7 Reasons to Consider Bizmanualz Policy Management Software
Postedby Dan Davison on 08-09-2010
The “Bizmanualz On-Line” Policies and Procedures management software system is now undergoing testing. When you try it, you’ll see it’s primarily an Internet-based application. Very little runs on your local PC or network.
A few people have wondered about working online, asking, “Why would I want an online policy application that Bizmanualz hosts and maintains, rather than a policy application installed locally?”
#1 - It Costs Less
The Bizmanualz online solution spreads the cost of hardware and software across many customers, so you receive one low monthly fee for editors/authors and nothing for read-only access. If your company wants its own policy server, it wouldn’t enjoy the cost-sharing advantages and it would incur the entire cost of purchasing and maintaining the needed infrastructure.
Some still insist on an in-house installation because it gives them greater control. However, the business world, in general, is moving away from local software and toward hosted software services, software-as-a-service (SaaS), and cloud solutions. Â Companies don’t want to pay for software and hardware, especially when it sits idle much of the time. The great thing about software-as-a-service is that pricing reflects what you actually use.
#2 - You Get a Policy Management Solution Now
In large organizations, defining policty management application requirements and allocating resources to buy or build are fraught with political obstacles. Gaining buy-in from all stakeholders takes time. It’s easier for stakeholders to agree on what they need from a policy management software application when they can try it out first.
Because SaaS policy management solutions can be turned on instantly and require no installation, they offer an immediate solution. Users can then define their needs in terms of what the SaaS policy management solutions solutions does or does not do. You can then offer cost-benefit trade-offs in response to specific user needs.
Meeting user needs is not always possible at an acceptable level of investment. But by establishing good communications with your SaaS policy management solutions vendor, you may better understand the trade-offs and even influence the vendor’s development plans. As the polciy manager who uses the system, it’s easier for you to get a vendor to add the exact policy management features you need than for your company to allocate scarce resources. Under a SaaS model, new policy software features and upgrades are part of the value delivered for your subscription fee.
#3 - Continual SaaS Upgrades and Improvements
While large organizations have business analysts collecting user needs and defining what a policy management software application should do for them, smaller companies often do not. Often that role in an SMB is filled on an as-needed basis by an IT manager, and conflicting priorities may require redeployment of resources right after the software launches.
Software-as-a-service vendors on the other hand live or die by how well they support and improve their product. They must deliver value and ever-improved features and performance in exchange so that customers feel good about their monthly subscription fees.
Under the licensed server approach, improvements often come in annual or longer installation cycles with renewal fees attached. It could be a year or longer before you get upgrades. Furthermore, the cost of upgrading often means putting it off, which means you could fall behind companies that can afford to upgrade. Under the SaaS model, you get upgrades continually and you don’t pay any more for them.
#4 - No Unnecessary Technology Investment
For many companies, installed policy servers just don’t make sense anymore. Big, expensive server hardware and software has to be in place to run your policy procedure management software, but the necessary platform is underused. That is, policy management as a category of software demands little in the way of computing power. Unless yours is a vast organization with intensive policy compliance needs, your investment would sit idle most of the time and you’d end up paying for power you didn’t need.
It makes sense to spread the fixed costs across many companies, and get someone else (Bizmanualz) to take care of all that computing power for you, and that is the advantage of SaaS policy management.
#5 - SaaS Monthly Fees are Cheaper and Easier to Budget
Under a dedicated-server approach, IT departments typically pay annual license and maintenance fees of about 20% to 40% of the up-front software license fees. So our SaaS (on-line) policy solution is actually much cheaper to maintain from IT’s perspective. And because Bizmanualz online fully supports the SaaS solution, your IT department doesn’t have to allocate technical time and talent to maintain a dedicated solution.
SaaS enables you to share most of the costs of the hardware and software across all the provider’s (Bizmanualz’s) customers, while protecting your data. As a matter of fact, policy managers and finance professionals (to name two) who use our policy software are commonly surprised when they approach their IT department heads and find that initiatives are underway to identify SaaS or cloud applications like the Bizmanualz policy management system.
Remote hosting is becoming more common. If you approach IT management with a SaaS option, they may consider you to be a real forward-thinking user!
#6 - Compliance with SAS 70 Type II
Some companies like SaaS as a concept but they don’t want their data to reside outside their firewall. Our hosting is fully compliant and audited to SAS 70 Type II standards. Conforming to Type II standards means your data are fully protected. Has your in-house IT department met the SAS 70 standard?
#7 - Polciy workflow Compliance for editors but users don’t have to do anything differently.
While it is true that draft policy and procedure files are stored on our secure server outside your firewall, your company can store “released” documents on your in-house server. In that way, you could use our workflow management tools and still publish the released files to a location behind your firewall. Authors and editors gain policy workflow and compliance tools, and the majority of employees don’t have to change the way they access released documents. They would simply read the released policy documents as they have been doing in your Intranet or SharePoint, and released documents would reside within your firewall.
Our editing module stores Bizmanualz policies and procedures templates, as well as any changes you make or any other documents that you upload. Most customers tell us that their compliance policies and procedures are not considered sensitive documents. There should be no reason to upload sensitive documents. For most customers, released files are published to a secure web site that your employees - or anyone you want - can access them.
With the trade-offs in mind, the online SaaS policy management approach works for most customers. Furthermore, we can customize a solution for you. Just email sales@bizmanualz.com. Sign up for a free trial and see for yourself.










