August 2007 Archives

Over the past few days, a couple of blog posts have addressed the issue of reliability of Web-based applications. John C. Dvorak of PC Magazine cited the example of Windows Genuine Advantage's weekend outage in which Microsoft's WGA server was... Read More..

In a two-part series, CRMBuyer's Erika Morphy reported on best practices for companies considering a SaaS implementation. Starting with a needs assessment and close look at the market is best, obviously, but then in part two of the article she... Read More..

The buzz around SAP's A1S product is increasing. Reportedly, the product will use the SaaS model for ERP and CRM applications with SMBs being the target. Reportedly, SAP is set to unveil A1S on September 19, a move that is... Read More..

Framingham, Mass.-based CoreBlox calls itself "the pioneer in Channel Management Solutions." The company's core offering is products and services that use the software-as-a-service approach to offer a platform for support across the channel. To get an idea of how this... Read More..

In Computer Dealer News, reporter Paolo Del Nibletto comments on Microsoft's newly announced hybrid SaaS business model, which it calls "Software+Services." The initiative is a channel partner program based on three delivery models: on-premise, hosted by partners, or hosted by... Read More..

IBM yesterday announced its plans to purchase SaaS Web conferencing vendor WebDialogs. According to Clint Boulton of eWeek Channel Insider, the move is evidence of how large high-tech enterprises and startups are both vying for a chunk of the online... Read More..

In a press release yesterday, information security company ComSec Inc. announced it had released a free "heatmap" that allows companies to graphically evaluate security of numerous SaaS vendors. Obviously security is a key concern for any organization considering a software-as-a-service... Read More..

On Monday Business Objects and Thomson Financial announced they would partner to offer customers packaged information about markets that is ready for analysis upon delivery. Thomson Finacial president Matthew Burkley had this to say in the press release: The relationship... Read More..

The big news in the SaaS space today was Walnut Creek, Calif.-based Workday Inc.'s release of the beta of Workday Financials. The company calls this the first on-demand alternative to ERP and an entirely new model for helping companies to... Read More..

Oliver Rist of InfoWorld points out in a new article that for SMBs, Software as a Service and other hosted software setups have enormous benefits for SMBs in cost reduction. SaaS eliminates many key maintenance costs that could potentially be... Read More..

ZDNet Asia reported on a speech by Microsoft Thailand's Fukiat Julnual about how Microsoft views SaaS. Fukiat pointed out that Microsoft's policy is not to compete with its partners and that the company does not intend to become a Google... Read More..

Rob Meinhardt of KACE wrote a commentary on ebizQ.net about a new kid in town to share the spotlight with SaaS: Appliance-based Software Delivery. The article points out that the rise of SaaS was originally fueled by the mid-market, and... Read More..

GigaOM's Allan Leinwand says service providers are taking notice of hte money to be made in delivering a myriad of services over the Internet. He points out that service providers have a habit of arriving late to a market and... Read More..

IndustryWeek posted an interesting examination of how SaaS has "grown up" and entered life beyond CRM. Obviously Salesforce.com was a major pioneer in the Software-as-a-Service delivery model, but nowadays far more than CRM is available through SaaS delivery -- even... Read More..

In the First Look podcast series, we recently spoke to John Delaney of eVision. EVision's MessageXchange.com solution is an interesting approach to handling integration and business process management through the SaaS model, and John had some interesting things to say... Read More..

With it being earnings time, it's interesting to see so many SaaS vendors reporting good earnings. eWeek has analysts predicting good earnings for Salesforce.com, and companies like QuickArrow, Smart Online, Sputnik, Innuity, and others are also reporting good growth. Analysts... Read More..

In a guest commentary on GCN, WebEx president of products and operations Gary Griffiths offered up a few interesting points on why some government information technology managers are shunning software-as-a-service applications and other on-demand service offerings. "If the government does... Read More..

CRM Buyer recently had two interesting articles on SaaS for CRM. The first, 10 Advantages of SaaS for the Call Center, laid out some benefits to choosing SaaS over traditional software, such as faster time to market, scalability, better control... Read More..

David Linthicum recently had some interesting things to say about how the evolution of PaaS (Platform-as-a-Service) relates to SaaS. The movement to service-based applications, to virtualization or outsourcing, and increased acceptance of on-demand computing are changing some fundamental ideas about... Read More..

An RBC Capital Markets survey reported by IT World Canada said that more than a quarter of IT managers from around the globe like the software-as-a-service model and an almost equal percentage are considering SaaS adoption. The numbers were drawn... Read More..

Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) compliance can be a major headache for any company, and Crown Holdings Inc. is no exception. Until now, the packaging product supplier had been handling SOX compliance manually. But now they're turning to Business Intelligence International for help... Read More..

Microsoft Project may dominate the market, but a San Mateo, Calif.-based company called Projity Inc. is hoping to change that with its free release of its project on-demand service called OpenProj. ComputerWorld reports that the company is owrking on getting... Read More..

Joshua Greenbaum, ZDNet's Enterprise Anti-matter blogger, had an interesting take on the upcoming IPO of SuccessFactors, a San Mateo, California company that offers SaaS-based performance management software. Calling SuccessFactors "the latest poster-child for SaaS," Greenbaum looked at the company's S-1... Read More..

A new forecast by Gartner has SaaS dominating the market by 2011. The Gartner report predicts an annual growth rate of 22.1% through 2011, more than double the growth expected in the overall enterprise software market, with well over half... Read More..

CRN reported today some interesting survey results from the VARBusiness 2007 State of Technology Survey on Business Software. Participants were asked about the biggest obstacles to selling Software-as-a-Service applications and the most common concerns were trust and security, client resistance... Read More..

James Taylor: I had an interesting call with Aaron from SeaTab last week. SeaTab is a SaaS BI vendor focused on retail, CBG and supply chain. Aaron was briefing folks as SeaTab had a new release out - we did... Read More..