THINKstrategies announced the launch today of a new awards program aimed at showing how cloud computing services are helping organizations of all sizes across every industry respond to today’s unprecedented business challenges.

THINKstrategies’ new Cloud Computing Business Value (CCBV) Awards are aimed at highlighting the measurable business benefits which Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) providers are delivering to enterprises and other end-users.

The CCBV awards is an ongoing program which will identify and promote IaaS and PaaS providers which can demonstrate that their web-based, on-demand solutions have produced tangible business benefits for specific organizations, such as lower costs, reduced deployment times, increased sales, higher customer satisfaction, etc.

The new award program builds on the success of THINKstrategies’ Best … Read More »

THINKstrategies announced today that ActiveConversion 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 program was announced in January 2009 by THINKstrategies as an initiative aimed at bringing greater attention to SaaS and cloud computing companies that are producing tangible business benefits for specific user organizations. These benefits include increased sales, lower costs, higher customer satisfaction, faster operations and greater profitability.

ActiveConversion is a leading provider of marketing measurement, lead management and demand generation systems for companies with fewer than 1000 employees. Its solutions make it easy for companies to see which marketing initiatives are paying off, and to produce sales-ready leads. ActiveConversion delivers its solutions as a hosted solution through a low monthly subscription which has … Read More »

This week’s announcement that Microsoft and Intuit are linking their respective Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) capabilities has attracted lots of attention and generated plenty of speculation. It is also the latest escalation of the PaaS wars I predicted would take center-stage this year.

Although Salesforce.com’s Force.com PaaS has gained the lion’s share of industry attention because of the company’s unparalleled marketing machine, I’ve felt that Intuit’s Partner Platform (IPP) represented a dark-horse in the PaaS race because of the vast installed base of small- and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) using Intuit’s QuickBooks and QuickBase, along with its powerful channel relationships.

I’ve also believed that Microsoft would make considerable progress in penetrating the cloud computing market this year, not because of the technical capabilities of its Azure PaaS, but because of its historical prowess in building a vast partner network of ISVs and developers.

With those thoughts in mind, here’s … Read More »

Back to back announcements this week have brought renewed attention to the IT service management (ITSM) market as a key battleground for Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) competition.

On January 19, BMC announced its latest Remedy ITSM Suite On Demand solution, a SaaS-based offering which promises to integrate with BMC’s Atrium Configuration Management Database (CMDB) and Business Service Management (BSM) platform.

That same day, Service-now.com announced that PepsiAmericas had selected its SaaS-based ITSM solution. In Service-now.com’s announcement, PepsiAmericas’ IT Customer Service Manager, Amy Irwin said, “Our old tool couldn’t meet our needs so we went shopping for a tool that could. We quickly determined SaaS would best fit our tool requirements.”

IT acceptance of SaaS-based solutions isn’t new. THINKstrategies first identified this trend in our 2007 customer survey in conjunction with Cutter Consortium.

However, SaaS vendor focus on this segment of the market has intensified over the past two … Read More »

Many people confuse Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) with ad-supported online services.

They are independent ideas, but can be combined to quickly entice potential customers to try a web-based service without making a financial commitment.

In most cases, the vendor’s goal is to convert as many of these free trial users into paying customers as quickly as possible. Given the challenges associated with this conversion process in nearly every segment of the cyberworld, it isn’t surprising that most SaaS industry observers question the viability of using this tactic in the B2B market, especially among SaaS solutions geared toward IT managers.

Spiceworks is proving the cynics wrong.

The company offers web-based network monitoring tools for corporate IT and managed service providers (MSPs). Users can sign up for free if they don’t mind ads intermixed with their online tools. They can subscribe to a more full-featured, ad-free service if they prefer. Many of … Read More »

THINKstrategies announced today that Thrive Technologies has been named the first 2010 winner of the Best of SaaS Showplace (BoSS) Awards program, in recognition of the measurable business benefits which Thrive’s Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions have delivered to its customers.

The BoSS Awards program was initiated in 2009 by THINKstrategies to bring greater attention to SaaS and cloud computing companies that are producing tangible business benefits for specific user organizations. These benefits include increased sales, lower costs, higher customer satisfaction, faster operations and greater profitability.

Thrive Technologies develops and markets web-based demand forecasting and inventory replenishment software that increases profits for distribution intensive companies in high service supply networks by maximizing their inventory performance.  Thrive’s on–demand SaaS system removes the burden on their customers’ IT resources for server procurement, installation, upgrades, and maintenance.  By providing their system as a SaaS solution, Thrive Technologies can help their customers gain control … Read More »

The first week of 2010 was marked with three quick mergers and acquisitions in the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) market.

They each were in different sectors of the industry and involved differing types of transactions, but still clearly illustrated that there are a variety of companies seeking to capitalize on the escalating demand for SaaS solutions and position themselves as strategic sources of these on-demand services.

The first was an acquisition by EMC of Archer Technologies, a privately-held governance, risk and compliance (GRC) software vendor who offers both on-premise and SaaS solutions. Archer claims to have more than six million licensed users, including 25 of the Fortune 100.

EMC plans to combine Archer’s information risk management capabilities with the information security solutions provided by EMC’s RSA Security Division to enable customers to automate and gain visibility and policy enforcement capabilities across both physical and virtualized IT environments.

The second transaction was the $100 … Read More »

Google’s new Nexus One Android phone has created a lot of buzz as a ‘game-changer’ in the smart-phone business. Many believe this device, and Google’s new business model which supports it, could redefine the phone industry.

It is always exciting to witness a company challenge the status quo in an established industry by offering a bold new value-proposition to customers.

Yet, most companies have responded to today’s economic malaise and extended downturn with a risk-adverse, reflective stance which has manifested itself in more aggressive cost-cutting strategies rather than more innovations.

I can’t blame them for shying away from the innovation tact. The cynic in me also recoils from the business pub jargon which would have us believe that any company can adopt a bold strategy to recreate themselves in this type of environment.

However, there is plenty to be said for taking this risk and attempting to … Read More »

Salesforce.com gave its customers a belated New Year’s gift of unscheduled downtime yesterday, which extended into today in some regions, according to its Trust.Salesforce.com site.

While many of its corporate users might welcome a respite later in the year, most probably came back to work this week with the idea of pounding on their customer databases to generate new revenue opportunities to kickoff the new year. Being unable to access their online customer relationship management (CRM) system probably didn’t make them too happy.

So, will this service disruption derail Salesforce.com, the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and broader cloud computing movement? Only if these isolated incidents evolve into an ongoing pattern of declining performance.

Occasional problems happen. Back in 2007, I predicted that the on-demand services market would continue to soar despite more severe service delivery problems at NaviSite that year, because customers were already becoming convinced they could get a better return on investment … Read More »

As the new year and decade get underway, here are a few of the areas of the cloud computing market which I think will be important competitive battlefields for established and emerging players:

Collaboration Wars: Collaboration is the ‘killer app’ in the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) segment of the cloud computing market. The rapid adoption of Google Apps has demonstrated the latent demand for these web-based solutions. Now, IBM is promoting the enterprise-class qualities of its LotusLive offering to win a share of the market. Cisco Systems is also intensifying its efforts to promote its collaboration solutions built around WebEx and Telepresence. I also think Microsoft will accept a greater level of cannibalization of its Office products to win a bigger share of the collaboration market with OfficeLive.
Business-Oriented Social Networks: These are closely linked to collaboration and have gained a tremendous amount of attention because of the explosive growth … Read More »