Even as Salesforce.com aggressively seeks to consolidate its position as the leader of cloud-based front-office applications via a series of acquisitions, it is possible that 2017 could be the year the company uses some of the same purchases to make a strategic move. Salesforce soon may become a major player in the back-office financial management and enterprise resource planning market as well.

Speculation that Salesforce might expand its offerings to address the back-office needs of its corporate customers has been plentiful for a long time. Salesforce’s success in reinventing the nature of front-office applications via the cloud has convinced CFOs that the time has come to adopt Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions to solve their back-office requirements.

Click here to read THINKstrategies’ perspectives in E-Commerce Times regarding how some of the recent Salesforce acquisitions include functional capabilities that cross over into the realm of back-office … Read More »

As the Cloud continues to gather steam as the go-to model for many companies, Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) offerings are also gaining credence.

PaaS allows companies greater flexibility once they are in the cloud. PaaS enables customers to develop new applications and services on their existing portfolios of technology to enable new capabilities. With PaaS, companies can develop new mobile applications quickly, automate processes or streamline operations.

For software companies like SAP, PaaS can also unlock new doorways of modernization as well. At the SAP TechEd conference in Barcelona, the company repositioned some core products to reflect its PaaS-oriented strategy. Click here to read THINKstrategies’ perspectives about SAP’s latest PaaS offerings and strategies in SearchCRM.

I recently had the privilege of attending SAP’s Customer Days 2015 conference in Ft. Worth where I was asked to provide my views about the changing nature of the customer engagement process in the age of the Cloud. Here’s a recording of that interview.

You can also click here to read my views in SearchCRM regarding SAP hybris’ approach to meeting the escalating needs of today’s customers.

THINKstrategies is pleased to now be contributing its industry perspectives to TechTarget’s SearchCRM website.

Our first guest blogpost examines Salesforce’s foray into IoT extends personalized CRM, and our second commentary discusses how SAP’s customer engagement strategy could trump CRM.

I hope you find these columns valuable and welcome your feedback.

THINKstrategies is pleased to be a new contributor to the Future of Customer Engagement and Commerce blog hosted by SAP hybris. The website is focused on the rapidly escalating challenges of omnichannel marketing in the business-to-business (B2B) environment.

THINKstrategies is contributing its perspective regarding how the Cloud, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), the Internet of Things (IoT) and Big Data are shaping these issues and providing new methods to capitalize on these opportunities.

Our first blogpost discussed why modern customer engagement is a numbers game. Our second blogpost examines who’s responsible for the customer experience (Hint: it’s not the CMO).

Global Capacity is the latest company to become a sponsor of the the fourth annual Cloud Channel Summit, hosted by THINKstrategies and the Cloud Computing Showplace, on Wednesday, December 3 in San Diego.

In addition, over 30 industry executives have agreed to present their perspectives regarding how to build successful partnerships in the Cloud marketplace. The latest to join the roster of speakers include senior channel executives from FICO, SAP and Samsung.

The Summit is only two weeks away and seating is limited at the event, so register now to save your spot and use promo code CCS14 to save $100! Click here to see who’s already registered to attend the executive forum.

The Cloud Channel Summit will provide an intimate environment for industry executives to share their perspectives and best practices for building profitable partnerships in the Cloud marketplace. Click here to read THINKstrategies’ views in E-Commerce Times re: the importance of a strong channel … Read More »

Executives from AppFirst, Domo, Datadog, Indicee, Sailthru, SoftServe and Big Data Boston Ventures are the latest industry innovators who have agreed to speak at the second annual Cloud Analytics Summit on Thursday, May 2 in New York City.

These executives will join Jeanette Horan, IBM’s CIO; Bill Krivoshik, SVP/CIO at Time Warner; Michael Hickins, Senior Editor, Wall Street Journal CIO Journal; Stephen David Spears, SVP, Application, ADI & IT Management, SAP AG; and Dr. Irving Wladawsky-Berger, Strategic Advisor and 37-year veteran at IBM, as speakers at the peer-to-peer networking event.

The Cloud Analytics Summit is a one-day, executive forum focused on the latest innovations which are enabling organizations of all sizes to address their Big Data, Business Intelligence (BI) and Data Integration challenges in the Cloud.

In addition to the leading innovators who are speaking at the Summit, a growing number of IT and corporate decision-makers from prominent businesses are also registering … 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 »