Survey shows 10/10 ISVs make live service status hard to find

Your SaaS subscribers expect you to make your live service status easy to find. If you are not open and honest on this point, then you take the risk your subscribers will think you have something to hide.

Trust is critical to winning at SaaS. Adding your live status to your Web site home page is a quick and easy way to build trust. Why then do so few SaaS ISVs show their live service status? Do they have something to hide?

Searching for status

I wanted to see if SaaS ISVs have taken this simple step. Do they show their live service status on their Web site home page?

I expected to visit each home page and see the live service status in an obvious place on the page. Maybe a simple graphic with a “System OK” tick or traffic light. I also expected to find an obvious link to a detailed dashboard.

I only wanted to look at the home page and not dashboards at special URLs. For example, trust.salesforce.com and status.netsuite.com are good, but can subscribers easily find then from the home page?

The 10 SaaS ISVs

In my non-scientific survey I looked at these 10 SaaS ISVs:

• Cornerstone OnDemand — Talent and performance management
• Eloqua — Demand creation and marketing automation
• Ketera — Spend management and procurement
• Klir — IT analytics (now AlertWorks from Extreme Networks)
• NetSuite — Integrated system for business management
• Oco — Business intelligence
• Salesforce.com — Customer relationship management
• SuccessFactors — Employee performance management
• QL2 — Market intelligence
• QuickArrow — Professional services automation

I was surprised that none of them showed live service status on their home page! They also did not find link to their dashboard (assuming, that is, they have one).

Live status builds trust

Do not make the same mistake as these 10 SaaS ISVs.

Your current and future SaaS subscribers want you to be proud of your live status. You are wasting a great opportunity if you hide your live status in a deep link (or worse, behind a login dialog).

Your live service status is a valuable asset, so add it to your Web site home page. While you are at it, also add a clear link to your status dashboard. Your SaaS competitors are missing a trick here. It should not be hard to show your live status. It will help you build trust, which is the most critical part of SaaS.

I would like to hear from someone at the 10 SaaS ISVs I surveyed to hear their view on this. Why did you decide to not include your live status? Please let us know in the comments.

For the others: if you show your live status on your Web site home page then well done! Please share this with other readers and add a link to your Web site in the comments.

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