In May, I blogged about “Silicon Valley’s first phone company” which was creating a new market opportunity for Software-as-a-Service (Saas) in the voice communications sector.

Today, BT announced its intention to acquire that “Telco 2.0” platform company, Ribbit, for $105 million in cash. Not bad for a company which just closed a “small” B round of funding, according to the company executives I chatted with this afternoon.

This acquisition clearly demonstrates how far SaaS has come.

SaaS is no longer viewed as just a cheaper and easier alternative to traditional, on-premise applications. Instead, SaaS is becoming recognized as a way to fundamentally transform businesses processes and various industries, such as telecommunications.

My roots are in the telecom industry. I helped to launch IDC’s communications industry research program in 1983 at the time of the original AT&T divestiture. I also enjoyed my most satisfying and … Read More »

For years, I’ve been advocating that hardware and software vendors along with their channel partners and telecommunications carriers have the opportunity to leverage Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions and managed services models to generate powerful benchmark statistics and produce valuable best practice studies that can enhance their customer relationships and strengthen their position in the market.

Today, TriActive and THINKstrategies published the first of a series of benchmark studies which clearly demonstrates this unique capability.

The study examines end-user software utilization patterns across over 125,000 endpoints in 460 companies managed by TriActive’s Asset Management Suite™. The study found many companies where Microsoft Office installations are underutilized or not used at all. This means that many companies have more software licenses than necessary or have purchased higher than necessary versions of the software to meet their needs.

Based on this actual software utilization data, the study … Read More »

The findings of a 2006 survey recently released by Gartner has brought renewed attention to the fundamental shortcomings of today’s major network/system management (NSM) platforms from companies such as IBM, HP, CA and BMC.

The survey found that 40% gave their NSM vendors a mediocre “C” and nearly 30% of the respondents gave their vendors a “D” because of their frustrations with the costs and hassles involved in deploying and administering the vendors’ platforms.

These frustrations aren’t news. When I was the director of strategic marketing at International Network Services (INS), we were the first company to rollout a network performance management software service on a subscription pricing basis in response to these same frustrations. Our EnterprisePRO solution was unveiled in 1996, prior to the advent of the managed service provider (MSP) and application service provider (ASP) ideas.

Unfortunately, although there were plenty … Read More »

Two announcements last week served as reminders that, despite growing interest in on-demand solutions, professionals services remain an essential part of the technology landscape.

On January 30, Salesforce.com announced a strategic alliance with Deloitte Consulting to extend the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) leader’s reach into the enterprise market. Salesforce.com already has a similar agreement in place with Accenture. But, the Deloitte alliance confirms the growing interest in SaaS among large-scale enterprises and the desire of a growing number of established consultancies to join the SaaS movement.

As I’ve stated many times, any suggestion that SaaS will eliminate the role of channel organizations in the software industry is ludicrious. However, there is no question that many value-added resellers (VARs) and consultancies will need to shift their focus from technology integration to process or change management projects. A clear example of this shift, as well as … Read More »