SaaS vs On-Premise Home Care Software Solutions: What's Best for You?

When you run a busy home care agency, managing and keeping on top of the back office and admin involved is far from easy. Home care management solutions exist to help you tackle common everyday tasks like scheduling carer appointments, updating medication records, care planning and communicating with staff and care clients.

But with the dizzying array of digital domiciliary care software solutions out there, it’s tricky to decide if a ‘Software-as-a Service’ (SaaS) or ‘On-Premise’ solution is best for your agency. What’s the difference between the two and does it matter anyway?

In this blog, we discuss the pros and cons of SaaS vs On-Premise, total costs of ownership and the best choice depending on your home care agency’s unique needs.

SaaS vs On-Premise Solutions: What’s the difference?

A SaaS solution is hosted on a cloud server and maintained by a third party service provider. Cloud computing simply refers to on-demand IT infrastructure (e.g. processing power, storage space and application software) accessed remotely over the Internet. The UK SaaS market is projected to reach £10.46bn in 2024 and revenue is expected to grow annually by 6.63% resulting in a market volume of £13.52bn by 2028. [Source: www.statista.com]

An On-Premise solution (as the name suggests) is hosted in-house on your own agency server and is usually supported by a third party provider or can be managed in-house by a dedicated IT team.

Key Features and Benefits

• SaaS: Automatic software updates are done for you. It’s accessible, ready to use, on demand and a completely scalable solution that can adapt to your agency needs as you grow. SaaS reduces the need to build, design, deploy and maintain the homecare software setup and this model allows your agency to enhance the care client experience and improve efficiency.
• On-Premise: There’s more control over how your data is processed and stored with visibility into what’s happening at the backend of the server. On-premise is more flexible when it comes to customising the solution to your unique agency needs and gives you the ability to access the solution offline if and when necessary.

Digging deeper into SaaS solutions

Cost Structure

• SaaS uses a subscription based model. Vendors will either offer monthly or yearly ‘pay-as-you-go’ or ‘pay-per-user’ plans with the option to upscale and add additional licences, storage, servers or extra bandwidth (allowing you to send and receive data) if needed. It’s also easier to downscale if you decide certain features are unnecessary, although you may have to wait until the next renewal window.
• There’s no need to invest in expensive hardware upfront.
• As the software is managed and supported by a third party provider, an in-house IT team is not needed to maintain and support the software.

Pros and Cons

• Pro: SaaS is ready to use and on demand meaning upfront costs are lower and it’s much easier to setup and implement.
• Con: Subscription costs are ongoing either on a monthly or annual basis and you have much less control over how your data is stored and processed.

Ideal Scenarios for choosing SaaS

• New and small to medium-sized homecare agencies.
• Home care providers looking for flexibility and low initial investment.

Exploring On-Premise solutions

Cost Structure

• An initial software licence will need to be purchased upfront but ongoing maintenance costs can be lower over time.
• Significant investment is needed for appropriate hardware, such as servers and backup systems and for it to be fully setup and implemented.
• IT support staff will need to be on-tap for routine ongoing maintenance, software updates and system upgrades.

Pros and Cons

• Pro: The main benefit of an on-premise solution is that your agency will have full and complete control over your care client’s sensitive data and you’ll be responsible for data security, disaster recovery and complying with regulations
• Con: The upfront costs for on-premise will be much higher than SaaS and the model requires dedicated IT support for ongoing maintenance and updates.

Ideal Scenarios for choosing On-Premise

• Large established homecare agencies with the budget for upfront investment.
• Homecare agencies requiring custom solutions and full data control.

Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) Comparison

We’ve summarised the initial, ongoing and unexpected costs including an overall analysis of both solutions.

Software as a Service (SaaS) TCO

• Initial Costs: Monthly or annual ‘pay-as-you-go’ or ‘pay-per-user’ subscription fees
• Ongoing Costs: Ongoing subscription fees
• Unexpected Costs: Add-on fees for backup and disaster recovery; Upgrades (if not included in subscription)
• Overall analysis: Lower initial costs but long-term subscription fees; Potential for higher operational flexibility and lower IT staffing costs.

On-Premise TCO

• Initial Costs: Software Licence; Hardware investment
• Ongoing Costs: Dedicated IT staff; Security and maintenance
• Unexpected Costs: Adding new functionality and scaling up software
• Overall Analysis: Higher initial investment but potentially lower long-term costs; Customisation and control can lead to higher value over time

Making the Right Choice for Your Homecare Agency

Assessing Your Agency’s Needs

Factors to consider when deciding if SaaS or On-Premise is the right homecare software solution are the size of your agency, budget constraints and your IT capabilities.

Keeping a watchful eye on new tech trends could impact your choice as well as asking questions such as:

• How much control do we need over our data?
• What are our data security requirements?
• Will we need to scale our agency in the future?

SaaS vs On-Premise: Which option is better?

To recap, the right choice depends on the specific needs and capacity of your homecare agency. SaaS is better for new or small to medium sized agencies with limited IT resources and smaller budgets who need quick implementation or scalability, whilst on-premise software is better for larger agencies with bigger budgets who want more control over their data and a fully customised solution.

As one of the leading providers of homecare software since 2000, Tagtronics has helped many home care agencies to decide if SaaS or On-Premise is the best fit for them.

Call 01254 819205 for a no-obligation chat or email howcanwehelp@tagtronics.co.uk