One of the hottest topics of discussion in the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) market and broader Cloud Computing arena is the role of the channel in selling and delivering these web-based services and solutions. What few people have discussed is the opportunity for SaaS companies, as well as Cloud vendors, to become important channels to market themselves.

The most intriguing scenario in this SaaS-as-a-Channel (SaaC) possibility revolves around the Data-as-a-Service (DaaS) idea. The most recent illustration of this scenario is today’s announcement by Host Analytics of a new Decision Hub service which pulls industry data from a variety of third-party information service providers, such as Edgar Online and Data.Gov, into Host Analytics’ SaaS-based corporate performance management (CPM) solution.

The Decision Hub enables corporate decision-makers to examine their company performance in relation to a broader set of industry benchmark data or key performance indicators (KPIs).

This isn’t a new idea, … Read More »

Anyone who has been in the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) business for a while is well-aware that this model has a fundamental impact on every aspect of the software business. However, a growing number of established independent software vendors (ISVs) are just beginning to venture down this path and are confronting these painful realities for the first time.

Most ISVs are fixated on how SaaS changes the architecture of their applications and impacts their revenue streams. These are big issues, but SaaS disrupts traditional sales and support models as well. I had an opportunity to attend two events in the Boston area last week that addressed these two issues.

The first was a roundtable session hosted by The First Wednesday Group, an organization focused on software support issues, which examined the unique support challenges of SaaS. The session was led by Renee Bochman, Vice President of Support Services at Axeda, a provider … Read More »

THINKstrategies announced today that Earth Class Mail 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 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.

Earth Class Mail provides postal online mail management services designed to meet the needs of individuals, small businesses and international license partners. Services include: document scanning and storage, check deposit, mail and package forwarding, will-call services and secure shredding and recycling.

Click here to read the announcement about the measurable business benefits which earned Earth Class Mail a BoSS Award.

Click here to learn more about the BoSS Award program or to apply for an Award.

Based on the success … Read More »

Verizon unveiled a new cloud computing offering yesterday, the latest in its series of “Computing as a Service” (CaaS) packages, aimed at small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs).

The real target of the announcement is Amazon Web Services (AWS), which has pioneered the Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) frontier that has redefined the way computing power is packaged and delivered to the marketplace.

Although AWS hasn’t threatened to enter the telecom business, like Google, its success in the cloud computing market has raised the bar for telcos who have been laboring in the hosting business for many years.

AWS’s claim to fame in the cloud computing arena has been the hyper-elasticity and minuscule price-points of its IaaS solutions, which are bolstered by a myriad of third-party tools vendors. These services have primarily appealed to tech-savvy users, large and small, willing to cobble together these on-demand, online resources to meet their situational computing needs.

Verizon is … Read More »

Years ago, I considered the week leading into Labor Day as the final hurrah of the Summer and tried to preserve it for an end of season vacation to cap off the warm weather months in New England. Then my kids became school age and schools started kicking off before the holiday weekend. (Don’t get me started on this silly practice.)

Now, the tech industry is also making a habit of getting back into stride for the new Fall season before the dog days of August are behind us. One of the important annual venues for kicking off the new season of activity is VMworld.

This year’s event is generating plenty of news, especially regarding cloud-oriented acquisitions and alliances. Here’s a quick sampling:

VMware Acquires Integrien and TriCipher 
Verizon and VMware to Launch Enterprise-Class Hybrid Cloud Solution 
BlueLock Introduces VMware vCloud Datacenter Service with CloudConnector 
EMC Transforms … Read More »

There have been a series of acquisitions over the past few weeks which clearly illustrate how the competitive landscape in the tech industry and beyond is being fundamentally changed by the rapidly evolving cloud computing phenomenon.

The two most recent examples came this week. The first was CA Technologies’ acquisition of 4Base Technology, a virtualization and cloud infrastructure consulting firm, which CA plans to use as a cornerstone of its expanded cloud computing professional services capabilities. This is the latest in a series of acquisitions which CA has made to transform the company from a software-only to a multi-dimensional corporate portfolio which personifies its new CA Technologies company name. CA’s transformation echos the moves of other players seeking to become one-stop shops for hardware, software and services. The most significant of these was Oracle’s acquisition of Sun Microsystems.

Intel made an even more dramatic acquisition … Read More »

Mark Hurd’s sudden resignation as HP’s CEO has opened a floodgate of speculation regarding who the company will select to succeed him.

Because his departure wasn’t anticipated, there are no clear-cut internal candidates. And, because Hurd himself was a surprise selection for the post in 2006, it is possible that another little-known industry executive may be tapped again for the position this time around.

So, this creates a wonderful opportunity for anyone with a passing interest in HP’s future, and the future of the technology industry as a whole, to throw a few names in the hat.

The HP CEO position is particularly intriguing in part because it has grown to become the largest IT vendor in the industry through a series of acquisitions of Compaq, EDS and others. More importantly, HP like the rest of the IT industry is at a pivotal crossroads … Read More »

Nothing sells the value of a product or service better than demonstrating its utility in the context of a popular social cause. This marketing tactic not only illustrates the functional capabilities of the product or service, but also helps the vendor build goodwill in the marketplace.

This isn’t a new idea. Companies have been giving away their products and services in support of popular causes for years.

Now, the ‘on-demand’ and ‘cloud computing’ industries are using this marketing technique to illustrate how their solutions can be utilized in real-world situations. One of the most prominent examples is Salesforce.com’s 1/1/1 model which dedicates 1% of the company’s employee time, software licenses and corporate equity to social causes, including nonprofit agencies.

The most recent example to cross my radar-screen was Axeda’s “Where’s Leslie?” promotional campaign in association with this past weekend’s Pan Mass Challenge (PMC) bikeathon.

Many … Read More »

Although announcements regarding new rounds of funding are relatively commonplace in the tech industry, whenever a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) company is able to boast about their latest vote of confidence among investors it is worth noting in these tough economic times.

But, Xactly’s announcement this morning that it had garnered a new round of $12 million in funding was especially newsworthy because it also included a “strategic new investment” by Salesforce.com.

Speculating about who Salesforce.com is going to acquire next has become a popular parlor game in the SaaS industry over the past few years. The company has done an admirable job acquiring a variety of companies which have helped to extend its service delivery capabilities, as well as expand its application functionalities.

Some of its acquisitions, like Jigsaw, have been announced publicly. Others, like GroupSwim, have been done quietly.

While there has been speculation that Salesforce.com will … Read More »

One of the more interesting sagas in the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) market has been SAP’s effort to develop and deliver a competitive offering.

After a series of fits and starts over the past three years, SAP is hoping the latest version of its SaaS-based Business ByDesign (ByD) system which was made generally available today will finally hit the mark.

As I reported in this space in May, I was briefed by SAP (a THINKstrategies client) at its Sapphire user conference about the significant investment it has made retooling the ByD service delivery infrastructure and user interface to make it more appealing, economical and competitive. On the infrastructure side, the 2.5 version of ByD boasts a truer multi-tenant architecture to make it more scalable. The user interface is more intuitive and easier to configure.

Today SAP unveiled three new ‘starter kits’ in Feature Pack 2.5:

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) … Read More »