One of the hottest topics of discussion in the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) market and broader Cloud Computing arena is the role of the channel in selling and delivering these web-based services and solutions. What few people have discussed is the opportunity for SaaS companies, as well as Cloud vendors, to become important channels to market themselves.

The most intriguing scenario in this SaaS-as-a-Channel (SaaC) possibility revolves around the Data-as-a-Service (DaaS) idea. The most recent illustration of this scenario is today’s announcement by Host Analytics of a new Decision Hub service which pulls industry data from a variety of third-party information service providers, such as Edgar Online and Data.Gov, into Host Analytics’ SaaS-based corporate performance management (CPM) solution.

The Decision Hub enables corporate decision-makers to examine their company performance in relation to a broader set of industry benchmark data or key performance indicators (KPIs).

This isn’t a new idea, … Read More »

There have been a series of acquisitions over the past few weeks which clearly illustrate how the competitive landscape in the tech industry and beyond is being fundamentally changed by the rapidly evolving cloud computing phenomenon.

The two most recent examples came this week. The first was CA Technologies’ acquisition of 4Base Technology, a virtualization and cloud infrastructure consulting firm, which CA plans to use as a cornerstone of its expanded cloud computing professional services capabilities. This is the latest in a series of acquisitions which CA has made to transform the company from a software-only to a multi-dimensional corporate portfolio which personifies its new CA Technologies company name. CA’s transformation echos the moves of other players seeking to become one-stop shops for hardware, software and services. The most significant of these was Oracle’s acquisition of Sun Microsystems.

Intel made an even more dramatic acquisition … Read More »

Salesforce.com announced its intention to acquire Jigsaw today and is once again redefining the role of the software vendor and nature of software applications.

Jigsaw, a Best of SaaS Showplace (BoSS) winner, provides lead generation services via the aggregation of third-party data service feeds combined with a cloud–based, ‘crowd-sourcing’ model.

Jigsaw taps lead gen data from D&B, Hoover’s, LexisNexis and other data sources, and makes it available to sales organizations who in turn clean the data and share their own contact lists in hopes that they will build greater and better quality contacts as a result of participating in Jigsaw’s user community.

Jigsaw’s tight API integration with Salesforce.com makes it relatively easy for users to import third-party contact information into their Salesforce.com’s CRM system. The company’s CEO also told me that its API will be extended to connect to other CRM solutions, including Siebel and Microsoft … Read More »

THINKstrategies announced today that Jigsaw 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 by THINKstrategies as an initiative aimed at bringing greater attention to SaaS and cloud computing companies that are producing tangible business benefits for specific user organizations. These benefits include increased sales, lower costs, higher customer satisfaction, faster operations and greater profitability.
 
Jigsaw is a leading provider of business information and data services that leverages user-generated content contributed by a global business-to-business community of over one million members to give users access to contact information for 21 million business people and profiles of 3 million companies. Jigsaw provides data-as-a-service (DaaS) through a variety of low-cost and easy to … Read More »