TimeTrade Systems 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.

TimeTrade Systems is a provider of SaaS-based, customer self-service appointment scheduling solutions for enterprises and individuals.

TimeTrade’s Enterprise Scheduling Application, TESA, provides large organizations, who must schedule thousands of appointments a year, the ability to provide self-service or assisted-service scheduling through SaaS.
 
An example of the business benefits of TimeTrade’s SaaS solution is Bosley, the leader in surgical hair restoration. The company has over 100 patient service representatives (PSRs) and must schedule more than 9,000 appointments per month at 88 offices through a single call center. For each appointment, the schedules of 26 physicians and 50 senior counselors’ have to be coordinated.
 
Bosley implemented an on-premise version of Siebel for CRM … Read More »

Among my predictions for 2009, was that the new Obama administration would push legislation and take other initiatives to promote Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and cloud computing as part of its overhaul of the government and economic stimulus efforts.

Sure enough, Obama’s new CIO–Vivek Kundra–made it clear yesterday that he is a big proponent of SaaS and cloud computing. Here’s what he said to the Wall Street Journal,

“I’m a big believer in disruptive technology. If I went to the coffee shop, I would have more computing power than the police department. Consumers had better technology than the government did. I’m all about the cloud computing notion. I look at my lifestyle, and I want access to information wherever I am. I am killing projects that don’t investigate software as a service first.”

Support for SaaS and cloud computing isn’t only coming from the top … Read More »

Savvis, Inc. has been named the first managed services 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 by THINKstrategies to bring attention to SaaS and cloud computing companies which are producing tangible business benefits for specific user organizations, including increased sales, lower costs, higher customer satisfaction, faster operations, and greater profitability.

Savvis is an outsourcing provider of managed computing and network infrastructure for IT applications. A case example of the business benefits of Savvis’ services is Wall Street Systems, a provider of treasury, trading and settlement software, which decided in 2006 to make a strategic shift in direction and move from a standard licensing model to the new SaaS delivery model.

Click here to learn more … Read More »

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 »