THINKstrategies announced today that Helpstream 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 has been initiated by THINKstrategies to bring attention to SaaS and cloud computing companies which are producing tangible business benefits for specific user organizations. These benefits include increased sales, lower costs, higher customer satisfaction, faster operations, and greater profitability.

Helpstream integrates social Web technologies with modern customer service and collaboration processes to drive effective customer and partner engagement across all business functions. Helpstream’s SaaS design makes it fast to deploy, easy-to-use and affordable. It’s solution can be deployed as a complete customer service system or as an integrated self-service and community case resolution complement to existing CRM systems.

Click here to read more … Read More »

For everyone in the U.S., Labor Day weekend represents the spiritual end of the summer. It is also a time when many of us sit back and take stock of our lives and the world around us as we prepare to re-enter the regular work routine.

The first thing to be said about the current state of our world is there is nothing routine about it. Obviously, the economy has had a major impact on the business environment and everyone’s psyches as well. But, even if we are fortunate enough to see an uptick in the financial climate as we approach the last quarter of the calendar year, I believe the rapid migration to cloud-based services will continue to accelerate and fundamentally transform the competitive landscape of almost every industry, including the public sector.

Although I remain a vehement proponent of the cloud computing and … Read More »

One of the most controversial aspects of the rapidly evolving cloud computing market among industry insiders is the idea of ‘private clouds’.

Purists insist that cloud computing is all about exchanging legacy, on-premise, inhouse IT resources and functions with online, shared resources via the Internet (i.e., the ‘cloud’).

While this is the origin of the cloud computing concept, a variety of forces have conspired to create an alternative approach referred to as ‘private clouds’.

These include valid customer concerns regarding privacy, security, reliability and performance; along with proprietary concerns among various hardware and software vendors seeking to usurp some of the spotlight away from cloud upstarts like Amazon, Google and Salesforce.com.

In addition to the sourcing and marketing forces fueling the idea of private clouds, there are various debates regarding the technical implementation of private clouds which have raised questions about the viability of this idea.

Just as it … Read More »

Last year, I predicted that 2009 would be the year of the channel in the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) market and a growing number of SaaS industry leaders have obliged me by expanding their sales efforts in this direction.

The latest is Salesforce.com which announced today that it is launching a new value-added reseller (VAR) program to encourage third-party companies to build on its Force.com platform and extend the reach of its AppExchange into new market segments.

Salesforce.com’s announcement comes on the heels of NetSuite’s recent enhancements to its VAR program aimed at strengthening its position in the market.

Because of Salesforce.com’s greater prominence in the marketplace, its new initiative is bound to bring even more attention to the rapidly evolving role of channel companies in the SaaS market. In Salesforce.com’s case, there move represents an important milestone in the company’s evolution and that of the … Read More »

THINKstrategies announced today that Adaptive Planning 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 initiated by THINKstrategies to bring attention to SaaS and cloud computing companies which are producing tangible business benefits for specific user organizations. These benefits include increased sales, lower costs, higher customer satisfaction, faster operations, and greater profitability.

Adaptive Planning is a leading provider of on-demand budgeting, forecasting and reporting solutions that help finance organizations improve operational efficiency, strengthen collaboration, and drive better business decisions in companies of all sizes.

Click here to read about Adaptive Planning’s award-winning SaaS capabilities.

Click here to read about the BoSS Awards program and to apply for an award.

After chairing last week’s Cloud World conference in San Francisco last week, I’m pleased to be serving as the chairman of the Cloud Futures for Software Vendors Conference taking place in San Jose, CA, this October 5 – 6.
 
This event is for established software vendors who are attempting to overcome the challenges associated with migrating to a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and cloud computing model so they can capitalize on this rapidly growing market.
 
The conference will include speakers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Forrester Research and Cloud Security Alliance, along with presentations by representatives of many leading vendors in the SaaS and cloud computing industry, including Amazon Web Services, IBM, Salesforce.com, LiveOps, Callidus Software, Enomaly and others.
 
Our goal is to help software vendors achieve:

CLOUD ECO-SYSTEM EXCELLENCE: Identify the partners you need to get your SaaS off the ground … Read More »

THINKstrategies announced today that Widen Enterprises 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 as an initiative by THINKstrategies to bring attention to SaaS and cloud computing companies which are producing tangible business benefits for specific user organizations. These benefits include increased sales, lower costs, higher customer satisfaction, faster operations, and greater profitability.

Widen Enterprises, provides premedia and color management services specifically for assisting customers with building brand equity and supporting consistent brand representation across print and Web communications. Through its suite of Web-based digital asset management applications, Widen software services provide marketing networks with real-time Web-based access to the clients’ digital asset libraries, subsequently eliminating manual search and file preparation time, costs related to replacing images and videos that … Read More »

A combination of work, travel and summertime distractions have prevented me from commenting on a series of small, yet significant announcements and activities over the past couple of weeks in the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and cloud computing market.

My latest travels started last week at Pacific Crest’s 11th Annual Technology Leadership Forum in Vail, CO, where I met with a series of the investment firm’s ‘buy-side’ clients as a part of its Mosaic program, and interacted with a variety of cloud computing executives and VCs in a SaaS workshop.

Nearly all of Pacific Crest’s clients are concerned about the financial implications of the cloud computing movement on their large-cap investments in companies such as Microsoft, Oracle and SAP on the software side, and IBM, HP, EMC, Dell and other systems vendors on the hardware side. They are also curious about whether Amazon, Google, Salesforce.com, SuccessFactors and other upstart SaaS/cloud companies can … Read More »

THINKstrategies announced today that Intuit Quickbase has been named the latest winner of the Best of SaaS Showplace (BoSS) Awards program.

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

Intuit QuickBase allows users to create unique business applications tailored to meet their specific process and industry needs – without technical expertise or coding. Business users can easily build new on-demand business applications from scratch or select from more than 200 available templates to customize.

Click here to read more about case study examples that  illustrate the measurable benefits which customers have gained from Intuit QuickBase.

Click here to read more about the BoSS Awards program or to … Read More »

Making the transition to a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model isn’t easy for incumbent software vendors (ISVs).

Rearchitecting their applications may be the easiest task in the transformation process. Redesigning their go-to-market strategies and ongoing operations; restructuring their revenue recognition models; and reorienting their staff are the more difficult challenges.

Greater service delivery costs combined with lower per unit prices make it is easy to see why most ISVs have tried to resist the SaaS movement and denied its long-term viability.

Yet, a severe slowdown in traditional, packaged, ‘legacy’ application sales has made it imperative for ISVs of all sizes across every segment of the software industry to finally accept SaaS as a reality they can no longer ignore and must finally embrace.

Even Microsoft, Oracle or SAP are promising ‘cloud’ solutions and cranking up their PR machines to promote their promises. But, their SaaS offerings are still primarily hosted versions … Read More »