SPS Commerce is the latest winner of the new 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.

SPS Commerce is a leading supplier of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), business-to-business (B2B) integration, connecting partners in a supply chain. SPS Commerce.net is a suite of outsourced, SaaS services that improve the way trading partners manage and fulfill orders in the retail supply chain. 

Click here to read about the measurable business benefits SPS Commerce’s SaaS solution generated for one of the company’s corporate customers.

Click here to learn … Read More »

I recently published a column in E-Commerce Times discussing the growing interest and adoption of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) tools among IT professionals seeking to better manage their increasingly complex IT environments.

Two announcements during the past week illustrate the growing convergence of the SaaS and managed services industries as well, a trend which I’ve been talking about for the past two years.

The first of these announcements came from ManageEngine which unveiled a free beta of its new SaaS-based network, systems and security management software capabilities.

ManageEngine is a quiet giant in the IT management industry with over 37,000 companies utilizing its traditional software solutions. It is also a subsidiary of India-based, AdventNet, Inc., which also owns Zoho, the increasingly popular SaaS office productivity solution provider.

While ManageEngine’s new OpManager On-Demand offerings do not currently include the Zoho tools, they capitalize on the same service delivery infrastructure and SaaS … Read More »

Salesforce.com unveiled its year-end 2008 financial results earlier this week and, as the company had predicted, it passed the billion dollar mark, reporting total revenues of $1.077 billion, an increase of 44%over the 2007.

This milestone event, combined with the company’s rising earnings per share growth, are clear indications of the overall strength of the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) market despite the challenges of today’s tough economy.

In fact, Marc Benioff, the company’s Chairman and CEO, is quoted in the company’s press release as saying, “At a time when capital is precious, big-ticket software purchases just don’t make sense.”

I am also a firm believer that Salesforce.com’s continued growth, and that of the overall SaaS industry, will be fueled by today’s economic crisis.  IT and business decision-makers are increasingly recognizing not only the economic advantages of SaaS, but also the fact that SaaS represents a more effective method of supporting a more dispersed workforce and leveraging the latest innovations in … Read More »

Among my predictions for 2009, was that the on-demand services industry will experience a shakeout and consolidation.

I also suggested in a recent post that platform and cloud computing companies which don’t offer a combination of solid enabling technologies plus attractive channels to customers won’t survive the shakeout.

Sure enough, the rumors about the demise of Coghead have come true, and it is among the early entrants to the platform/cloud computing market who are now making an equally early departure.

Coghead may have had terrific technological capabilities, but it lacked a sufficient revenue model to stay afloat in an increasingly competitive market. As a result, investors were unwilling to continue to fund the company and it had to discontinue operations.

The primary reason Coghead couldn’t generate sufficient revenue to stay alive was that it didn’t offer enough value to attract adequate customers. It was a classic ‘Catch 22’ … Read More »

THINKstrategies announced today that Xactly Corporation has been named the latest winner of the new Best of SaaS Showplace (BoSS) Awards program, which was launched in January 2009 to promote the measurable business benefits being delivered by today’s Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions.

Xactly Corporation is a leading provider of on-demand sales performance management solutions. The company’s flagship product, Xactly Incent, enables sales and finance executives to design, implement, manage, audit and optimize sales compensation management programs easily and affordably.

A case example of Xactly’s business benefits is Ingres Corporation, a leading provider of open source database management software and support services

Click here to read about the announcement which details the quantitative business benefits Xactly Incent generated for Ingres

Click here to learn more about the BoSS Awards or to submit a nomination for an award.

Last July, I offered my views on the similarities and differences between Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and cloud computing. This past week, I had an opportunity to elaborate on the relationship between these two worlds and terms, along with Platforms-as-a-Service (PaaS), during a webcast hosted by Symplified entitled, “Beyond the Buzzwords”.

Then and now I believe cloud computing is an outgrowth of the success of the SaaS market and web-based, packaged applications. Cloud computing represents a rapidly growing array of web-based tools which enable users to build their own applications or utilities that can be deployed via the Internet (“cloud”) or ‘downloaded’ to an on-premise environment.

Much like the open source world, the cloud computing environment enables users to take advantage of a wide assortment of piece-parts from a variety of sources to create their own solutions for various project and production purposes. They both rely on incredibility economical development resources … Read More »

When I published my previous post questioning whether recent executive departures at salesforce.com were an indication of a slowdown in the company’s business, I debated whether to also leave the door open to the possibility that some of these individuals might be jumping to other job opportunities.

Sure enough, salesforce.com’s former president and chief strategy officer, Steve Cakebread, has resurfaced already at Xactly Corporation where it was announced this morning he will serve as the company’s new CFO, a role he also held at salesforce.com.

This hire gives Xactly even greater market validation and credibility after its recent acquisition of Centive.

The announcement also suggests my suspicions about potential problems at salesforce.com may have been premature. The company’s latest financial results are scheduled to be announced on February 25.

Meanwhile, NetSuite announced its financial results for 2008 yesterday. The company had a record year with revenues up 40.5% overall, reaching $152.5 million. Even its fourth … Read More »

Over a year ago, I stated that the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) market would be recession-proof as we entered 2008. And, last year proved to be a boom-time for nearly every SaaS company with a quality service aimed at a legitimate business need.

Now that the economy has sunken into a deeper economic decline than almost anyone anticipated, the SaaS industry is feeling the same pain that has afflicted every other major sector.

Fear, uncertainty and doubt–the classic FUD factor–has hit home in the SaaS community.

Despite the compelling business benefits of SaaS, corporate and IT decision-makers are holding back on purchases. And, corporate layoffs are cutting into the subscription levels of current contracts.

The latest victim of today’s economic realities appears to be Salesforce.com, which acknowledged at the end of last week that three corporate executives had recently left the company, including the company’s president and chief strategy officer.

Although … Read More »

I suggested in a previous blog that a new model of a ‘hybrid’ software company is emerging in which Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and cloud computing vendors are offering downloadable appliances, or ‘applets’, which permit users to utilize their web-based solutions off-line or behind the firewall.

My friends at Salesforce.com and other SaaS zeolots in the industry said I was crazy. But, many SaaS other vendors told me they were already offering an appliance option to their customers.

This week Google endorsed my idea by announcing that it is offering a offline version of its Gmail service.

Some folks expected this functionality in 2007, when Google introduced Gears, its browser plug-in aimed at providing offline access to Web-hosted applications. In fact, Google has been offering an on-premise search appliance for a while.

I believe the Gmail announcement is another example of a growing array of offline enhancements being added to SaaS/cloud computing solutions that … Read More »

ActionStep has been named the first international winner of the Best of SaaS Showplace (BoSS) Awards program. 

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

ActionStep is a multi-dimensional SaaS vendor based in Auckland, New Zealand. Its end-to-end, Web-based, business system includes Marketing, CRM, Sales, Operations, Accounting, and HR management solutions for multi-divisional, multi-currency businesses.

A case example of the company’s business benefits is Lumberlink, a small timber trading company based in Auckland which buys and sells internationally.

By switching to ActionStep’s SaaS solutions, Lumberlink has been able to reduce its administrative headcount; improve cashflow by shortening the time to complete back-office documents needed for payment; and increase sales volumes through smoother transfer of sales information to … Read More »