I’ve just returned from my third visit to Dublin where once again I participated in another terrific event hosted by Enterprise Ireland aimed at helping local software companies, both incumbent software vendors (ISVs) and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) companies, capitalize on the rapidly evolving Cloud Computing market.

My prior visits to Dublin were to help Enterprise Ireland organize and host full-day symposiums regarding SaaS opportunities in 2006-2007. The specific focus of this week’s half-day workshop was Cloud Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). The event attracted 105 CXOs from a wide array of Irish ISVs and SaaS companies.

I was joined at the workshop by Evanegelos Simoudis, Senior Managing Director, Trident Capital, LinkedIN Profile, who provided metrics of breakout Cloud/SaaS companies; Brian Caulfield, Partner, DFJ Esprit, LinkedIN Profile, who discussed the investors’ perspective re: key considerations and criteria for investing in Cloud companies; and Fergus Gloster, Managing Director EMEA, Marketo, LinkedIn Profile, who gave the practitioner’s perspective based on his experience helping Salesforce.com build its business in Europe, as well as his current role at Marketo.

In addition to moderating kicking off and moderating the workshop, I also had the privilege of meeting with representatives of Enterprise Ireland’s Software Management and Growth Capital teams, Irish Venture Capital Association, and the Irish Centre for Cloud Computing & Commerce (www.ic4.ie).

Andrew Peet, of the Enterprise Ireland staff, organized the workshop and orchestrated a series of one-on-one meetings with key executives from the following Irish ISVs and SaaS companies during my three-day stay in Dublin:

• Customer Minds
• eSpatial
• Qumas
• Softworks
• Inish Tech
• pTools
• Cloud Mover
• National Digital Research Centre
• LaunchPad
• Aspiricon
• Cluey
• Zarion
• Big Red Cloud
• Fineos
• Talentevo

It was an interesting series of meetings discussing the critical factors for becoming successful SaaS companies and exploring ways to overcome the typical obstacles to success. Once again, Enterprise Ireland did a superb job of making my trip a memorable experience. I’m looking forward to doing it again.

Cloud Enterprise Ireland KPIs SaaS Software-as-a-Service