Much has been written regarding Google’s latest challenge to Microsoft–its announcement last week that it plans to unveil a new operating system (OS) in the second half of 2010.

There is no question that Google’s ambitious plans can have a significant impact on the computing world. And, because computing has become an integral part of everyone’s day-to-day world, the Google-Microsoft war deserves plenty of attention, even in the mainstream media and among Main Street businesses.

However, it shouldn’t come as any surprise that Google would move in this direction. It has been nibbling away at the edges of Microsoft’s fortress for a number of years.

Google Desktop does a better job finding files within Micrsoft Office than Microsoft’s own software. Gmail is easier to use than Outlook. And, Google Apps have become a viable alternative to Microsoft Office within a growing number of businesses, non-profit agencies and governmental … Read More »

No, I haven’t gone over to the darkside and abandoned the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) movement.

But, I just gave a keynote presentation regarding the state of the SaaS and cloud computing market at SoftLetter’s latest SaaS University in Chicago, where the challenges of developing and delivering successful SaaS solutions were once again brought home in the discussions among the software executives and SaaS professionals attending the event.

Despite it being scheduled on the last day of the quarter and first week of many people’s summer vacation, the event succeeded in attracting about 70 CXOs from a cross-section of established independent software vendors (ISVs) and SaaS start-ups seeking insights about how to succeed in this rapidly growing industry.

Like past SaaS University sessions, the attendees were treated to a variety of tutorials from industry practitioners with a minimum … Read More »

THINKstrategies announced today that Manticore Technology 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.

Manticore Technology is an on-demand, marketing automation solution  provider that enables marketers to effortlessly move sales prospects through the pipeline through demand generation, lead management, lead scoring, and lead nurturing, while feeding their sales team invaluable insight about the interests of each lead. As a result, Manticore Technology customers increase revenues, lower costs, and gain a … Read More »

This was the title of one of my first commentaries for ITworld’s old Utility Computing portal back on January 14, 2004. I had to laugh when I saw a blog post today with the same title on GigaOm’s site regarding a panel session about Private Clouds during this week’s Structure ’09 conference.

My original commentary focused on the hesitancy among the major technology vendors to adopt a services-driven strategy that would capitalize on the rapidly evolving Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and managed services capabilities which were emerging in 2004.

Based on the summary in the GigaOm blog post, it appears that the Private Cloud panel focused on all the reasons why enterprise IT shops have been slow to fulfill their roles as internal service providers.

Of course, the irony is that many of the vendors represented on the panel have encouraged their IT customers to be more focused on managing technology than … Read More »

LucidEra’s decision to close its doors this past Friday will spark a new round of debate regarding the viability of the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and cloud computing business models.

Some established vendors will use this event as further proof that the SaaS and cloud computing models are not sustainable. Conservative IT and business decision-makers within ‘user’ organizations will use it to justify their decisions to stay away from these ‘on-demand’ solutions.

Ironically, the Wall Street Journal published an article today highlighting the growing efforts of many of the largest software and systems vendors to get onboard the on-demand services bandwagon. The article points out that these vendors have been reluctant to adopt SaaS and cloud computing strategies and offer on-demand alternatives because they undercut the value and profit margins of their legacy products. But, their customers are moving in this direction and they must respond or continue to lose … Read More »

THINKstrategies announced today that Coupa Software 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, such as increased sales, lower costs, higher customer satisfaction, faster operations, and greater profitability.

Coupa is a leading on-demand provider of solutions that control and streamline purchasing for organizations beyond the Fortune 500. Coupa e-Procurement delivers an easy to use, fast to deploy and affordable solution for requisitions, purchase orders, RFQs, inventory and invoicing, with no hardware to buy or software to license.

Click here to read more about the measurable business benefits Coupa has delivered to its corporate customers.

Click here to read more about the BoSS Awards or to apply for an award.

THINKstrategies, Inc. and Renovatix Solutions, the leader in providing client branded marketplaces of name brand Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications to small and medium business (SMB) customers, today announced a strategic partnership to accelerate the growth of online SaaS marketplaces.

THINKstrategies’ mission in establishing the SaaS Showplace in 2006 was to make organizations aware of the rapidly growing array of SaaS solutions available to address their IT and business needs. By working with Renovatix, we are now making it easier for organizations to acquire and utilize a widening assortment of on-demand solutions as well.

Renovatix Solutions’ SaaS marketplaces are uniquely designed to enable third-party administrators, including enterprises and other service providers, to private-label their SaaS eCommerce sites and give users single sign-on access to all of their applications.

As part of this partnership agreement, THINKstrategies will,

Connect its SaaS Showplace directory to Renovatix’s online SaaS marketplace, … Read More »

Marketo is the latest winner of a Best of SaaS Showplace (BoSS) Award based on the measurable business benefits its Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) delivers to users.

The BoSS Awards program is an initiative by THINKstrategies which brings 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.

Marketo provides solutions for marketing and sales teams, enabling collaboration throughout the revenue cycle from the earliest stages of demand generation and lead management to the pursuit of revenue and customer loyalty.

Click here to read why Marketo was selected to receive a BoSS Award.

Click here to read more about the BoSS Award program or to submit an application for an award.

I had the privilege of attending a local forum at Bentley University hosted by Intuit this past week entitled “Startups and the Cloud: Entrepreneurship in the Age of Cloud Computing”. 

The size of the turnout for this event was another indication of the growing level of interest in Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and the broader cloud computing phenomenon. It may also be an early indicator of the potential power of Intuit as a key player in this rapidly evolving marketplace.

In a previous blog post, I suggested that two of the most important competitive advantages which leading Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) must display are,

Sustainability in today’s tough economic climate to ensure they are viewed as solid, long-term suppliers of SaaS development and delivery capabilities.
An attractive customer base which can make the PaaS vendor a viable channel to market for developers leveraging its toolkit.

Intuit easily qualifies as a potentially powerful PaaS … Read More »

Last week, I had the privilege of attending and presenting at Internet Capital Group’s (ICG) 2009 Strategic Growth Conference in Philadelphia, and came away impressed with the company’s portfolio of web-oriented businesses and vision for the future.

ICG was one of the pioneers of web-based businesses during the late 1990s, and is one of the few survivors of the Dot.com bust. Like THINKstrategies, ICG believed after the demise of the Dot.com era that there were could still be tremendous opportunities via the Internet once the enabling technologies and business models matured to meet customers’ changing requirements.

Unlike other investment firms which might have a set of ‘theses’ for the types of companies they fund, ICG has attempted to build a portfolio of companies that can leverage their commonalities to create additional … Read More »