What’s Most Important about SaaS? It’s the aaS.

We’ve all heard it in the market. And some of us have taken Tylenol because of it. So what is it? It is the word “SaaS” (Software as a Service) or “cloud” or “remote-hosted.” But at the end of the day, the real questions are, how are all of these defined and different, and what does this mean for a provider making an EMR decision?

My personal and professional opinion: It really doesn’t matter all that much. It’s that simple.

Now, please do NOT take this the wrong way. I understand there are drastic deployment differences in SaaS, remote-hosted, and client/server (C/S) technologies and platforms.

But I have monitored the ambulatory EMR market and vendors’ performance for over four years, and the bottom line is that it’s not the technology alone that determines the provider organization’s success or satisfaction. It is the vendor’s approach to the “aaS” (as a Service). You see, “aaS” encompasses the service provided to clients, the culture of the vendor, and the relationship the vendor fosters with customers to ultimately become a partner in their success (and a service- and customer-centric vendor does much more than just this short list!). This is where the key difference emerges between just the “S” (Software) vendors in healthcare technology and the “aaS” (as a Service) vendors. Which type of vendor do you work with in your organization?

Does this seem like a bold claim? I’d love your feedback . . . and I will prove my thinking with some real-life examples in my next blog post. Stay tuned.