Of much contradiction is the popular perception of SaaS. While the perception claims it is mostly sign-up, subscribe and surf, gone are the days when that was accurate. The entire process of customer onboarding, monitoring, working with stakeholders, and setting up dashboards can consume a considerable amount of time. If you are wondering how to reduce SaaS implementation time by over 40%, fret no more. You have landed on the right page.

Yes, it is very much possible to deliver value to the business, way sooner than you had previously imagined. Speeding up time is actually an effective and collaborative effort between the customer and the vendor. Hence, the quick implementation of SaaS can deliver benefits early without jeopardizing the long-termed goals of the project. Let’s dive in.

Define job roles for Consultants and Vendors

Although vendor implementation teams do have the requisite knowledge base and all the technical know-how to deploy successfully. However, they are not the very experts when it comes to customer success.

And that is why it is of utmost pertinence that we outline expectations in the same category. Be it assisting the third-party software integrations or be it minimizing churn rates.

From the beginning itself, it should be quite clear about what roles should the consultants and vendors play. Additionally, it should be noted that a customer might want to take up other parts of the project. But the same might not turn feasible due to the paucity of knowledge, experience, or time. Not just that, it can slow down the progress time to a considerable extent.

So what should be done? To get the best of SaaS implementation, vendors can suggest side-by-side work structures. This will help the customer’s technical staff to learn while they are still in collaboration with the vendor experts.

Perfect the User Training

Well, there is definitely a thin line between customer satisfaction and customer experience. While one says how happy the customer is, the latter speaks about the familiarity he has to use the system. It is true that times when the users who are unhappy with the software have a lack of proper understanding.

Therefore, it is user training that plays a great role. Nowadays successful training has many definitions. It is not like it has to be an ardent set of graphical PowerPoint presentation. It can be via YouTube videos, or by inviting the users to shadow the implementation or by formal classroom training.

With the help of customizable live training sessions for the businesses, you can cut down on the implementation time by a large cut. As the users will be well-trained right from the beginning, the chances or errors or re-do might also take a backseat.

Customer Pre-requisites on the Finger Tips

It is a real gut-wrenching moment when you realize you are next in line with some missing paperwork. Isn’t it? To shun such sorts of situations, customers can work with the vendors even before the project actually begins to steer away from these nervous situations.

Check off all the boxes that you think might be a reason to delay SaaS implementation. In fact, I would suggest the customers document all the internal IT policies during the pre-implementation workshops itself. Believe me, this is a great tip to stay prepared, have all the requisite information at the tip of your fingers, and save time to a great extent.

Updated Calendar, Updated Planning

Yes, you heard that right. All you have to do is update your planning schedules and track hold of time before it is too late. How about from the second or third week itself, you can give your clients the leverage to begin using the product. This will help them understand the new data views.

Moreover, in this way the customer can start integrating technology into their regular, daily workflows while the team finishes on the implementation. Think of all the time that can be saved up, just with a little bit of pre-planned calendar.

And the Stakeholder Coordination

As it is up to the customer to identify and bring up business stakeholders for planning meetings with the vendors. Also, you will have to work harder to communicate benefits for the stakeholders. Over the cusp of time, the external implementation team will learn more about the targeted businesses. With this, they can rather make business-focused recommendations for the product.

You should also note that these initial conversations are some of the foundational exercises that are critical to speed up time to value. And it also ensures maximum user uptake.

Just like Jason Patel, Founder, Transizion rightly quotes it, “The goal is to embed customer happiness within your company culture from the very beginning. If you put your customers first and let your new employees know that, it makes implementing company initiatives much easier. When everyone on the team is on the same page in regards to customer service, they are more in tune with serving your market’s needs.”

Final Take

The aforementioned list here is very much trackable and not impossible, so to say. But also you should see that following the right steps for faster time to value will take a lot of effort from you. It will demand your patience, you will have to build relationships across organizations and also to imbibe a culture of empathy.

Building a solid foundation for an enterprise SaaS project will definitely lead to a rather successful and long-termed outcome for both the vendor and the customer. While it is something that we all need at the moment, the implementing steps should be carefully wreathed to form a beautiful collaboration of ideas. And that is where the faster implementation of SaaS is a step to adapt and learn from.

WRITTEN BYKaustubh Sangam

Kaustubh Sangam is a Customer Success Analyst with 2 years of experience. Committed to delivering exceptional customer experiences and driving business growth. Proficient in leveraging data analysis to optimize customer success strategies.

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