Rapidly growing and emerging businesses are flocking to Cloud solutions to simplify operations and quickly deploy services that delight employees – especially procurement and travel and expense reporting solutions that impact many employees across the enterprise. To smooth the way for selecting the best Cloud software for your organization, we’ve developed this handy checklist.
Does Your Proposed Cloud Solution Have What It Takes?
1) Is the software reliable? Can you use the software and access data from anywhere and any device?
If the software is hosted on a 3rd party’s server, then you might run into trouble if there’s a breakdown in the server. However, if the software is available on a large, robust public Cloud platform with multiple servers, then you can be assured that you will be able to use the software and access data even if one server should fail. For example, Ariett uses the Microsoft Azure Cloud platform as a service for Ariett’s Cloud Purchase and Expense Software. Azure’s SQL database maintains multiple copies of all data in different locations to protect and make data available at any time.
SQL database backups are continuous with a primary backup in the same datacenter and a secondary backup in a geographically isolated data center – both with a 14 day point in time restore. The time before the backup becomes available is under 30 seconds from the same data center and under 12 hours from the isolated data center.
Ariett Documents are stored as BLOBs in blob storage, which has 3 zone redundant backups and 3 backups from a geographically isolated data center that can make data available when there is a disaster outage.
Employees expect to access new software through multiple devices. Ariett’s Cloud Purchase and Expense software automatically allows employees to enter, approve and search transactions and documents securely from any device – the way employees expect to operate in a 24 x7 world.
2) Is the Cloud software a multi-tenant solution with a dedicated customer database?
A multi-tenant software solution is one which allows multiple customers to use the same version of the software, producing a consistent experience for all users. For instance, when any Cloud customer logs in to Ariett, the customer automatically receives the same new features and product updates as other customers. Having a shared customer experience also helps the development team to rapidly advance the software with new features based on the shared user experience. However, your data is still isolated from all other clients’ data, so there is no concern about unauthorized data access. Finally, Ariett’s standard SSRS reports can be customized or new reports can be deployed to the Cloud based on your needs.
3) Is the Cloud environment able to scale rapidly without your organization having to restructure your contract?
Negotiating the purchase of a new company or opening multiple new locations? The right Cloud solution delivers immediate access to resources to meet increased transaction processing without having to contractually add server resources to your deployment. Ariett’s service as an Azure application automatically detects resource requirements to meet peak demands and delivers a consistent level of service to all users and operations, regardless of your processing requirements – no worries with a true Cloud solution.
4) Is the pricing model cost-effective for growing organizations?
What is the most cost-effective Cloud pricing option for growing, mid-market companies? Ariett’s pricing approach is based on a combination of low-cost named user licenses and low cost annual transaction volumes for each type of Ariett transaction – Purchasing, AP Invoice, and Expense Report. All product functionality, updates, security, document and data storage, unlimited support and infrastructure is included with no hidden or additional fees. As your organization expands and adds transactions and users, the price per transaction and user decreases based on our tiered transaction-pricing structure. With Ariett’s approach to pricing, customers can avoid the increased costs of flat user license pricing models that can cause consternation as the solution is deployed across operations.
5) Does the software provide secure employee access?
With employees logging in to the software from different locations and devices, it has become increasingly important to have an effective user management system in place. As an Azure application, Ariett offers customers the ability to securely access Ariett Cloud Purchase and Expense through Azure Active Directory (AAD). IT Administrators use AAD to set up and manage usernames and passwords from a centralized portal. As a result, Ariett customers can securely log in to Ariett, Office 365 and any Azure application from any smartphone, tablet or desktop by just entering their proper credentials.
6) Is your hosting facility secure?
In addition to Ariett’s strong security, Ariett on the Microsoft Azure platform follows Microsoft’s security policies with full audit controls in place. More specifically, Azure has been audited against the Service Organization Control (SOC) reporting framework for both SOC 1 Type 2 and SOC 2 Type 2. SOC 1 Type 2 and SOC 2 Type 2 audit reports test the effectiveness of Azure controls for operating effectiveness, security, availability and confidentiality.
Undoubtedly, your CFO will have a stack of decisions to make in the next few months, but we hope this checklist makes it a tad easier to identify the most important requirements when considering a true Cloud procurement and travel and expense management solution. If you found this checklist useful, you may also want to show your CFO a recent guide to current trends in procurement and expense management: click here to read our white paper.
by Ariett