Spence Software halves IT costs with 11:11 cloud move

Spence Software has migrated its software-as-a-service platform to 11:11 Systems' Infrastructure as a Service and said it cut its IT costs by 50%.

The Canadian occupational health and safety software provider said the move changed its hosting approach for its S2Web product. Spence Software said the shift also affected its cloud operations and compliance posture.

"Our partnership with 11:11 Systems lets me sleep at night. The performance and technology are first class, giving us a differentiated edge over our competition. Customer service has been very responsive. And best of all, we've experienced a 50% reduction in IT costs," said Ron Spence, President and CEO, Spence Software.

Company Background

Spence Software was founded in 1995. The company started with desktop applications and later moved into SaaS. S2Web now sits at the centre of that product line.

As usage and customer demand grew, Spence Software said it ran into issues with its previous hosting provider. The company cited rising costs and slow support response times. It also said it could not scale its environment easily or modernise it at the pace it wanted.

The company also framed data location as a key factor in its IT strategy. Spence Software said it required a partner that could guarantee strict data sovereignty compliance. For Canadian software suppliers, this requirement often sits alongside contractual and sector expectations from customers that handle sensitive workforce and incident records.

Infrastructure Shift

Spence Software selected 11:11 Systems for an Infrastructure as a Service deployment. The company described the service as fully managed. It also said the platform offered scalability and a lower ongoing cost profile than its earlier arrangement.

The migration moved workloads onto what 11:11 Systems calls its resilient cloud platform. Spence Software said the new environment gave it more control over changes and upgrades. It also said it improved the day-to-day experience of running the service.

Cloud Simplification

Spence Software said it simplified its AWS and Azure configuration and setup as part of the change. Many SaaS vendors run a mix of services across public cloud platforms, alongside other hosted infrastructure. This can create duplicated processes and complicate governance.

Spence Software did not disclose the previous hosting provider, the size of its cloud estate, or the duration of the migration project. It also did not provide a breakdown of where the savings came from, such as infrastructure charges, management overheads, or support costs.

Support And Performance

The company said it received faster customer service and support after the move. It also reported a significant improvement in system performance.

Performance claims often cover a range of measures in SaaS operations, including application responsiveness, storage and database latency, and the stability of supporting services. Spence Software did not provide benchmarking data or service level figures.

Spence Software also pointed to operational flexibility. The company said it gained the ability to change or upgrade its environment more easily. For SaaS providers, this typically influences release cycles and the ability to adopt newer infrastructure patterns.

Compliance Focus

Spence Software said the new arrangement ensured strict adherence to data sovereignty and compliance requirements. Data sovereignty requirements commonly tie data storage and processing to specific jurisdictions. They also shape decisions around backup locations, disaster recovery sites, and access controls.

The company did not identify specific standards or regulatory frameworks connected to its compliance needs. It also did not specify whether the migration altered its approach to audit reporting or customer assurances.

11:11 Systems operates as a managed infrastructure provider. The company positions its services around modernising and managing applications and data. It also focuses on protection and operational management for workloads that customers treat as critical.

Spence Software said it now runs its SaaS offering on the 11:11 Systems platform. The company also said it expects to use the environment's flexibility for future changes to its infrastructure and product roadmap.