Issue Management | | Published July 21, 2017

4 Benefits for Software Companies SaaS Issue Tracking System

As a software company, it can be difficult at times to keep up with the demands of your customers. They’ll clamor for a new feature and you’ll spend months building and testing it, only to have it go live with unforeseen issues popping up. Next thing you know, you’re getting support tickets coming in from all different directions with customers reporting problems in several areas of your software. This can leave companies overwhelmed and paralyzed, forcing them to ask one question…

How do we make sense of all these issues?

The answer is issue tracking software. This is different from bug tracking software in that it focuses more on operational processes and less on a line of bad code. Here are 4 benefits of SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) issue tracking solutions for software companies of all sizes: 

1) All issues are tracked in a single location – The days of trying to track issues via email are a thing of the past. Utilizing a SaaS issue tracking system means team members across all departments can access and update issue information at any time. Issues can also be organized through features such as ticket tagging and some systems allow you to track issues at both the contact and company level, in addition to the product or version level. This is important because if multiple people at the same company are running into a critical issue it can put a huge strain on a business relationship.

2) A SaaS issue tracking system is also an information database – With an entire team having easy access to update issues as needed, your system becomes a repository of issue information. This makes it simple to get new employees working on an issue up to speed so they can contribute to finding a resolution. It also enables you to review old software-related issues (and how they were solved) so if a similar issue pops up you will have a good framework to resolve it in the future.

3) Increased productivity through collaboration – Not only are SaaS issue tracking solutions great for storing information, but they excel at making it simpler to work with colleagues. With the click of a mouse you can tag other team members on issues so they can work with you to fix the problem faster. This is ideal for global software companies that have a “follow the sun” issue resolution team as they can easily tag an agent in a different time zone to help. This ensures the issue is being worked on around the clock. Some systems also have a “Tasks” feature where an employee owns a task for an issue and can assign components of it to colleagues. Think of it as mini project management for issue tracking, it goes a long way in staying organized while working together.

4) Integrations can be utilized to share information quickly – A SaaS issue tracking system can integrate with an array of technologies. These range from modern chat apps like Slack to notify teams when an issue is reported or a robust CRM (Customer Relationship Management) solution to keep the sales team in the loop. The latter is extremely beneficial in cases where a customer has reported multiple issues. It’s also valuable to choose a system that has an open API so integrations can be built and configured to meet your unique needs.

Does your company use Salesforce and are you looking for more information about integrations? Click here to learn all about integrating Salesforce with customer service software that featues issue tracking capabilities.

Wrapping up, implementing a SaaS issue tracking solution is important to software companies for several reasons. It creates an organized log of all issues that can be viewed and modified online at any time. SaaS issue tracking solutions also facilitates collaboration among team members by making it easier to work together and communicate. This improved dialogue also pushes through integrations which can be vital to getting the right information to the right people. Tracking issues effectively will not only save your company time and money, but the increased level of communication will lead to happier customers and employees.