How Much Are IWMS Software Updates Really Costing You?

When was the last time you updated your IWMS software?

If you’re using an on-premise model, it has probably been several years.

That’s because on-premise IWMS software updates can cost close to $1 million or more, depending on the size of your company. They’re also incredibly time-consuming. You can expect to spend a year building a business case for the updates, another year planning for them and yet another full year deploying them!

Here’s a closer look at why it’s so expensive—and how you can eliminate many of these costs altogether.

Why IWMS Software Updates Cost So Much

The iOFFICE team has extensive experience with software development. Many of our team members have worked with other software providers in the past, so we’re well aware of what’s involved in IWMS software updates and what they can cost. A conservative estimate is $25,000 to $50,000 to develop, test and deploy new features as part of an annual update. That’s assuming the updates don’t require changes to the customer’s IT infrastructure, new integrations or extensive re-configurations of workflows.

However, for a large organization hosting IWMS software internally, the cost tends to be significantly higher because updates typically do require a major IT overhaul.

You’re likely already spending well over $500,000 annually to support an in-house IT team, plus over $200,000 in annual maintenance costs to your software vendor.

You also need to factor in the costs of IT hardware.

That’s without an upgrade. In an upgrade year, your organization could be spending well over $1.5 million between your regular annual costs and the costs of upgrading, including additional IT support. And your department isn’t the only one in need of an upgrade. You’re fighting against HR, finance and your own IT department for your share of an annual budget. And until you can get that approval (every few years, if you’re lucky), your IWMS software system’s capabilities are severely limited.

When it’s finally time for those much-anticipated updates, your team is also taking on the majority of the project management stress and assuming the majority of the risk if things don’t go as planned.

The Advantage Of A True SaaS IWMS

With a true software-as-a-service (SaaS) IWMS, the provider manages and maintains the software remotely. Those costs are included in the monthly or annual subscription fee. Upgrades should be tested and deployed at no additional cost and made available to all users as soon as they are ready.

Unfortunately, some IWMS providers claim to offer SaaS solutions when in fact they are still maintaining expensive legacy software and using the SaaS term as a marketing tool. There’s little incentive for these companies to make updates to their software because they are still making a substantial profit maintaining on-premise or hosted systems.

That’s why it’s so important to ask the right questions when you’re evaluating IWMS solutions.

A true SaaS IWMS provider:

• Is fully committed to that business model, meaning they no longer support on-premise or hosted solutions.
• Is responsible for making all updates and rolls them out at regular intervals
• Has a transparent pricing model and does not charge extra fees for updates
• Makes updates available immediately so your system isn’t down for hours or days at a time
• Doesn’t require you to pay for a temporary solution while upgrades are being made

If your organization has decided to adopt a SaaS model, make sure you’re getting true SaaS. iOFFICE’s IWMS was built this way from its inception in 2002.

Our software is 100 percent SaaS and fully secure. We make updates periodically based on feedback from our customers and the changing needs of the workplace. We do all the testing, assume the risks and deploy those updates as soon as they’re ready. That means your system won’t be down for days or even hours due to an update.

We know you expect your workplace to be agile, and we expect nothing less of ourselves.

To learn more about how to compare IWMS software providers to make sure you’re choosing the right one, check out the latest independent analysis from Verdantix.