Evaluating a SaaS Vendor

Internal Evaluation

Many customers will initially review the pros and cons of SaaS against Software as a Product, as well as alternate SaaS vendors. Our recommendation is that the following should be reviewed:

• The total cost of managing the current internal infrastructure, including whatever opportunity costs may be associated with managing systems internally?

intY are able to provide ROI comparisons between like for like solutions.

• How much will it cost to migrate to a new in-house system?

An intY SaaS solution would have no upfront costs and should be considerably cheaper.

• When will such a migration be required?

An intY solution would be available for almost immediate implementation.

• How long will it take?

Major installations usually only take a few days; SME customers should be fully migrated and up and running within a few hours.

• What are the risks associated with this deployment?

Moving customers onto a shared platform that is fully operational by trained and qualified staff is significantly lower in risk than a new deployment managed by untrained and inexperienced internal staff.

Vendor Evaluation

Migrating your organisations data and systems that are mission critical to your operation to another vendor should not be taken lightly. A full evaluation of the vendor’s infrastructure and support methodology should be undertaken.

• How many data centre’s does intY operate?

intY operate three discreet data centre’s, two in London and one in Bristol.

• What type of data centre is provided?

intY’s infrastructure is housed in buildings designated of national importance, with high levels of security and standby power.

• What migration tools and services are offered?

intY’s deployment team will be able to migrate systems and historic data from legacy systems onto our  hosted platforms.

• How often are upgrades provided?

Upgrades are scheduled and carefully pre-planned, normally on a monthly basis.

• What reporting capabilities are provided?

Management reporting on all systems is available at a user and system level.

• Does intY have premier support agreements with their technology partners?

We have contractual agreements that are either equal, or in excess of our SLA with our key technology partners that include: Microsoft, Ensim, Sophos, Kaspersky, Cloudmark, Level3 and Kingston Communications.

• What architectural capabilities ensure that there is neither delay in service delivery or unnecessary risk in service delivery?

All systems have a minimum of 100% redundancy, and are spread across multiple tier 4 data centres with redundant and diverse connectivity.

Redundancy Capacity Planning

Understanding how a potential vendor will manage their own growth throughout the lifecycle of a contract so as to maintain performance, reliability and service levels is an important benchmark of a potential supplier’s long term commitment to the project.

•  Do intY perform full, nightly backups of customer data?

intY undertakes a full backup of all systems every 24 hours.

•  Do intY use their own technology or another vendor’s?

intY utilises our own intellectual property in combination with best in class components from specialist vendors where appropriate.

•   Does intY use the application developer’s platform, or one developed by another vendor?

intY utilises platforms of its own design in combination with Microsoft.

• Will intY’s infrastructure scale to meet future requirements?

Our Infrastructure is fully scalable, and our systems team plan ahead of predicted increased load on our infrastructure to insure both service levels and redundancy ratios are maintained.

How Secure is the Infrastructure?

Where your data is stored, who has access to it, how secure and reliable is the system and what standards are adhered to in the management and control of your data are vital areas to understand if a secure system is to be implemented.

• What controls are in place to control access to customer data?

intY operates to an IS09000/27001 standard. 

• What intrusion detection systems are in place to protect intY’s data centre?

intY data centre’s operate to a TIA-942 tier 4 standard.

• What redundant capabilities are in place, including backup generators, redundant telecommunication links, etc?

intY data centre’s operate to a TIA-942 tier 4 standard.

• Does intY host customers on shared and/or dedicated servers?

Our services are multi tenanted.

• In what countries will the data be stored?

The data will all be stored within our UK Data centre’s.

• How integrated are the services?

       Our services are fully integrated from our management portal, and are synchronised using our active directory synchronizations system.

• Does intY provide both shared and dedicated servers?

        Yes we are able to provide shared and dedicated servers.

• What are the technical support hours?

24/7/365 days a year

• Does intY offer live 24/7 support?

Yes, dependent upon agreed service level.

• Where are the technical support staff based?

       intY support staff are based in our support centre in Bristol.

• Does intY provide a dedicated Technical Account Manager after the sale?

intY provides dedicated account managers.

• Does intY offer periodic service reviews?

intY operates either a monthly or quarterly service review dependent upon customer requirements.

• Do intY publish their escalation procedures?

Our escalation procedures are detailed within our service level agreement.
What provisioning tools are provided?
intY offers online provisioning with Active Directory synchronisation.

• Are policies across all communications channels unified and managed in a single, integrated Web console?

Yes, through intY’s SaaS access portal.

• Is distributed administration of the service supported? (e.g. regional administrators with control over only a subset of the users)

Yes, our services support a multi-tier/departmental structure with defined access levels.

• Are end-users able to manage their own configurations and settings?

Users have access to configurations that are specific to the services that they take.

• Is intY financially viable?

intY has been trading for eleven years and is financially stable.

• How long has intY been in the hosting or managed services

business?
Ten years.

• How long has intY been in the specific business for which they are being considered? (Security, archiving, complete messaging services, etc.)

Ten years.

• How many customers does intY support?

intY currently supports 3,000 customers.

• What size and type of customers does intY support?

Customers vary in size from 5 to 5,000 users.

• Can intY provide customer references that are similar to our organisation?

intY are able to offer references from almost any public or private sector vertical.

• What transaction volume does intY support, and how has this grown?

intY currently supports in excess of 23 million transactions per day.

• What certifications have intY employees earned?

All of intY technical staff has undertaken a comprehensive training programme, with most staff being degree qualified with Microsoft/CISCO/ITIL accreditations.

• How many people are dedicated to support?

intY have 25 personnel in our technical support team.

• What corporate certifications or audits are offered?

ISO9000 & IS027001

• Who will own our data?

All data is owned by the respective customer.

• What are the termination conditions?

Terminations are subject to contract.

• How can data be exported/migrated to an on-premise solution or to another hosted provider?

intY will migrate data to a standard agreed data format and media.