No one likes spam, and least of all JangoMail, a SaaS-based email marketing tool that helps its customers get their legitimate messages into their spam-weary customers' inboxes. The idea of an email marketing tool via SaaS sounded interesting, so I sent some questions over to JangoMail CEO Ajay Goel. The Ohio-based company launched additional reporting features for the JangoMail tool a few days ago.

Please provide a profile of a typical target customer and the reasons why they would look into something like JangoMail.
 
Goel: A typical customer is a medium sized business that sends between 20,000 and 50,000 e-mail messages per month.  The customer would outsource this to a Web-based solution such as JangoMail in order to avoid having to maintain an e-mail infrastructure in-house, minimize the load on their own Internet connection, take advantage of reporting and analytics that would otherwise not be available with an installed-software solution, and take advantage of an outside firm's e-mail deliverability expertise.
 
What is the importance of direct access to SMTP log files? Can potential email marketers determine what the user did with the email after delivery (ie., was it delivered but deleted unread, filed into a junk mail folder, etc.)?
 
Goel: Direct access to SMTP log files allows users to assess deliverability issues by themselves.  If a user sends a test e-mail message to himself, but he does not receive it, he can access the SMTP log file for his test message to see what went wrong in the communication between JangoMail's e-mail sending server and his own receiving e-mail server.  The SMTP log file provides very specific information about the communication between the two servers, and will show whether an e-mail message was accepted or denied for a particular reason. 

A denial could be for any number of reasons, such as too many images in the content of the e-mail, which makes the message look too "spammy.”  E-mail marketers can certainly determine what a recipient did with an e-mail after receiving it.  One can determine if the e-mail was opened, whether a particular link in an e-mail was clicked, whether the e-mail message was forwarded, and whether the e-mail message resulted in a purchase on the customer's Web site.  One cannot, however, determine, if an e-mail message was deleted or filed into the Junk Mail folder.
 
How does this work as a SaaS tool? Please offer a basic outline of the technological process.
 
Goel: By virtue of being a Web-based tool that is constantly being improved, JangoMail is a SaaS tool.  Users login at www.JangoMail.com and from the Web interface upload and manage their e-mail lists, author their e-mail campaigns, send their campaigns, and view reporting information.  All of the actual e-mail messages are sent through JangoMail's servers.  The use of JangoMail does not affect a client's own corporate e-mail servers, nor does JangoMail do any monitoring of its clients’ own corporate e-mail servers.

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It looks like SearchCIO.com has an interesting piece with reader feedback to a comparison of the SaaS model to the application service provider model. In the piece, the SearchCIO.com editors basically posed the question to readers as to whether the SaaS market was really viable at this point. Should potential buyers wait for a market shakeout, especially since SaaS is still sort of an emerging technology?

Readers pretty much agreed that the SaaS model is here to stay (duh). Although it might not take over the world, the SaaS model fulfills a definite need and can provide a viable option for many companies.

Some readers questioned the comparison of ASP to SaaS, pointing out that ASP had a much higher initial expense and that SaaS has a better value proposition. In addition, one reader claimed that ASPs were undifferentiated and correctly pointed out that SaaS providers have different propositions.

What do you think? I think we should be beyond the point of wondering if SaaS is here to stay by now, but could there be merit to the idea that waiting to implement SaaS until the market is more stable and the vendor shakedown has taken place?

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Headlines today have swirled around Oceanport, N.J.-based CommVault's announcement that it would offer a Remote Operations Management Service for small and medium businesses (SMBs) as a subscription-based SaaS offering.

CommVault thinks the system is the industry's first integration monitoring and support service. IDC's Doug Chandler pointed out that the system could reduce staffing costs for off-hours and weekends, as well as meet and exceed service-level agreements. The press release is here.

Beth Pariseau at SearchStorage.com covered the news, quoting Lauren Whitehouse of Enterprise Strategy Group, who said, "Six dollars a month per client as opposed to the cost of an employee, especially on nights, weekends and holidays. . .if you think about what you'd have to pay staff to work on those days, seems like it's pretty affordable."

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In an article on Silicon.com, Quocirca's Bob Tarzey makes some interesting observations about the trumped up war between on-premise and on-demand software.

Although some companies like Salesforce.com proclaim that SaaS will eventually bring on the "death of software," most companies are a little bit less into the ideological wars behind software delivery modes and tend to just look for the right tool for the job. I definitely agree that SaaS isn't about to take over the world and be the tool of choice for every situation, at least not in the near future.

But the thing I don't quite agree with is that very many situations exist where you need on-premise software out of principle, such as is Microsoft's assertion behind its "software plus services" initiative. Yes, sometimes the SaaS based alternatives don't offer necessary features for a particular need or a company might have extreme concerns about data security or similar issues. However, that's not because of an inherent superiority of locally installing applications vs. accessing them through a browser. I would imagine that, over time, as technology advances that most limitations of the SaaS delivery model will be overcome. Whether that means everything will be through SaaS in the future is something I do not know, but I just am not seeing why companies would always need something more than a Web browser to have real software functionality.

What do you think? Are there instances where on-premise software will be always necessary even as the technology evolves? Please post comments below.

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Yesterday, I noticed a blog post on Techworld.com in which writer Chris Mellor had noticed a job posting for a senior product manager for an EMC SaaS effort called EMC Fortress, in which the storage company wanted to find someone to help "drive EMC's entry into Software-as-a-Service" and to define "compelling features for the Fortress SaaS platform."

Today, the not unexpected news seems to have been confirmed. Computerworld reports that EMC today is unveiling the first offering in that product line, called MozyEnterprise. MozyEnterprise will be a subscription-based SaaS backup and recovery service for remote PCs, said Computerworld, combining three Mozy online backup products called MozyHome, MozyPro, and MozyEnterprise that the company gained by acquiring Berkeley Data Systems last September.

In a blog on InfoWorld, Bill Snyder concludes that the Mozy offering doesn't look overly exciting, but the move does say something about the current pace of the software business.

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In an interesting bit of news, Software-as-a-Service office application offering Zoho has picked up a "Crunchy" award as the best enterprise startup company. The Crunchies are a new event -- TechCrunch has a wrapup here.

The endorsement shows that SaaS-based office applications are really starting to gain more recognition. Zoho offers a word processing tool, a spreadsheet application, a presentation tool, Web conferencing...basically the entire spectrum of office applications through a browser.

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The news of the day seems to be Salesforce.com's announcement of a new service that it calls DaaS, or Development-as-a-Service, through its Force.com Cloud Computing Architecture. With the new service and pricing model, customers will be able to access development tools and APIs of the Force.com platform (which is also as a service) through cloud computing with a pay-per-login pricing model.

Other than adding yet another -aaS acronym to our list, how important was the announcement? It's hard to say, given that media reports have the tools in developer preview only without a final version release date -- but InfoWorld points out that it should make collaboration among developers easier.

Vnunet quotes analyst David Dorbin of B2B Analysts as being more skeptical, but Dorbin believed that selling developers on the idea would be an uphill battle -- saying that for every one business that develops on Salesforce, 200 do not.

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In a blog post on silicon.com, Dale Vile says yes, the bandwagon is rolling for SaaS, but companies are hesitant to turn everything over to SaaS -- nothing we haven't heard before.

He then goes on to outline the usual arguments. Businesses don't want to turn over their data to a third-party and they worry about security when the data sits outside the company's four walls.

But then Vile raises another interesting point that SaaS can take upgrade control out of customers' hands. He recounts how a demonstration of an application showed significant new functionality that would boost his business, but because of the nature of the SaaS application, it would be months before the upgrade would be rolled out -- and nothing could be done for Vile's company to access the new functionality before that. As of the writing, it had been six months and would be another three months for the service upgrade -- so Vile's company began looking for an alternative provider that could offer the functionality more quickly.

This led to a lesson that before committing to any SaaS application that customers should make sure they are "on the same page as the provider" for upgrade philosophy and practice, and he pointed out that new releases from faster moving providers could be a distraction for companies that want stability.

I thought Vile raised some interesting points that haven't been discussed as much in SaaS media. What do you think? Is there any way for SaaS vendors to keep everyone happy?

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BPM is one of those technologies that everyone’s talking about, given that the latest innovations are able to streamline management of business processes. Appian is a company that hopes to help manage BPM through SaaS, which is obviously another much talked about technology. I recently got some answers about Appian’s SaaS offerings from George Barlow, the VP and general manager for Appian Anywhere.

Q. What are the benefits of handling BPM via the SaaS delivery mode as compared to on-premise installed software?

A. Customers and prospects tell us that BPM/SaaS product offerings provide many SaaS benefits including:

• Reduced project risk by minimizing up-front capital investments
  
• Rapid ROI from fast deployment and pay-as-you-go pricing
  
• Linear cost scaling
  
• BPM/SaaS vendor experts perform configuration, tuning and maintenance
  
• Typically better reliability, security and interoperability than on-premise systems
  
• No on-going human capital costs for on-premise data center operations
  
• No on-going traditional on-premise software and hardware maintenance fees
  
• Consistently lower TOC versus on-premise solutions
  
• Freedom to focus on core business with scarce IT resources
  
• Frequent software updates/patches without business disruptions
  
• Lower training and desktop configuration management costs
  
• Single integrated platform for all subscribers
  
• Single set of standards simplifies interoperability
  
• Common architecture optimizes performance inter/intra enterprise
  
• Increases available pool of trained consultants and employees
  
• Supports SOA, Web Services and reusable business logic
  
• Allows inter/intra enterprise collaboration and process execution
  
• Can easily integrate with other SaaS applications (salesforce.com, etc.)
  
• Can easily integrate with enterprise systems (PeopleSoft, SAP, etc.)
  
• Provides a low-cost global delivery channel for pre-built application solutions
  

• Enterprise – 40%
  
• Departmental and sub-enterprise groups – 30%
  
• Solution-provider partners – 30%
  

• Enterprise – 30%
• Departmental and sub-enterprise groups – 55%
• Solution-provider partners – 15%

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Last month, I heard from David Rice, the author of Geekonomics: The Real Cost of Insecure Software. Given that many people out there point the finger at SaaS crying over security concerns, I thought it would be interesting to see what Rice had to say about SaaS security.

In an interview with Rice that is now posted on the ebizQ site, Rice commented on whether hosting data outside a company's four walls poses a major security concern. He also addressed the adequacy of the SAS 70 type II certification in guaranteeing SaaS security, and he talked about phishing concerns with SaaS applications.

Rice had some interesting and possibly controversial things to say about SaaS. If you haven't already, take a look at the interview and post your comments below!

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In reading the always plentiful end-of-year stories in the IT media, I came across an article in SD Times called "Eleven Trends from 2007." The article listed several themes from 2007 in the IT world, including the security risks of Web 2.0, the rise of dynamic languages, and other interesting trends.

One trend in the article was the disconnect between SaaS and SOA and mashups. Writer Alan Zeichek points out that many organizations don't recognize the differences among the technologies. Zeichek pointed out that vendors see SOA as a strategy but enterprises view it as a "tactical integration methodology." He then points out that analysts are building up SaaS as a new world paradigm whereas enterprises view it as a "tactical, case-by-case decision." And then no one really even knows what mashups are.

I thought this was an interesting claim. I've often seen SOA and SaaS written of together in the same articles, but they don't seem to be much related except that they both have an S that stands for Service. And mashups do seem to be related to SOA, but not so much to SaaS unless a SaaS application were to offer that functionality.

What do you think? Are organizations confused about the differences among these technologies? (Remember that in ebizQ's most recent SOA in Action virtual conference that analysts Joe McKendrick, Phil Wainewright, and Dana Gardner held a discussion about this very subject.)

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