One of the common misconceptions about Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) is that it can’t be easily integrated with legacy applications.

While this myth has been quietly disproved by various SaaS players over the past year, one of Salesforce.com’s latest initiatives lends a louder voice and provides a more powerful proof-point that SaaS/legacy application integration should no longer be a barrier to success for organizations who want to migrate from on-premise to on-demand software.

On November 27, 2006, Salesforce.com unveiled its latest innovation, ApexConnect, a new set of on-demand integration tools that build on the success of its AppExchange partner program and the promise of its new Apex development platform.

ApexConnect adds a new ConnectOut feature to the Apex development platform which permits the industry’s first on-demand outbound messaging API. Salesforce.com has kicked off the ApexConnect initiative with a new ConnectOracle API for integrating Salesforce with … Read More »

On November 14, Dell Computer announced its intention to acquire Scottish-based ACS in a deal which signifies that Dell is serious about expanding its business beyond hardware into services.

Headquartered in Glasgow, ACS was founded in 1990 and now has operations in Edinburgh, London, Paris and India. The privately-held company generated pre-tax profit of $3.7 million on revenues of $21.88 million in 2005. It boasts a staff of 200 and is the largest Microsoft partner in Scotland.

Dell has been increasingly pressured to match IBM and HP’s substantial service offerings in order to compete for corporate business. Historically, Dell has preferred to depend on third-parties, such as Unisys, to deliver its on-site services so it can stick with its low-cost product strategy. The acquisition of ACS represents an incremental step in the direction of delivering more in the way of services as … Read More »

It is popular in the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) movement to berate the established independent software vendors (ISVs) as doomed to inevitable extinction. The ISVs face overwhelming challenges as they attempt to convert their on-premise applications and entrenched corporate cultures into on-demand, service-oriented, net-enabled companies.

The established ISVs have become easy targets for Marc Benioff at Salesforce.com, “The End of Software” author Tim Chou, and a wide array of lesser-known industry pundits. In a world in which the difference between right and wrong becomes more indiscernible everyday, software professionals and industry “experts” are still happy to pick sides in an escalating argument over who will win or loss in the rapidly evolving on-demand bazaar.

While I admit to fanning the flames a bit by pointing out in my writings and talks the major challenges facing established ISVs–rearchitecting their software, restructuring their revenue models and … Read More »

The past week’s SIIA On-Demand Conference served as another opportunity for the rapidly evolving Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) industry to take stock of where it stands and where it is headed.

One indication of the rapid maturation of the SaaS movement was the lack of discussion or debate about how to define what SaaS stands for. In fact, Brian Jacobs of Emergence Capital–an active investor and proponent of SaaS companies–skipped a slide in his presentation during the first morning of the two-day conference which included a definition of SaaS.

Just as the debate of definitions has pasted, so too has any dispute over whether the SaaS market is for real. The major systems vendors–IBM and HP–lent their perspectives about the forces shaping the SaaS business. The general manager of Microsoft’s .NET platform strategy, Cliff Reeves, outlined how his company is responding to escalating demands … Read More »

On October 25, 2006, BT announced its intent to acquire Counterpane Internet Security, a pioneer in the managed security services (MSS) market.

This is the second major acquisition of a managed security service provider (MSSP) in the past 90 days. The previous acquisition was of ISS by IBM. It is also the second acquisition of a managed service provider (MSP) by an offshore player following Cognizant’s acquisition of Aimnet Solutions in September.

While most people view BT as a major carrier, it is also a major outsourcer. So, its acquisition of Counterpane, along with IBM’s acquisition of ISS, indicates that the major outsourcers now view managed services in general and MSS in particular as a critical component of their portfolios going forward.

I perscribed this approach in a NetworkWorld commentary earlier this year. At that time, I suggested the major outsourcers had to … Read More »

As the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) market gains momentum, SaaS providers are trying to differentiate themselves in the increasingly competitive marketplace by repositioning themselves as ‘platform’ vendors rather than point-solution providers.

Salesforce.com has gained the most attention moving from a product to a platform position with the success of its AppExchange and the unveiling of its new Apex programming language.

This week, NetSuite responded by unveiling a new platform of its own, SuiteFlex, to expand its presence in the SaaS market. While Salesforce.com’s partners have primarily focused on expanded the array of horizontal applications that can be linked together on the AppExchange, NetSuite’s SuiteFlex initiative is aimed at delivering a new generation of vertical market applications.

The SuiteFlex platform is built upon NetSuite’s SuiteScript programming language, which was unveiled months before Salesforce.com’s Apex, but has generated little attention or support. NetSuite is enhancing the SuiteScript … Read More »

As more companies launch free, ad-based, online services, the debate about their long-term effectiveness grows. Two Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) companies have recently unveiled new, innovative approaches to circumvent the controversy and create new value for customers and sponsors.

The debate revolves around two quesitons. The first question is whether customers will take advantage of these services if they have to put up with a user-interface cluttered with banner ads or search engine listings. The second question is whether the services will generate enough qualified leads for the sponsors to justify the marketing expense.

Klir Technologies is an on-demand IT management solutions vendor which is offering a free, on-line performance measurement service to enable enterprises to improve the reliability of their data center operations. Rather than simply include a Google search engine which produces a listing of potentially competitive IT management solutions, Klir unveiled … Read More »

If the center of the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) universe is the San Francisco Bay area, then one of the satellite galaxies to keep an eye on is Dublin, Ireland.

I was invited to this amazing city by Enterprise Ireland, the high-tech arm of the country’s economic development authority, to serve as the keynote speaker and moderator of a one-day symposium regarding the SaaS movement. As in the case of IDG World Expo’s SaaScon event in September, I was pleased to also help Enterprise Ireland formulate the agenda and recruit the speakers for the SaaSie seminar.

I got my first taste of Ireland’s unique culture, and its potential to become a hotbed for SaaS, the evening before the event when a scheduled dinner among the event speakers quickly grew into a enthusiastic gathering of local software entrepreneurs and executives thirsting not only for a … Read More »

The convergence of the managed services and software-as-a-service (SaaS) markets came into focus again recently when Everdream and Verizon unveiled new offerings and alliances aimed at covering customers’ desktop management needs.

As I’ve suggested previously on this blog, the line of demarcation between managed services and SaaS can be fuzzy. In fact, there are many who use the terms interchangeably. I tend to differentiate them this way–managed services are those offerings in which vendors/providers assume responsibility for performing a management function, while SaaS gives the customers the functionality to perform a management task themselves.

This distinction becomes blurred when the vendor/provider offers both options to its customers. BMC is an example of a vendor offering both managed services and SaaS solutions to its customers in addition to its traditional packaged software.

Everdream illustrated how the managed services and SaaS worlds are rapidly converging … Read More »

One of the common myths about Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions is that they can’t be customized to meet the specific needs of individual users.

I’ve always felt that this, and many other concerns about SaaS, was unfair because there is a growing number of SaaS providers, as well as an ‘ecosystem’ of third-parties, offering a variety of open source alternatives, application protocol interfaces (APIs), meta-configuration options and integration services which address the customization issue.

Salesforce.com–the spiritual leader of the SaaS movement–has made the latest and most dramatic effort to dispel the customization myth.

At its Dreamforce 2006 conference in San Francisco earlier this week, Salesforce unveiled Apex, a new multi-tenant programming language and platform that enables customers, partners and developers to manipulate the company’s code, triggers and stored procedures. They will also be able to leverage the programming language and platform to create their … Read More »