Web apps services here to stay
Yes, at the turn of the century many organizations were reluctant to do anything online in the ‘application service provider or SaaS’ area but that’s all changed now. This was primarily due to security and reliability reasons. Technologies were simply not reliable enough let alone had the bandwidth punch to justify their use. Now organizations have gotten used to the idea and in many respects are completely embracing this evolution.
The future of specialized web survey apps
With continual technological developments and strained budgets, companies like Google and Microsoft are looking for new ways to sustain their software revenue flows. Since Google offers all its applications online, giants like Microsoft will have been forced to follow suit with great offerings even in the mobile arena. What does this trend signify for your company and, for the purpose of this article, your organizational development needs?
Web-based survey software and organizational development services.
Right for me? Organizational development tools are in the plenty online, some of them professional and others questionable in quality and flexibility. This sector, however, has seen much added value in especially the small to medium sized companies due to the fact that these IT departments have other priorities than to host and support yet another company application. HR professionals alike are not necessarily IT minded people and simply want to use survey tools and not play the role of an IT person as well. And then there is the CFO or director who has all but the time and patience to delve into a software app to gain feedback and insight of organizational performance matters. Hence, the notion of running organizational development and HR analytics tools online seems now more appealing than ever before.
Online organizational development tools advantages:
The most significant advantage already alluded to is that these types of services take away much exhaustion and frustration out of your hands. Upgrades and maintenance is seamlessly done online from a centralized hosted server or cloud environment which the client won’t even realize as it may be seamlessly integrated. How many times have we installed something and it didn’t quite work the way we wanted it to? Web services offer you this cost effective advantage. When it comes down to highly specialized organizational tools like, for instance, a 360 degree feedback and review tool, the need for many application components and dependencies to work is quite demanding, i.e. Databases, web front end, security and reliability.
Web apps development tools and their cost-effectiveness.
Owning software always seemed appealing but think of the long term side of this equation. When an HR professional summons IT to purchase, deploy and maintain such services, there are already at least 2 headcounts involved when only one was needed. Not excluding the fact that software installations, hardware support are also rather cost burning exercises. Depending on your organizational setup and capacity, using a web based or online survey tool can cut costs by 50% which should appeal to any person wanting to pitch the idea to the board.
So are connected/cloud services ideal?
By far, all studies have indicated that the Internet is an ideal platform to conduct organizational performance metrics. Whether it is an employee satisfaction, attitude or opinion survey, company culture survey, customer satisfaction, management and leadership performance or an advanced 360 degree feedback review system, they all are keenly positioned for email and internet based facilitation above any paper based solution. Cost savings can be up to 70% by use of these technologies.
