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Financial Services and other industries are rapidly adopting the Software as a Service (SaaS) model, thereby increasing the efficiency of their operations and removing the pain associated with deploying Client Server applications. Healthcare historically lags other industries when it comes to technology adoption, so it’s not surprising to find many Healthcare companies unaware of the benefits of the SaaS model. This article discusses some of the benefits of SaaS.
What is SaaS?
According to Wikipedia, “Software as a service (SaaS) is a software application delivery model where a software vendor develops a web-native software application and hosts and operates (either independently or through a third-party) the application for use by its customers over the Internet. Customers do not pay for owning the software itself but rather for using it.” Typically SaaS models are hosted by a software vendor, are accessed via the Internet and customers are billed on a subscription basis.
Security & Data Protection
Obviously healthcare companies are aware of the need for security conscious solutions, and at a minimum are required to meet the HIPAA standards set forth by congress. Security is a common question / fear for companies considering a SaaS model. Customers that subscribe to a SaaS offering must trust their chosen software vendor with both their applications and their data. It is important to evaluate the SaaS vendor’s approach to security and privacy. A good SaaS provider will strongly focus on data security. They will offer at a minimum SSL connections to ensure that all data is transferred in an encrypted fashion which meets or exceeds HIPAA.
Many practices already outsource their IT for their Client/Server applications. They have chosen to place their trust in an outside party already, so making the leap to SaaS is the logical next step.
SaaS vendors should have specialists that are experts in the implementation and management of Data-centers. A good SaaS vendor will have a strong technical team that vastly exceeds the capabilities of most healthcare practices. An excellent SaaS vendor will have better controls, technical staff, disaster recovery plans, security policies, backup procedures and hardware than a typical practice. The SaaS vendor can specialize in these things which enables the practice to focus on practicing medicine.
A quick search at Secunia reveals an alarming number of security advisories that IT professional must deal with on a daily basis. Vulnerabilities that have not been patched or remediated in some fashion serve as an invitation to hackers. When evaluating SaaS vendors it’s important to ask about their approach to server patching. Odds are the good SaaS vendors are more proactive regarding vulnerability patches than the typical healthcare practice. Consider the chart that depicts the number of Security Advisories reported by Secunia over the last 5 years and ask yourself if you are confident that your IT staff has patched all of the known vulnerabilities on your network. Reputable SaaS vendors have well written security and patch management policies. They will attempt to quantify the risk of patching a server and assess the potential impact of not patching.
Technology
Good SaaS vendors will invest in the latest technologies to make sure that their clients data is protected, highly available and readily accessible. They have the staff to make sure that servers are patched, firewalls are secured, databases are backed up, encrypted and rotated offsite for safe storage. A SaaS vendor can focus on choosing the right technologies and upgrade them for optimal performance. In fact they have no choice. The only way to make sure they have happy customers is to make sure they are safer, faster and better than their competitors. They have to earn their customers business every single time the customer is up for renewal.
They will invest in monitoring tools designed to detect potential problems and prevent outages. They will design their Data-center to minimize or eliminate all single points of failure. A reputable SaaS vendor will have clustered or hot-standby servers so that even if they lose an entire server, switch, or firewall they will still be operational and their customers will feel no impact.
Cost / Benefit
At first glance the traditional Client/Server model often looks to be more economical over the long term than a SaaS model. Many practices are comfortable with a large up front purchase and maintenance fees each year. They initially feel that the subscription model will cost them more over a 5 or 10 year time horizon. Often times they are frustrated however when they need to spend more money each year upgrading servers and operating systems. There are many hidden costs with the Client/Server model that are not readily apparent. Small to Medium practices can’t afford full-time IT personnel due to the costs associated. The true cost of ownership of a Client/Server solution is very often 4 to 5 times more than the initial purchase price according to some analysts.
When you factor in what it truly costs to build a redundant, highly available HIPAA compliant infrastructure the SaaS model wins the ROI argument. The SaaS vendor can invest in expensive technologies that can be shared across multiple clients. They will spend money upgrading their servers and network devices much more frequently than a typical practice. They have a staff dedicated to performing upgrades, patches and backups. They have people that actively monitor their infrastructure to detect and fix problems before they happen. When comparing the Client/Server model to SaaS it’s important to consider what it would cost a practice to have the same level of security, service and peace of mind that a good SaaS vendor will deliver.
Connectivity
Many physicians work long hours practicing medicine. The last thing they have time for is to pull up a workstation at the hospital and run reports using a Client/Server solution. An Internet accessible SaaS solution allows practice managers and physician’s to instantly check on the state of their practice / AR from anywhere in the world with just an Internet connection and a web browser. In fact, significant cost savings can be realized by a reduction in office space by allowing their billing staff to work remotely.
Further Reading:
http://www.trumba.com/connect/knowledgecenter/software_as_a_service.aspx
http://www.thewhir.com/features/saas-kaplan.cfm
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/apr2006/tc20060417_996365.htm