned growth, enduring client relationships and loyal community leadership for over 80 years. They support approximately 500 employees in 8 offices across the east coast of the USA. "Since we are providing IT technical support to attorneys that work around-the-clock, we needed a solution that could be accessible anywhere and anytime by our staff. Our attorneys' time is our 'stock in trade', so we must keep the firm up and running and highly productive on a large number of applications and various hardware platforms in order to generate revenue." (Ken Adams, Chief Information Officer) They were spending a lot of time and money on managing and maintaining servers and software to host their previous application.

After researching their options, they found the solution to their time problem. "Giva's application suite is fast and responsive, and we have had 100% uptime. Any cloud application we use must perform this way, especially since we are working with attorneys that are always under tight deadlines and want to minimize the amount of time they are on the phone with us." Not only have they saved attorneys valuable time they have also experienced;

• 70% cost savings when considering the total cost of ownership (TCO) over a 3 year period
• 70% decrease in number of tickets that remain open from day-to-day
• 60% increase in customer satisfaction of attorneys and staff
• 100% application uptime and high application responsiveness

Miles & Stockbridge have taken the time to save their clients valuable time. According to Ken Adams, "With Giva, when I view any report, it always has real-time information. Furthermore, any of my staff can create, save and share reports, which allow us to retrieve pertinent real-time information at any moment without having to set up our own versions of a report. This dynamic nature of Giva's reporting engine is a tremendous advantage over all the others we evaluated."

Find more information at Miles & Stockbridge Case Study.

What is your challenge? Let Giva be your solution!

How can you more quickly qualify and evaluate any software or cloud vendor?

In another informative whitepaper, Giva offers even more tough questions to keep your potential software or cloud vendor on their toes and to make sure they know you have done your homework. Customers interested in purchasing any software or cloud service may encounter myriad of problems and obstacles during the purchase process.  This whitepaper provides tough practical questions to ask your vendor candidate to help avoid mistakes that even the most experienced professionals can make. 

Some topics covered include:

• What happens if we have a disagreement? Mediation/arbitration or litigation?
• What are the costs of additional modules and licenses purchased in the future?
• What are license options for part-time usage?
• Are customer case studies with business results achieved available?
• Are your customer references compensated in any way?
• How will our future feature requirements be obtained?
• Will we have a dedicated Account Manager?
• Are thirty-day supported production trials available without obligation?
• How many new releases are provided per year?

For more information and tough questions to assist you in your vendor selection process, please refer to Ten More Tough Questions to Better Qualify Any Software or Cloud Vendor

There is nothing more frustrating than signing on the dotted line and then regretting it. Selecting a software or cloud vendor is a major decision for any company and Giva has designed a whitepaper to assist you in becoming more informed and educated by reducing the complexity of the cloud or software vendor selection process.

This whitepaper provides twenty penetrating questions to ask cloud vendors in order to become a more informed buyer. It provides practical "how to" advice to help avoid mistakes that even the most experienced professionals make, ultimately costing them a lot of time and money. Use these questions early in your selection process to poke and prod at your list of cloud vendors.

Some topics covered include:

• Using uptime and support service level agreements to manage our relationship
• How to qualify the reliability and security of a data center; SSAE 16 (formally SAS 70), Trustwave PCI Certification and SysTrust Compliance
• Access to your data and rights in the cloud
• Source code escrow rights and responsibilities
• Termination clauses, contract term commitments, discounts and hidden fees
• What if my company is dissatisfied?
• What if my company finds better technology?
• Deployment "out-of-box" vs. time and cost of customization/configuration
• Preparing and comparing the total cost of ownership (TCO) of all alternatives
• Most overlooked critical fine print in software maintenance agreements
• Vendor product roadmaps and commitment
• What are the costs for post-implementation customization/configuration?
• What qualifies as routine technical support vs. professional services fees?

To view the whitepaper in its entirety, please see Twenty Tough Questions to Better Select, Compare & Evaluate Any Software or Cloud Vendors.

Customers interested in purchasing software or cloud services can encounter myriad of problems and obstacles during the purchase process. Your company can reduce the complexity of the software or cloud buying process by asking the following 10 penetrating and informed questions of your potential vendors:

1. Dissatisfaction with product: After my company pays for your software licenses, what if we become dissatisfied?

2. Better technology: What if better technology comes along after we purchase your software licenses?

3. Deployment "out-of-box" vs. time and cost of customization/configuration: How quickly can we be up and running on your product? Does it work "out of the box"?

4. Preparing and comparing the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of all alternatives: What is the estimated Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of your product over four years? Consider all the acquisition and lifetime costs of ownership.

5. Most overlooked critical fine print in software maintenance agreements: What exactly is included in annual software maintenance?

6. Costs of post-implementation customization/configuration: Our CFO is concerned about commitments for ongoing fees. Can we stop paying software maintenance any time we want, but continue to use the software licenses?

7. Vendor product road maps and commitment: What is your road map for future development?

8. Using uptime and support service level agreements to manage our relationship: Does your company charge professional services fees if we have support issues that require reconfiguration?

9. Routine technical support vs. professional service fees: If we want to do additional customization and configuration work after the initial deployment, does your company charge professional fees?

10. Termination clauses, contract term commitments, discounts and hidden fees: Does your company provide Respond and Resolve Service Level Agreements for support service requests that your company is committed by contract to meet?

For a more in-depth look into these questions, see Giva's Whitepaper Ten Tough Questions to Better Select, Compare & Evaluate Any Software or Cloud Vendors.