RightNow Ups the Ante on SaaS with Service Level Credits

“If we don’t meet our on demand ‘up-time’ commitment to our customers, we will give them their money back.” Greg Gianforte, chief executive officer at RightNow.

The Guarantee: SaaS Service Level Credits

RightNow is confident in its performance commitments and is offering its clients a money-back guarantee. This new crediting offers customers a SaaS model that RightNow financially stands behind. If RightNow falls short of its 99.9 percent up-time objective, it will refund a percentage of its client’s subscription fees *. 

SaaS Trumps Traditional On Premise Software

RightNow’s customer relationship management (CRM) software is delivered as a service, allowing RightNow to take on the critical responsibility of application tuning, management and service delivery.  This helps eliminate many direct and indirect costs associated with traditional software ownership. SaaS as a software delivery model continues to gain momentum in several software categories, states a Gartner report titled “Key Issues for Software as a Service, 2008,” SaaS can provide cost savings and accelerate implementation cycles.

RightNow World-Class SaaS Performance

RightNow’s enterprise-class SmartHosting architecture supports its robust CRM solutions and includes:
• upgrades-on-demand,
• real-time data monitoring and usage reporting,
• global hosting centers in both the US and Europe,
• time zone sensitive maintenance windows,
• strict standards for security, availability and reliability, and
• redundancy and disaster recovery.

RightNow’s hosting track record includes:
• more than two billion customer interactions facilitated annually,
• more than 200 million end-user sessions conducted per month, and
• more than 500 million contacts maintained on 60 terabytes of storage.

Comments on RightNow’s New Money Back Guarantee

“As cloud computing gains momentum, it becomes even more vital for a SaaS company to stand behind its service commitments.  CIOs are in the risk management business and regardless of whether they deploy on-premise software or SaaS, they are responsible for system availability and performance. No amount of “money back” will take the place of performance, but our willingness to put real dollars at stake underscores the confidence we have and that our customers should have in our solution.”
Laef Olson, chief information officer, RightNow

“This continued growth [in SaaS] means that sourcing executives and vendor managers must make sure that they are staying ahead of the trend and understand what to consider in SaaS pricing and licensing, contracts, and ongoing vendor management.”
Liz Herbert, Analyst, Forrester

*This money back program applies to customers who have purchased premier support.