For years, a variety of industry analysts and bloggers have suggested that SAP jumpstart its Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and broader Cloud initiatives with a major acquisition, such as SuccessFactors. Today’s news that SAP will buy SuccessFactors for $3.4 billion shows that the company’s executives have finally admitted that they can no longer rely on internal development and organic sales efforts to gain a meaningful share of the rapidly growing SaaS/Cloud marketplace.

I can’t say that I’ve been among those advocating this type of bold move because I’ve been a part of a similar acquisition which failed to achieve its strategic objective, and I’m not convinced that SAP will be able to transform its business through this transaction.

Back in 1999, I worked for a fast-growing network professional services company, called International Network Services (INS), which was acquired by Lucent Technologies for $3.7 billion, or 12x revenues! Lucent’s goal … Read More »

THINKstrategies announced today that PaySimple has been named the latest winner of the Best of SaaS Showplace (BoSS) Awards program, which is aimed at promoting the measurable business benefits being delivered by today’s Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions.

The BoSS Awards is an ongoing program of THINKstrategies’ new Cloud Computing Showplace which recognizes SaaS companies that are producing tangible business benefits for specific user organizations. These benefits can include increased sales, lower costs, higher customer satisfaction, faster operations and greater profitability.

PaySimple creates platforms that simplify and empower the lives of small business owners.  The company provides an on-demand, SaaS platform that enables small businesses to bill, collect, and manage their customer payments under one user-friendly system.

Click here to read a customer success story which illustrates the measurable business benefits which PaySimple’s SaaS solution delivers that earned the company THINKstrategies’ latest BoSS Award.

For more information about the rules for applying for a BoSS Award … Read More »

Video recordings of the Cloud Channel Summit sessions, as well as hardcopies of the keynote presentations, are now posted on the Agenda page of the Summit website.  

You can also click here to view a series of thirty-four (34) one-on-one interviews with each of the Summit speakers, produced by DreamSimplicity. 

We are also pleased to have a series of video and written testimonials posted here from a cross-section of speakers, sponsors and attendees who found the Summit valuable. 

I hope you find these videos and presentations interesting.

Based on the overwhelmingly positive feedback we received from the Summit attendees, speakers, sponsors and partners, we are planning to host another Cloud Channel Summit in 2012. We are also planning a second conference focused on an important Cloud market segment of particular interest to organizations of all sizes across nearly every industry.

I’ll let you know our 2012 plans soon. Let me know if you’d like to … Read More »

THINKstrategies, Inc. announced today that CloudPointe has been named the latest winner of the Best of SaaS Showplace (BoSS) Awards program, which is aimed at promoting the measurable business benefits being delivered by today’s Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions.

The BoSS Awards is an ongoing program of THINKstrategies’ new Cloud Computing Showplace which recognizes SaaS companies that are producing tangible business benefits for specific user organizations. These benefits can include increased sales, lower costs, higher customer satisfaction, faster operations and greater profitability.

CloudPointe is a Cloud middleware company that offers a SaaS-based platform to create secure, embeddable collaborative workspaces to share documents and media files using existing SharePoint, Google Docs, Amazon S3 and other cloud and enterprise storage. CloudPointe offers free and developer accounts that connect to FTP and Google Docs storage.

Click here to read about the measurable business benefits which CloudPointe has delivered to its customers which have earned the … Read More »

Our first Cloud Channel Summit was a terrific success yesterday. We had 190 attendees, lots of energy and insights about the opportunities and challenges associated with building successful channel relationships and other partnerships in the Cloud.

Bringing together senior executives focused on this common objective created a positive networking environment which produced immediate business opportunities for a number of the attendees who I talked to at the end of the Summit.

This peer-to-peer professional event also gave the attendees a unique opportunity to compare notes and trade perspectives about what is working and what is not when it comes to partnering in the Cloud. The bottom-line was that there is plenty to be learned and gained by trading these industry best practices, and business cards at an event like the Cloud Channel Summit.

Here is some of the coverage generated by the event,

Google Channel … Read More »

Due to the distractions associated with the planning of the Cloud Channel Summit, I haven’t had time to post my views regarding various industry announcements and trends here as often as I would like. But, I have been writing for other publications about the channel implications of the Cloud movement in anticipation of the Summit. Here are links to those commentaries in case you haven’t seen them already:

ChannelPro Magazine: Finding New Channel Opportunities in the Cloud, 10/26/11 

Channel Tech Network: Channels Ascend From Disintermediation to Cloud Industry Darlings, 10/25/11 

Datamation: Cloud Computing Vendors: New Channel Alliances Are Critical, 10/21/11 

E-Commerce Times: Reinventing Channels in the Cloud, 10/14/11 

Executives from some of the most important companies in the Cloud industry will discuss the changing role of the channel in the Cloud and how Cloud companies should partner for success at the Summit on November 7. … Read More »

The Cloud Channel Summit will be this Monday, November 7 at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA, hosted by THINKstrategies, the Cloud Computing Showplace and Rising Tide Media. 

Here are the numbers for Monday’s executive forum:

>175 registered attendees
31 speakers
19 partners
17 sponsors
11 sessions
9 hours of valuable insights
1 full day of practical perspectives and interesting people

Registered attendees for Monday’s Cloud Channel Summit now include business development and channel management executives from Adobe, AT&T, BMC Software, Cisco Systems, Comcast, Hitachi Global Technologies, Intel Corporation, McAfee, Microsoft, Oracle, Pitney-Bowes Software, SAP, Savvis, Symantec, VMware, and Zenith Infotech, among others.  Click here to register now and join them!

The keynote presentations during the Cloud Channel Summit will be:  

“Making Rain in the Channel: New Opportunities in Cloud Computing” presented by Stephen Cho, director of channels and business development at Google Enterprise.
“5 Steps to Building a Successful Channel Program in the Cloud” presented by Ron Huddleston, … Read More »

THINKstrategies, Inc. announced today that MuleSoft has been named the latest winner of THINKstrategies’ Cloud Computing Business Value (CCBV) Awards program, which is aimed at promoting the measurable business benefits being delivered by today’s cloud computing solutions.

The CCBV Awards program was launched in 2010 to recognize Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) and Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) providers delivering tangible business benefits to specific user organizations. These benefits include lower costs, faster deployment times, greater profitability, etc.

The CCBV Award program builds on the success of THINKstrategies’ Best of SaaS Showplace (BoSS) Awards program which was initiated in 2009.

MuleSoft offers a cloud-based integration Platform-as-a-Service (iPaaS) solution, called iON, that enables developers to create simple packaged integration applications (iApps), to solve common cloud-to-cloud and cloud-to-premise integration problems. Mule iON offers an end-to-end platform for building, maintaining and operating iApps that integrate with any Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solution, cloud service, social enterprise, or social media tool using a library of … Read More »

THINKstrategies, the Cloud Computing Showplace and Rising Tide Media today announced the speaker lineup for the inaugural Cloud Channel Summit, which will include executives from Google Enterprise, Salesforce.com, Dell Boomi and IBM. The conference will focus on the emerging channel opportunities in the Cloud Computing market and will take place on Monday, November 7, at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA.

The Cloud Channel Summit will feature a number of keynote presentations exploring the implications of the Cloud on the channel. The keynote presentations will include:  

Kick-off keynote, “Making Rain in the Channel: New Opportunities in Cloud Computing,” presented by Stephen Cho, director of channels and business development at Google Enterprise.
“5 Steps to Building a Successful Channel Program in the Cloud” presented by Ron Huddleston, senior vice president of ISV alliances at Salesforce.com.
 “The Cloud Era of Channel Success: Is Your Organization Partner-Ready?” presented by Rick … Read More »

THINKstrategies, Inc. announced today that Brainshark has been named the latest winner of the Best of SaaS Showplace (BoSS) Awards program, which is aimed at promoting the measurable business benefits being delivered by today’s Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions.

The BoSS Awards is an ongoing program of THINKstrategies’ new Cloud Computing Showplace which recognizes SaaS companies that are producing tangible business benefits for specific user organizations. These benefits can include increased sales, lower costs, higher customer satisfaction, faster operations and greater profitability.

Brainshark enables businesspeople to easily transform static content, such as PowerPoint documents, into voice-enriched video presentations that can be accessed anytime, on-demand. Users can also obtain extensive viewing reports, enabling them to measure the effectiveness of their sales, marketing, training and HR communications.

Click here to read the full announcement regarding the measurable business benefits which earned Brainshark the latest BoSS Awards.

For more information about the rules for applying … Read More »