With SaaS becoming as popular in recent times as it has in recent times, some of the unforeseen obstacles have finally begun to show themselves in awkward ways. This was inevitable, and now that the SaaS integration challenges have been identified, how much trouble are they?
Well, they certainly seem like big troubles, when you first encounter them. Some of these issues can stop you dead in your tracks, and halt whatever project you’re attempting. So, let’s identify the SaaS integration challenges, and maybe see how they can be addressed.
The biggest problem with integration of SaaS into the workplace, or into other systems like web designs and the like, is that web API is a great and complete mess. Let’s face it.
The thing is, web design isn’t a compiled entity. It can’t be, and we should be glad it can’t be. But with how it currently works, this means you have a mess of files that have to have a folder tree in the proper place, in order for a construct to work.
Bringing in SaaS, which is another entity like that (though usually less of a tangle) just becomes difficult to deal with. Since standards were set in the early nineties, and all modern permutations originate from these original ones, nobody can help that it is currently like this.
Well, there’s nothing for this problem but using very well-designed and atomic basic elements for your entire design. This means adopting a CMS system and SaaS designs that interlock well.
Another problem, however, is that while SaaS runs away like mad, the mobile revolution is chugging along right beside it, and making demands that buck web design basics just as hard as the corrections SaaS itself calls for. And it also adds a layer of obstacle in the way of the SaaS having to play nice with the mobile as well.
That’s a mess. So really, the only thing you can do here is to, again, choose wisely the SaaS you use, and the web template you adopt or design for your web presence.
Finally, this is a problem both for integration in the workplace, and in tying in smart systems into the interface layer of a public website. Training is an issue. That’s obvious in the office sense, but we have a problem. See, websites usually work fine for instant user adoption just by following wise eyetracking, layout and labeling of everything. Websites might look different and have a few neat little tricks, but these baseline constants of what websites do, usually they don’t change.
SaaS changes this, because it brings in robust procedural logic, vis a vis program nature.
Well, this is easy to solve. WalkMe, a tutorial creation program, is totally perfect for both definitions of this problem. It’s so handy because of the unique kind of tutorial it was meant to make. Rather than video or hands on teaching methods, this is smart software that can integrate into web forms.
It sees all and knows all, as it were, and can control the form, track user patterns, and prompt them on what to do next. It can correct mistakes, and capture logistics as well. So, with this built in to just guide users through the website if they seem lost, and to teach employees as they do their work, everyone goes home happy.
It’s depressing, in retrospect, what my advice for SaaS integration challenges had to be in two of the three cases, you know that? But really, that’s just how it is for now. It couldn’t be any other way, but bear in mind those problems as you plan your site and adoption of services.