Roadmap Publishing
Why it matters: IT supports tools for years. If the vendor doesn’t share direction, IT can’t plan futures.
Failure consequence: Surprise shifts → forced migrations → unexpected IT overhead.
Roadmap Clarity
Why it matters: Predictability reduces re-platforming risk and integration churn.
Failure consequence: Ambiguous vision = high future IT & budget risk.
Feature Parity
Why it matters: If a vendor lacks core category capabilities, IT ends up compensating manually or adding more tools.
Failure consequence: Shadow IT proliferation + higher TCO.
Pace of Development
Why it matters: Slow or erratic vendors stagnate, which creates legacy burden.
Failure consequence: Tool becomes operational debt; replacement cost grows.
Thought Leadership
Why it matters: These vendors anticipate regulatory, identity, and operational shifts — reducing reactive IT work.
Failure consequence: Vendor follows, never leads; innovation gap appears over 12–24 months.
Design System
Why it matters: Consistency allows scale, role onboarding, and reduces training & support tickets.
Failure consequence: High friction UX → adoption stalls → tool abandonment risk.
2️⃣ Platform & Architecture — (Operational Scalability)
API Coverage
Why it matters: APIs are how IT automates, integrates, and avoids vendor lock-in.
Failure consequence: Manual work forever OR replacement later.
Automation Coverage
Why it matters: Manual processes don’t survive scale.
Failure consequence: IT becomes a ticketing bottleneck.
Data Ingestion
Why it matters: Tools rarely live alone; ingestion determines onboarding speed + operational accuracy.
Failure consequence: Data gaps → bad decisions → manual reconciliation.
Data Correction
Why it matters: Every enterprise has bad data; correction = resiliency.
Failure consequence: IT owns mess-correction via spreadsheets.
Multi-Tenant Support
Why it matters: True tenancy = secure scaling, policy separation, and configuration isolation.
Failure consequence: Cross-tenant leakage risk = compliance breaker.
Multi-Device
Why it matters: Adoption depends on convenience (field, admin, customer, ops).
Failure consequence: Tool becomes functionally siloed.
Time to Value
Why it matters: The faster outcomes land, the easier internal champions defend the purchase.
Failure consequence: Failed onboarding → sunk cost → political damage.
3️⃣ Identity, Access & Governance (IGA) — (Security Risk Surface)
Login Methods
Why it matters: Enterprises use IdPs; vendors must plug into identity fabric.
Failure consequence: IT must manage local accounts (security anti-pattern).
SSO + MFA Enforcement
Why it matters: Eliminates password risk + centralizes authentication and lifecycle.
Failure consequence: Auditor flags → risk committee blocks → procurement dies.
RBAC Granularity
Why it matters: Least privilege is mandatory in modern IT.
Failure consequence: Over-permissioning becomes chronic & hidden.
IGA Coverage
Why it matters: Identity lifecycle is where breaches occur (“mover” events especially).
Failure consequence: Dormant/inactive accounts → unauthorized access.
Provisioning Automation
Why it matters: Manual JML is the #1 source of access risk in enterprises.
Failure consequence: HR/IT delays = access creep + compliance findings.
Automated Remediation
Why it matters: Detecting is not enough — remediation reduces mean-time-to-secure.
Failure consequence: “Known bad” state persists for months.
Privileged Access Controls
Why it matters: Admins = nuclear blast radius.
Failure consequence: Single admin compromise = full domain compromise.
4️⃣ Compliance, Audit & Observability — (Regulatory & Forensic Readiness)
Compliance Coverage
Why it matters: Certifications de-risk the vendor’s posture.
Failure consequence: Vendor becomes compliance blocker internally.
Compliance Automation
Why it matters: Manual audits cost both time and credibility.
Failure consequence: IT spends weeks generating evidence spreadsheets.
Activity Logs
Why it matters: Provides operational + insider misuse visibility.
Failure consequence: Incidents become untraceable.
Audit Logs
Why it matters: Forensics, regulatory, incident response all depend on immutable logs.
Failure consequence: Without logs auditors assume the worst-case scenario.
5️⃣ Collaboration & Ecosystem — (Adoption + Integration Risk)
Collaboration
Why it matters: Cross-team workflows drive SaaS adoption.
Failure consequence: Single-team tools die quietly.
Community Presence
Why it matters: Communities fill documentation + troubleshooting gaps.
Failure consequence: Vendor support becomes bottleneck.
Partner Ecosystem
Why it matters: Signals maturity + reduces integration burden.
Failure consequence: IT must build custom adapters.
Customer Advocacy
Why it matters: References = evidence that tool works at scale/in production.
Failure consequence: First customer/POC risk shifts onto IT.
6️⃣ Support, Commercials & Business Health — (Vendor Stability Risk)
Support SLAs
Why it matters: IT inherits downtime, not business users.
Failure consequence: SLA-free downtime = business outage.
Cost Predictability
Why it matters: Scaling surprises are why CFOs kill tools.
Failure consequence: Tool gets used less → less value → eventual churn.
Financial Runway
Why it matters: Vendor failures become IT outages.
Failure consequence: Vendor collapse = forced emergency migration.
7️⃣ Reporting & Analytics — (Evidence + Risk Visibility)
Access Reporting
Why it matters: Proves authorized access during audits.
Failure consequence: SOC2/ISO audits fail → tool must be ejected.
Privileged Reporting
Why it matters: Privileged users are the highest blast radius.
Failure consequence: Insider threat becomes invisible.
Auth/MFA Reporting
Why it matters: Evidence of enforcement (not just configuration).
Failure consequence: MFA “enabled” but not used — classic governance failure.
JML Reporting
Why it matters: Lifecycle management is auditors’ #1 focus area.
Failure consequence: Orphaned accounts = breach vector.
Audit-Ready Reporting
Why it matters: Evidence beats spreadsheets.
Failure consequence: Audit prep becomes multi-week fire drill.
Risk Analytics
Why it matters: Detects risky patterns early.
Failure consequence: Maturity ceiling caps at reactive response.
Review Evidence
Why it matters: Certifications prove least-privilege is real.
Failure consequence: Access reviews become subjective bureaucracy.
Exportability
Why it matters: Without export, SIEM/GRC integration fails.
Failure consequence: Auditors reject screenshots.
Report Integrity
Why it matters: If reports can be modified → evidence invalid.
Failure consequence: Immediate compliance failure.
🧠 Final Reality for IT Procurement
When IT evaluates SaaS tools, the real question is:
Does this product reduce or increase the surface area of risk, work, and cost over the next 3 years?
Each metric exists because someone paid the price for ignoring it in the past.
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