In-House vs SaaS: Why SaaS is the Key for Online Policy Management.

In-house vs. SaaS

That is a major crossroad many companies encounter. When it comes to policy and procedure management, more and more companies are taking the SaaS route. Yet, many companies still resist the trend and believe they can either save money, or increasing efficiency by developing an in-house solution. With the costs of many SaaS models falling, and the specialization of a policy management software increasing, this resistance can end up costing the company a lot more than just an inferior management software.

IT departments will have to spend hundreds of hours creating and maintaining a company wide policy management interface. Not only will the salary costs of going in-house quickly surpass the SaaS fee, IT departments will have a difficult time implementing all the features that are specific to a policy software.

Will IT departments be able to create an in-house solution that:

• Will have an audit trail that can hold up in court?
• Ensures documents are current, and end-users have read and signed off on the most current version?
• Can disperse the relevant policies to user groups, to ensure only the correct people have access to their policies, and are not cluttered with policies that are not relevant to them
• Allows for testing of end-users to ensure knowledge on what they have read?
• Differentiates roles for limited access for individual users?
• Is equipped with automatic notifications, for users that have not taken action on a document?
• Can notify document owners or editors that specific policies need revision?
• Allows for advanced reporting on all actions within the policy software, including all end user metrics?
• Has an easily searchable and organized end-user portal, so employees do not waste time searching for their appropriate documents?
• Keeps track of all versions of a policy, and maintains a paper trail of all actions related to all versions?
• Accounts for multiple editors and advisors on a policy, to ensure edits are recorded and do not wipe out other users edits?

Until a company can answer YES to all of them, they must ask themselves why they are paying more money to accomplish less. Going in the cloud, to purchase a tried and tested policy management software, that was made with all the above considerations in mind, is not only cost effective, it’s essential in today’s business environment. Your IT team, your policy owners and stakeholders, your companies policy compliance, and your organizational efficiency are all at stake.