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 »

Xactly’s announcement today that it is acquiring Centive is another indication of the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) industry shakeout and consolidation I predicted would occur in 2009.

Xactly and Centive have been fierce competitors in the sales performance management (SPM) market with both offering pure SaaS alternatives to traditional on-premise software applications.

While both companies were growing as a result of accelerating customer interest and adoption of SaaS, they also found themselves competing more with each other than the established players. Rather than continue to fight one another, they decided to combine forces to better position themselves and capitalize on growing customer demand.

This decision was especially timely given the challenges of today’s economic climate and intensifying competition.

While both companies offer solid solutions with compelling value-propositions, combining their technical capabilities and eliminating the costs of continued head-to-head competition can strengthen Xactly’s position as ‘legacy’ software players escalate their own SaaS efforts.

You can expect … Read More »

CrownPeak was named the first winner of the new Best of SaaS Showplace (BoSS) Awards program today.

The BoSS Awards are the only industry awards aimed at promoting the measurable business benefits being delivered by today’s Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions. Unlike other programs which focus on technical innovation, the BoSS Awards emphasize tangible business benefits.

The BoSS Awards program was launched by THINKstrategies earlier this month 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.

CrownPeak is a Content Management System (CMS) provider that offers a SaaS solution which helps customers accelerate their Web publishing and better manage their web content. The School of the Museum of Fine Arts (SMFA) in Boston, MA, chose CrownPeak’s Content Management System (CMS) to gain greater control over its website to … Read More »

Platforms have been proliferating and it is not surprising that there are already signs we may be on the cusp of a shakeout.

Today’s platform players range from start-ups, like Bungee Labs, to Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and cloud computing movement standard-bearers, Salesforce.com and Google with Force.com and Google App Engine respectively.

This has created a somewhat confusing array of players and platform alternatives which have been divided into various segments.

This week’s announcement about Salesforce.com’s new “Service Cloud” illustrates the way SaaS vendors are leveraging platforms to redefine their business in order to extend their market reach and strengthen their position in the marketplace.

SpringCM is heading down this same path with its new platform which enables independent developers and resellers to build applications or more easily integrate to SpringCM’s electronic content management (ECM) capabilities.

Platforms enable these vendors to convert their internal technologies into development and delivery mechanisms which can be … Read More »

Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and cloud computing are often referred to as ‘on-demand’ services. Yet, in many cases these web-based solutions must be procured for a minimum timeframe, can take time to deploy, and cannot be terminated immediately when their task is done.

In response to these shortcomings, a new array of ‘situational applications’ are emerging. Jonathan Sapir of SilverTree Systems has become an advocate of these situational applications and has created a website which promotes them called, Power in the Cloud.

Jonathan invited me to contribute a guest post to the blog on his site about the business implications of situational applications which you can find here…

I received a message today from Khalid Noor Mohammed, a consultant based in Saudi Arabia, not only complementing me on my commentaries regarding Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), but also sharing two links of his discussion on Saudi TV regarding the concept of SaaS and its business benefits,

Khalid Noor Mohammed on SaaS (Part 1)
Khalid Noor Mohammed on SaaS (Part 2)

Khalid’s videos got me thinking about the power of video to simplify complex concepts and make them easier for non-technical people to comprehend. This is especially important with relatively intangible ideas like SaaS, and even more so with ‘cloud computing’.

Here are a couple of other videos which I’ve found which do a terrific job of explaining these ideas,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGUPSvswmY0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJncFirhjPg

While these videos may seem trivial to many IT professionals ensconsced in SaaS and cloud computing on a daily basis, I believe that videos are increasingly useful marketing tools … Read More »

I’ve just returned from two days in a chilly Florida where I was participating in a sales kickoff meeting for an independent software vendor (ISV) that is preparing to add a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) component to its portfolio.

I’ve presented to plenty of sales teams about SaaS, cloud computing and managed services, what made this session unique was that this ISV isn’t planning on rolling out its new SaaS solutions for another 9-10 months.

To the credit of the company’s management team, they know that it will take a long time to fully prepare the sales team to properly sell their new SaaS solutions.

Especially, because they’ve been successfully selling the value of their legacy, on-premise applications against a competitor’s “ASP” solution for the past five years.

While the company was confident that it has employed the latest in Web 2.0 technologies and techniques to … Read More »

I had the privilege of moderating a fascinating panel session at the SIIA On-Demand Conference this past November entitled, “Systems Integrators: A Firsthand, Face-to-Face View on the State of SaaS”.

The panel consisted of three experienced professionals in the systems integration (SI) business,

Chris Barbin, CEO, Appirio
Cary Fulbright, President, North America Operations, Saaspoint
Lonnie Wills, Senior Vice President, CIO Practice, Bluewolf

The SIIA recently posted a video of this session on their site. Click here to watch the discussion.