THINKstrategies announced today that Adaptive Planning 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 initiated by THINKstrategies to bring attention to SaaS and cloud computing companies which are producing tangible business benefits for specific user organizations. These benefits include increased sales, lower costs, higher customer satisfaction, faster operations, and greater profitability.

Adaptive Planning is a leading provider of on-demand budgeting, forecasting and reporting solutions that help finance organizations improve operational efficiency, strengthen collaboration, and drive better business decisions in companies of all sizes.

Click here to read about Adaptive Planning’s award-winning SaaS capabilities.

Click here to read about the BoSS Awards program and to apply for an award.

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 »

THINKstrategies announced today that Widen Enterprises 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 as an initiative by THINKstrategies to bring attention to SaaS and cloud computing companies which are producing tangible business benefits for specific user organizations. These benefits include increased sales, lower costs, higher customer satisfaction, faster operations, and greater profitability.

Widen Enterprises, provides premedia and color management services specifically for assisting customers with building brand equity and supporting consistent brand representation across print and Web communications. Through its suite of Web-based digital asset management applications, Widen software services provide marketing networks with real-time Web-based access to the clients’ digital asset libraries, subsequently eliminating manual search and file preparation time, costs related to replacing images and videos that … Read More »

A combination of work, travel and summertime distractions have prevented me from commenting on a series of small, yet significant announcements and activities over the past couple of weeks in the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and cloud computing market.

My latest travels started last week at Pacific Crest’s 11th Annual Technology Leadership Forum in Vail, CO, where I met with a series of the investment firm’s ‘buy-side’ clients as a part of its Mosaic program, and interacted with a variety of cloud computing executives and VCs in a SaaS workshop.

Nearly all of Pacific Crest’s clients are concerned about the financial implications of the cloud computing movement on their large-cap investments in companies such as Microsoft, Oracle and SAP on the software side, and IBM, HP, EMC, Dell and other systems vendors on the hardware side. They are also curious about whether Amazon, Google, Salesforce.com, SuccessFactors and other upstart SaaS/cloud companies can … Read More »

THINKstrategies announced today that Intuit Quickbase has been named the latest winner of the Best of SaaS Showplace (BoSS) Awards program.

The BoSS Awards program was announced in January 2009 by THINKstrategies to bring attention to SaaS and cloud computing companies which are producing tangible business benefits for specific user organizations. These benefits include increased sales, lower costs, higher customer satisfaction, faster operations, and greater profitability.

Intuit QuickBase allows users to create unique business applications tailored to meet their specific process and industry needs – without technical expertise or coding. Business users can easily build new on-demand business applications from scratch or select from more than 200 available templates to customize.

Click here to read more about case study examples that  illustrate the measurable benefits which customers have gained from Intuit QuickBase.

Click here to read more about the BoSS Awards program or to … Read More »

Making the transition to a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model isn’t easy for incumbent software vendors (ISVs).

Rearchitecting their applications may be the easiest task in the transformation process. Redesigning their go-to-market strategies and ongoing operations; restructuring their revenue recognition models; and reorienting their staff are the more difficult challenges.

Greater service delivery costs combined with lower per unit prices make it is easy to see why most ISVs have tried to resist the SaaS movement and denied its long-term viability.

Yet, a severe slowdown in traditional, packaged, ‘legacy’ application sales has made it imperative for ISVs of all sizes across every segment of the software industry to finally accept SaaS as a reality they can no longer ignore and must finally embrace.

Even Microsoft, Oracle or SAP are promising ‘cloud’ solutions and cranking up their PR machines to promote their promises. But, their SaaS offerings are still primarily hosted versions … Read More »

THINKstrategies announced today that Silverpop’s Engage B2B 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 as the latest initiative by THINKstrategies to bring attention to SaaS and cloud computing companies which are producing tangible business benefits for specific user organizations. These benefits include increased sales, lower costs, higher customer satisfaction, faster operations, and greater profitability.

Silverpop’s Engage B2B marketing automation platform seamlessly scores sales leads, nurtures them through the pipeline and measures campaign return-on-investment. The Engage B2B solution helps companies maximize their marketing efforts, engage their prospects with targeted communications, improve their efficiency, increase revenue and accelerate the lead-to-sale timeline.

Click here to read about Silverpop Engage B2B’s award winning capabilities.

Click … Read More »

Yesterday’s announcement that NetSuite is acquiring QuickArrow and merging it with OpenAir is the most recent example of a consolidation process in the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) industry which I predicted would accelerate at the beginning of the year.

This particular transaction is very similar to Xactly’s acquisition of Centive in January. Rather than combining functional capabilities to create a more robust solution, the companies are combining forces to create greater scale.

In both cases, the transactions eliminate head-to-head competitors who looked too much alike to be able to clearly differentiate themselves from one another. Their similarities made it harder to compete for customers and VC funding, especially in today’s tough economy.

Merging, with the help of NetSuite’s deeper pockets, allows the two companies to focus on new customer acquisition, channel relationships and geographic expansion.

This acquisition is the latest indication that the SaaS market is entering a new stage in which the winners will be … Read More »

THINKstrategies announced today that e-Builder 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 as the latest initiative by THINKstrategies to bring attention to SaaS and cloud computing companies which are producing tangible business benefits for specific user organizations. These benefits include increased sales, lower costs, higher customer satisfaction, faster operations, and greater profitability.

e-Builder provides a web-based, fully integrated capital program and project management software suite for organizations managing facility planning, construction, and operations. North America’s leading facility owners use e-Builder to improve project execution, resulting in increased productivity and quality, reduced cost, and faster project delivery. The system is modular in nature and can be deployed in phases. The primary modules include: Cost, Schedule, Business Process, Document Management, Reports, … Read More »

Last week, Gartner attempted to derail the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) movement by issuing a press release regarding its latest customer survey which found that SaaS users are “underwhelmed by their current experience of it and sense that SaaS is not quite the panacea it often promised to be.”

For some reason, it took Gartner more than six months to interpret the results of its survey of users and prospects of SaaS solutions in 333 enterprises in the U.S. and the U.K. which was conducted in December 2008. Maybe because the data didn’t say what they were hoping and it took more time to twist the results into a story that fit their reality and could generate a few headlines.

Gartner’s press release starts by stating that “SaaS is more mainstream and less controversial than ever before”, an important admission from a research firm which a few … Read More »