Stakeholder engagement software is ideal for the cloud-based, externally hosted Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) delivery model because the software tends to be used by geographically dispersed users with complex database and reporting requirements.
Typically Software-as-a-Service falls into the category of “cloud computing.” The software and data exist on remote servers rather than an internal server or individual desktop computers.
Security Considerations
There are a few unique security parameters that are important to examine before deciding to implement a SaaS based tool to manage your organization’s stakeholder engagement communication.
One important aspect to understand with SaaS applications, in particular those that store and organize important and confidential information, is that the software processing is happening remotely (the computing power is performed on a remote server). In addition, the data is also stored off-site.
While the idea of your core data residing off-site may trigger some concerns at first, the Software-as-a-Service model can actually be a boost to security once all factors are considered.
Having stakeholder engagement teams enter data into a centralized system (focused on secure data hosting) tends to be less risky those same employees travelling around with data on their laptops.
Convenience
The value proposition for SaaS being used to manage stakeholder engagement communication lies in the ability to centralize data (as opposed to having information in different files and formats spread across the organization) while simultaneously providing geographically dispersed users with access to that data.
The best stakeholder information management tools have the ability to:
- Seamlessly share collected data with multiple people
- Access relevant information inputted by different people
- Pull together reports and information summaries collected by all team members
Risk Reduction
There are many data security benefits to working with a SaaS stakeholder engagement tracking tool. These include:
- Encryption technologies derived from the hosted server. As a result, users’ individual computers don’t require any special security settings or features.
- Entering information directly into a remote database. This reduces or eliminates the risk and liability related to stakeholder engagement professionals carrying around large volumes of sensitive data.
- Systematic security. When compared to in-house IT teams, SaaS hosting companies (by nature of their infrastructure) are more focused on security and tend to have dedicated resources and expertise at their disposal with which to manage security concerns. Consequently, saving stakeholder communication data on a remote server is arguably safer than doing so on individual computers or on-premise databases.
- Centralized data. Keeping information in a central location that is backed-up on a regular basis ensures that stray communications and private information doesn’t get accidentally deleted or released.
To learn more about the benefits of using a robust SaaS system for your organization’s stakeholder information management needs please download our Software As A Service for Stakeholder Management E-Book.
Image Credit: Daniel Boyd under Creative Commons 2.0
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