The growing adoption of Bring Your Own Device policies by organizations of all sizes, across nearly every industry, has enabled corporate end-users and business units to more easily acquire apps tailored to their specific work requirements.

This Bring Your Own Apps phenomenon, often referred to as the “consumerization of IT,” has sparked a new round of debate among CIOs and other corporate executives about how to balance security and compliance concerns with the need to encourage end-user productivity.

For the past few years, I’ve been suggesting that deploying corporate app stores can be an effective tactic for IT to regain control over this situation. By replicating the user experience of today’s leading app stores, enterprises can give their end-users the same kind of access to the best business applications available in the marketplace while establishing greater control over the acquisition process and … Read More »

A growing number of key executives and business development professionals from the leading Cloud providers and channel companies are planning to attend the third annual Cloud Channel Summit on Monday, November 4, at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA.

Click here to see who has registered for this year’s Summit and save $150 off current pre-conference registration rates!

The Cloud Channel Summit is designed to provide an intimate environment that encourages peer-to-peer networking among industry executives and partnering professionals. In addition to keynote presentations by Tim FitzGerald, Vice President, DataCenter & Cloud Technology Solutions Practices, Avnet Technology Solutions, Americas; Ron Huddleston, Senior Vice President of ISVs and Channels, Salesforce.com; and Dave O’Callaghan, SVP of Global Channels & Alliances, VMware, the Summit includes a series of interactive roundtable sessions, a speed networking opportunity, and an unConference luncheon where attendees can discuss the issues of greatest importance to them.

Click here to see the industry … Read More »

I’m not a religious guy, but I’ve been preaching about the virtues of moving to the cloud for a long time. Well before the idea became popular, I saw the potential cost savings offered by the cloud, as well as the opportunities to leverage it to generate new innovations. Now, nearly every industry is recognizing these potential benefits, including church pastors and other religious leaders. Over the last few years, I’ve been pleased to see corporate executives and end-users increasingly seek cloud-based alternatives to traditional, on-premises software and systems to achieve their business objectives. However, I was surprised to see the level of adoption that has already occurred in the religious community, according to a recent Intacct survey. Click here to read my views in E-Commerce Times about the industry implications of the survey findings.

Register now to join a growing number of key Cloud Computing industry executives speaking at the third annual Cloud Channel Summit on Monday, November 4 at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA, and save $100!

Executives from leading Cloud solution providers, major software and technology vendors, and innovative channel organizations will participate in highly interactive sessions examining partnering opportunities and best practices in the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), Big Data, and Small/Med-Size Business (SMB) segments of the Cloud marketplace. Click here to see the executives who have already confirmed their participation in this year’s Summit.

The Summit will also include a “Speed Networking” session to give attendees additional time to meet others interested in exploring new partnership opportunities. Click here to see the agenda for this year’s event.

We are also pleased to have AppDirect, CallidusCloud, Corent Technologies, CorSource Technology Group, Oracle, Salesforce.com and SoftServe returning as sponsors supporting this year’s peer-to-peer, executive networking forum. The Summit is also being supported … Read More »

The agenda for this year’s Cloud Channel Summit on Monday, November 4 has been designed to focus on the rapidly evolving Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), Big Data and Small-/Mid-Size Business (SMB) partner opportunities in the Cloud. Register now and save $100 on the conference registration fee!

The third annual Summit will once again take place at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA, and this year will include a special “Speed Networking” session to give attendees additional time to meet others interested in establishing new partnerships to expand their Cloud ecosystems.

Click here to see the full Summit agenda, and here to see the speakers who have already committed to participate in this year’s event.

CallidusCloud, Corent Technologies, CorSource Technology Group, Oracle, Salesforce.com and SoftServe are returning as sponsors supporting this year’s peer-to-peer, executive networking forum. Click here to learn more about the sponsors, and here to see the Summit partners.

Click here if you haven’t attended a … Read More »

Chris Rimer, Global Head of Partner Business for the Google Cloud Platform, Google Enterprise will join a growing number of key Cloud Computing industry executives speaking at the third annual Cloud Channel Summit on Monday, November 4 at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA.

Chris will participate in the Cloud Channel Summit Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) Industry Roundtable which will discuss Cloud Partner Success Stories: What’s Working and What’s Not. The roundtable panel session will also include:

Feyzi Fatehi, CEO of Corent Technology
Russell Hertzberg, Vice President Technology Solutions, SoftServe Inc.
Kevin O’Brien, Senior Director of ISV/OEM Business Development at Oracle

The Summit will include additional panel roundtable sessions focused on Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), Big Data, and Small/Med-Size Business (SMB) partner opportunities in the Cloud.

The Summit will also include a “Speed Networking” session to give attendees additional time to meet others interested in exploring new partnership opportunities.

CallidusCloud, Corent Technologies, CorSource Technology Group, Oracle, Salesforce.com and SoftServe as returning sponsors supporting this year’s peer-to-peer, executive networking forum.

Click … Read More »

Last month’s announcement of a “major” strategic alliance between Salesforce.com and Oracle attracted plenty of industry attention; but it holds more meaning for enterprise decision makers about how a new pragmatism is overtaking the polemics of the past in dealing with the realities of moving to the cCloud in a hybrid environment. Click here to read THINKstrategies’ perspective regarding the implications of this alliance for enterprise decision-makers on Sandhill.com.

A pivotal principle that sets Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) apart from the on-premises, legacy applications of the past is the shift of the vendors’ priorities so they better align with their customers. Rather than placing the burden of deploying and managing the software on the customer, SaaS vendors have to ensure customer satisfaction, minimize churn and maximize the lifetime value of their customers.

Achieving this objective requires the right combination of staff skills, business processes and support systems. Although every successful SaaS company has been committed to the idea of customer success, capturing the right data to gain a holistic view of the customer to better serve their needs has been a significant challenge.

Click here to read why, how the Pulse2013 conference hosted by Gainsight brought attention to this issue, and how THINKstrategies sees a new generation of Cloud-based ‘Customer Success Management’ solutions is addressing … Read More »

Salesforce.com, Oracle, SAP/Sybase, Iron Mountain and CallidusCloud are the latest companies to become sponsors of the second annual Cloud Channel Summit on Monday, November 5, at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA, hosted by THINKstrategies, the Cloud Computing Showplace, and Rising Tide Media.

These companies join IBM, Alteva, AppDirect, Aryaka, Corent Technology, CorSource, GoodData, SoftServe and TechData as sponsors of the Summit.

The Cloud Channel Summit provides an intimate, peer-to-peer networking forum for industry executives to share perspectives, best practices and insights about how to build successful partnerships in the Cloud.

Stacy Nethercoat, VP of Software Product Marketing at Tech Data, will be the kickoff keynote speaker at the Summit. Stephen Cho, Director of Software Partner Business Development for Google Enterprise, is also returning as a keynote speaker at this year’s event.

The following executives have also agreed to speak at the Summit:

David Hoff, CTO and Co-founder, Cloud Sherpas
Nick Pegley, VP Marketing, All Covered
Joe Panettieri, Editorial Director of the … Read More »

Despite the accelerating growth of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and growing interest in all things Cloud, skeptics are still seeing dark shadows which they think indicate fundamental flaws in the long-term prospects of on-demand services.

The most recent example was the controversy created by Salesforce.com’s most recent quarterly financial results. While the company’s revenues grew 34% and deferred revenues increased 43% on a year-over-year basis, the company still reported a second quarter (Q2) GAAP net loss per share of $0.07.

Although I tend to look at the world through ‘Cloud-colored’ glasses, I don’t think I’m being naive because I see these numbers as a outgrowth of a prudent strategic decision by Salesforce.com’s management to aggressively invest in winning a greater share of the high growth SaaS/Cloud market. In fact, Marc Benioff made the same point during a recent interview on Jim Cramer’s “Mad Money” show.

Like Benioff, SuccessFactors’ … Read More »