THINKstrategies is accepting nominations for the 2014 Best of SaaS Showplace (BoSS) Award and Cloud Computing Business Value (CCBV) Award.

The BoSS and CCBV awards are ongoing programs administered by THINKstrategies’ Cloud Computing Showplace to recognize Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) and Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) companies that are delivering measurable business benefits to their customers. These benefits can include increased sales, lower costs, higher customer satisfaction, faster operations and greater profitability.

The Awards program was launched in 2009, and has recognized over 100 companies delivering measurable business benefits to their customers. Click here to read THINKstrategies’ report which summarizes many of the winning nominations entitled, “Measuring the Business Benefits of Today’s Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) Solutions”. You can also find the most recent announcements regarding the latest award winners in previous postings on this blog.

THINKstrategies is the only strategic consulting services company focused entirely on helping its clients capitalize on the unprecedented business opportunities created by the … Read More »

Happy new year!

The past year brought even greater attention to the unprecedented business opportunities being generated by the rapid evolution of today’s Cloud Computing alternatives, including Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) and Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS).

THINKstrategies is proud to be a part of this revolutionary transformation of the software, hardware and IT services industries. In the past year, 120 companies leveraged THINKstrategies’ consulting services, sponsored Cloud Computing Showplace online directory and best practices repository, and supported the Cloud Innovator Summit executive forums.

Hundreds of other companies and thousands of IT and corporate decision-makers have taken advantage of our perspectives and participated in our multifaceted programs, including over 15,000 newsletter subscribers, nearly 5200 Twitter followers, and more than 400 Cloud Channel and Cloud Analytics Summit participants.

In 2013, THINKstrategies published 44 commentaries in various industry publications and corporate blogs which you can find listed here. I also provided THINKstrategies’ industry perspective … Read More »

Among the various hats I wear is my role as a senior consultant at Cutter Consortium, a global IT advisory firm dedicated to helping organizations forge solutions to the business technology challenges they face through research, consulting, and training. I’ve been a part of Cutter for a decade and each year have contributed annual predictions along with other members of the Cutter federation of consultants and analysts. Click here to see my latest predictions about how IT’s role will evolve during the coming year in selecting and implementing Cloud solutions.

It’s that time of year and you can find THINKstrategies’ Cloud industry predictions for 2014 in E-Commerce Times and Sandhill.com,

E-Commerce Times: 2014 Looks Bright for Cloud Services
Sandhill.com: Changing Cloud Scapes in 2014

If you’re curious to see how we did with our previous predictions or just want to take a stroll down Memory Lane, here are THINKstrategies’ prognostications for the past six years,

E-Commerce Times: The Shape of Cloud Computing to Come in 2013
Datamation: Forecasting Lots of Clouds in 2012
E-Commerce Times: Look for New Shapes in the Clouds in 2011
E-Commerce Times: 2010’s Key Challenges and Opportunities in the Clouds
THINK IT Services Blog: On-Demand Services Market Predictions for 2009
THINK IT Services Blog: Ten Reasons Why On-Demand Services Will Soar in 2008

While we may have been too far ahead of the curve a few times, no one can accuse us of failing to see the future.

Contact me … Read More »

Every market researcher is predicting significant growth for public, private and hybrid cloud services. I expect their forecasts to fall short of the actual adoption we’ll see over the next three to five years, particularly in 2014. I believe cloud services will experience greater-than-expected growth because cloud providers can now offer a wider assortment of deployment alternatives. Click here to read the reasons why in our latest commentary in E-Commerce Times.

Every new market research survey focused on the latest business and IT trends is finding corporate decision-makers across nearly every industry are planning to adopt a widening array of Cloud Computing alternatives to meet their escalating business needs.

THINKstrategies has been at the forefront of the Cloud movement since its inception, providing our unique insights, offering trusted advisory services, showcasing success stories via the Cloud Computing Showplace, and promoting industry best practices at the Cloud Innovators Summits.

In the past year, over seventy (70) companies capitalized on THINKstrategies’ services to achieve their Cloud objectives!

Enterprise decision-makers use our services to help them develop and execute their Cloud migration strategies. Cloud solutions providers use our services to help them develop and execute their go-to-market strategies. And, investment firms leverage our services to determine where to target their funding decisions in the Cloud.

This is the time when many organizations are finalizing their plans … Read More »

In my view, the Cloud Computing marketplace will change rapidly in the coming year. Click here to read about the most significant changes I think will occur in 2014 in my latest commentary in Sandhill.com.

I was reviewing the history of Salesforce.com’s major Dreamforce announcements over the past five years and realized that I’ve had the privilege of being interviewed at each of the events by a variety of industry publications and partners. I thought it would be interesting to compile these video recordings to show the key takeaways that I identified from each year. I hope you find this retrospective valuable.

Dreamforce 2009

The introduction of Salesforce.com Chatter — Facebook for the Enterprise.

Dreamforce 2010

Click here to see my interview with DreamSimplicity about the explosive growth which began to materialize in the SaaS/Cloud marketplace in 2010.

Dreamforce 2011

Click here to hear my views about Salesforce.com’s promotion of the ‘Social Enterprise’.

Dreamforce 2012

Cloud movement extending to mobile devices.

Dreamforce 2013

Salesforce.com introduces Private AppExchanges to support corporate appstores, and the “Internet of Customers” and Salesforce1 to pull all the pieces together.

The third annual Cloud Channel Summit on November 4th at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA, was a tremendous success! And, now you can view the session recordings and one-on-one speaker interviews online.

The peer-to-peer, executive networking event brought together over 200 attendees, speakers, sponsors and partners.

Click here to view the highlight video and session recordings of the keynote presentations and panel discussions with key executives from the leading Cloud companies and others who participated in this year’s Summit. 

Click here to see the one-on-one interviews with the Summit speakers, and hear their perspectives on the key issues affecting channel relationships in the Cloud marketplace and the benefits they gained by participating in the Summit.

You can also click here to read my perspectives regarding the industry implications of the Summit sessions and presentations in Sandhill.com.

Based on the success of this year’s event, I am making plans to host another … Read More »

THINKstrategies announced today that HRsmart has been named a winner of the Best of SaaS Showplace (BoSS) Award. This program promotes the measurable business benefits delivered by today’s Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions.

The BoSS Awards is an ongoing program administered by THINKstrategies’ Cloud Computing Showplace to recognize SaaS companies that are delivering measurable business benefits to specific user organizations. These benefits can include increased sales, lower costs, higher customer satisfaction, faster operations and greater profitability.

HRsmart offers a SaaS Talent Management solution that supports companies’ needs from hire to retire. The Applicant Tracking System allows a company to reduce the cost and time required to manage their job requisitions and the candidates that apply to them. Companies can configure the processes, forms, and letters to meet their needs and reuse them to more quickly screen, filter, interview, hire, verify and onboard candidates. HRsmart’s Learning Management … Read More »