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 »

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 »