Following OpSource's announcement earlier this morning of its SaaS integration solution OpSource Connect, Cast Iron Systems has also announced integration appliances for OpSource Connect. Cast Iron's senior vice president of marketing and strategy, Simon Peel, had this to say about the product:

“The significance of OpSource Connect and the new Cast Iron solution for OpSource is that for the first time, SaaS ISVs and companies using web-based applications can rapidly and seamlessly integrate their on-demand applications with on-premise business systems -- with no software. Elimating the need to purchase, install, and maintain multiple software components, Cast Iron is expediting the adoption of SaaS applications throughout the extended enterprise. Adopting SaaS is a strategic action that more and more high-growth companies are taking. Using the combined OpSource and Cast Iron solutions quickly turns that action into bottom line results.”

Boomi has also announced that its offering Boomi On-Demand will be embedded into OpSource Connect.

In other news from OpSource SaaS Summit, which is having its final day today, Network World blogger Mitchell Ashley posted a report musing on how SaaS is creating so many entrepreneurs. He mentions a company that has created a SaaS-based time clock tool to replace the old punch cards and how anything that encourages the entrepreneurial spirit is usually a good thing.

Also interestingly, Rene Ferguson of eWeek posts a report from a session hosted by Phil Wainewright in which the audience seemed to be less than enthusiastic about Salesforce.com's Force.com. Ferguson reports how attendees seemed far more interested in building their own platforms (or having someone host them) than in adopting Force.com when the moderators conducted an audience poll.

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OpSource has announced a new product at its annual OpSource SaaS Summit today called OpSource Connect. Below is a 9:38 minute podcast about the product.

If you're interested in this news, be sure to sign up for ebizQ's SOA and Web 2.0 roundtable discussion on March 19.

Listen to the entire podcast Download file

I'm ebizQ's Krissi Danielsson. Santa Clara, Calif.-based OpSource is a company that specializes in operational infrastructure and application services products that facilitate delivery of on-demand and software as a service applications. Today, February 29 2008, at its annual OpSource SaaS Summit, OpSource has announced a new product called OpSource Connect that will facilitate behind-the-scenes SaaS integration.

Joining us today to talk about OpSource Connect is OpSource CEO Treb Ryan. Now Treb, can I start by asking about the rationale behind the decision to create OpSource Connect and what problem it will solve in the marketplace?

TR: OpSource Connect is a direct response to requests that have come from our customers. I mean their businesses have grown. More and more of the rationale or the implementation of Software-as-a-Service applications have grown beyond just siloed applications used by individual users or organizations. What they now need to integrate with a wide variety of other Software-as-a-Service applications as well as behind the firewall legacy applications for the enterprises they’re installing into.

OpSource Connect allows our customers to use the OpSource Services Bus, the same multi-tenant enterprise services both have OpSource uses to provide a variety of Web services to its customers, to provide their own application as a Web service, and to integrate with a wide variety of other OpSource Service Bus applications, other OpSource applications, third-party Web services such as Salesforce and NetSuite and behind the firewall applications such as QuickBook -- QuickBooks, SAP, and Sage.

KD: Okay. Previous to the release of OpSource Connect, how would companies typically have had to handle these integration challenges?

TR: Each company would need to do this on their own, become their own Web services platform for making this happen. So each company would go out and create its own Web services API and then integrate one one-to-one to each other application they were looking to integrate to.

So a company would have to go out and -- and -- and take the time to create its own Web services API to setup all of the elements necessary to make that happen and then do a point-to-point integration for each separate application they wanted to integrate with whether it was OpSource application such as Analytics or Billing, another third-party Web service application such as Salesforce, or for behind the firewall they would need to integrate with individual applications behind the firewall.

KD: Do you have any kind of figures about what kind of savings and ROI companies might be able to expect from using this versus doing it the old way?

TR: Obviously, the write once integrate many times, the OpSource Connect allows our customers -- saves on each additional integration. But that’s really not the focus of why companies are looking to implement these types of integration capabilities and Web service capabilities back into their applications. The focus on more than savings is really revenue.

KD: Okay.

TR: The customer base today and -- and -- and our, you know, our research -- what we’re hearing back from our customers and what we’re hearing out in the market is integration has largely surpassed security as the number one concern for large enterprises when implementing Software-as-a-Service from the IT perspective.

The applications have great user adoption and IT have become comfortable with the security level of these applications, especially, with all the recent compliance measures that these types of applications have taken. But now, they’re wondering how they integrated back into the rest of their enterprise. And -- and not having a -- a compelling answer for -- for these enterprises has really become a -- a sales stumbling block many Software-as-a-Service companies.

KD: Okay. So if a company were interested in implementing OpSource Connect, what does the implementation look like in time and effort that is required to get it up and running?

TR: Well, OpSource Connect will require the company to be able to expose their application as a Web service for the integration onto the OpSource Services Bus. The process of exposing that application as a Web service depends on how the application was originally architected. Many of our customers already have that capability right out of the gate. Companies like Ribit and [inaudible] designed with Web services in mind and it can be -- be immediately integrated onto the OpSource Services Bus with very little effort.

For those companies who need to take the time to add a new code into their application and scale their application to actually implement a Web Services API effectively, we are going to be offering in the Spring the Web Services Enablement Program where an OpSource person or our partners will work with our customers in order to do the necessary coding and programming to make sure their API works in -- in a general Web services environment.

KD: So is there anything else that you think that listeners should know about OpSource Connect at this time?

TR: Well, the industry is definitely moving towards these types of corporate Mashups or composite applications where data from multiple locations and interfaces from multiple locations come into play in a single application environment for a customer. We seen this out in the consumer world already with Mashups that include Google Maps or F8 doing, you know, Facebook applications.

But up to now, those environments haven’t really been suitable for an enterprise type integration. Besides the tools necessary to bring in corporate applications, those environments haven’t put all the appropriate pieces in place that are -- that we expect from enterprise level fast. With OpSource Services Bus and OpSource Connect, you’re getting many of the best benefits of OpSource in that type of environment, meaning that it’s an open platform, it’s based on SOAP and REST protocols, it’s completely scalable.

We’re already able to handle millions of transactions over -- over the OpSource Services Bus with OpSource Connect. It’s reliable. You get the same SOA type of guarantee you get with any OpSource application which is a 100 percent application availability, and it’s secure and compliant. All OpSource Connect applications and OpSource Services receive the same compliance that any OpSource application, meaning that it’s SAS 70 Type II certified, its PCI Level I, meaning you can put financial and credit card data over these Web services transactions.

It’s European Safe Harbor for our customers who are doing business in Europe. It can HIPPA for customers who have medical -- medical applications. Finally, with OpSource Billing, you’re going to actually bill and meter for those transactions and turn these into the businesses. It’s a real opportunity right out of the gate. So we think the OpSource Connect is the first Web services integration environment that not only provides the tools necessary to make this happen but does it in a way that’s sufficient for the enterprise and can really be put into corporate environments.

KD: All right. That sounds good and should give people a good preview of what to expect. Do you have any general thoughts about key Software-as-a-Service trends over the coming year or two?

TR: Obviously, we see -- obviously, we see Software-as-a-Service uptake and continuing at a accelerating pace. The next generation of users coming into the enterprise are very, very Web-centric and they’re going to expect that the applications they use at work are like the applications they’ve used growing up, Web-based collaborative, interactive applications that often bring in data and information from multiple sources and locations.

That said, what’s really driving this market then is -- is less the individual applications now and their ability to work with each other. Our SaaS Summit is occurring as we speak, it’s about platforms and integration and Web services; these are the elements that companies are going to be addressing as they scale their business.

The opportunities are fantastic because good Web service platforms can not only add more functionality into the application and reduce the integration headache for their customers; they open new -- new channels through Web-based system integrators who can Mashup multiple Web applications and corporate applications for the enterprise customer.

This is really going to speed the adoption of Software-as-a-Service as it works well with not only other Web applications, but now will work well with corporations existing, in-house applications and third-party client server applications to really get a consistent hold for those organizations and this is really going to allow Software-as-a-Service to sell even bigger deals for bigger types of companies.

KD: All right. We've been talking with OpSource CEO Treb Ryan about OpSource Connect, a newly announced integration product for SaaS providers. Remember, for more on Web 2.0, SaaS, SOA and other enterprise technologies, you can visit www.ebizq.net. Thanks for listening and have a great day!

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Today Google has announced that it is relaunching JotSpot as Google Sites, a new Web 2.0 tool for creating fast collaborative websites internally or externally in an organization. Google posted a press release as well as a blog post where it explained the decision and offered a video walkthrough of the product.

Scott Campbell of CRN's ChannelWeb responded to the news with a post on how the new offering would be taking aim at Microsoft SharePoint -- and the post generated more than a dozen reader feedback comments, with some readers saying they would at least consider abandoning SharepPoint for Google Sites.

David Chartier of Ars Technica also noted the potential competition with SharePoint but offered an interesting review of the product, pointing out that although Google Sites is officially part of Google Apps, the product doesn't actually integrate well with other Google offerings.

CMS Watch's TrendWatch blog was outrightly skeptical and deemed Google Sites a beta application that was "hardly a SharePoint killer."

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Last night was the official start of the OpSource SaaS Summit 2008. The main events and keynotes begin today, and a company called Rollbase got the action started with the launch of another beta PaaS product (PaaS seems to be a new big thing). The platform is delivered via OpSource On-Demand.

Today will see keynotes delivered by Greg Urquhart, GM of US ISV and SI Partner Businesses with Microsoft, and Josh James, CEO and co-founder of Omniture. William McNee of Saugatuck Research will also deliver a presentation, and then the event will continue with panel discussions and afternoon track sessions.

The event is a nice conclusion to an eventful month for OpSource in which it acquired its billing partner LeCayla and was also selected as a finalist for the 2008 SIAA CODiE Awards for the best on-demand platform.

In unrelated but important news, NetSuite has also announced the release of a new Business Operating System offering that will be delivered through SaaS.

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Ed Sullivan, CEO of Aria Systems, says SaaS companies could learn a thing or two from an unlikely source -- the video gaming industry. Only now, he says, are some SaaS providers realizing they may not want to build their own billing systems. Sullivan shared some comments about this concept with SaaS Week. (Aria is an on-demand billing provider that is a platinum sponsor of OpSource's SaaS Summit 2008 this week.)

What kind of technological challenges are involved in building a billing solution (why would companies need to outsource this?)

Sullivan: There are several technological challenges inherent in building a billing solution.  Three particularly stubborn challenges include:  flexibility, scale and security compliance.
 
When companies first perceive their need for a billing system, they typically have simple requirements which might be easily met with an accounting package and merchant account.   As companies grow and begin to differentiate or expand their services, these cobbled together “back offices” rarely provide future flexibility to meet more complex requirements.  Companies tend to get stuck when their pricing becomes more dynamic, they need to manage partners and resellers, support global expansion, or extend their product lines with new offerings.  
 
Accurately predicting the scale requirements for a back office is a challenging technical problem that quickly bleeds into a financial problem if not handled appropriately.  If underestimated, capacity issues lead to unhappy or abandoned customers driving up costs of support and acquisition.  If overestimated, companies are burdened with a cost structure which at best negatively impacts their margins and at worst can be financially fatal.  By outsourcing this with a scalable “on-demand” provider offering a “pay as you grow” model, companies are able to hedge their bets with both scenarios.  
 
Security and compliance are particularly important when dealing with end user (consumer or business) information.  They are broad technical and business process issues and can impact several parts of an organization.  The certification processes alone can take several quarters to complete and be a drain on internal technical resources – not to mention the financial commitment to obtain such certifications.  A company like Aria provides the required certifications and manages the ongoing compliance.

What limitations do companies typically have in their own billing systems that lead them to seek a better solution?

Sullivan: One issue that is cropping up frequently is a lack of flexibility with regards to dynamic monetization schemes.  Most existing billing systems were designed to manage the requirements for the telecommunications industry and can only handle usage billing for calls or data services.  They can’t easily support the full range of transaction management for software transactions, subscription based seat licenses or handle other business processes such as provisioning and account CRM which are still required even if the service is free.  And, this problem is only complicated when a SaaS provider wants to change their pricing or subscription basis from, say, flat rate to usage based billing.  In-house or traditional billing solutions are not built for dynamic pricing and monetization.

Why was the gaming industry ahead of the game in this area?

Sullivan: Gaming companies have certainly been leaders in creating new methods of monetization and responding to consumer demands.  The emergence of business models where virtual goods and services are monetized in ways which cross the boundaries between the real and virtual has been pioneering and directly related to a player demand. I think business users of SaaS applications will demand similar flexibility in their acquisition and use of enterprise applications.  SaaS companies will constrain their businesses if they rely on the capabilities of their back-office applications.  Remember, tomorrow’s enterprise IT buyer/user is today’s gamer. 

Do these trends have overall ramifications for SaaS?

Sullivan: I think SaaS companies  could benefit by taking heed to the arrows the gaming and telecommunication pioneers have in their backs.  Build for scale - but do it intelligently by outsourcing non-core capabilities.  Assume that user requirements will be dynamic -  and traditional billing will constrain the business.  And, manage security and compliance by looking for external support and resources who are focused on protecting sensitive consumer and business information.

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San Mateo, Calif.-based LucidEra is a company that offers business analytics solutions via an on-demand platform. Last week, LucidEra issued a press release about a new tool for Oracle Order Management users. Ken Rudin, CEO of LucidEra, shared some thoughts with SaaS Week about the new releases and the future of ERP as a service.

What are the key improvements in LucidEra's winter releases?
      
Rudin: One is enhancements to LucidEra Enterprise and LucidEra for Salesforce.com include the ability to schedule the delivery of dynamic reports via email, greater configuration for our platform’s ability to take snapshots of opportunities as they move through your pipeline,  and tighter integration with Salesforce.com. We’ve also introduced a new Analytics Gallery designed to make it easy to access and share analytics best practices. The second is a new on-demand analytic application called LucidEra for Oracle Order Management. This is a path to SaaS for Oracle E-Business Suite customers. 

What was the market need behind the new on-demand solution that led to its conception/development?

Rudin: Business Intelligence has always been too complex, costly, and time consuming. The result is that only companies with large IT organizations and consulting dollars could afford the investment. And once they manage to implement the disparate hardware and software, they lack the expertise to actually use these complicated tools…not to mention the upgrade process every couple of years. LucidEra is delivering simple to set up, simple to use, and simple to buy business analytics as an on-demand service. We’re delivering prebuilt analytic applications that address specific business challenges, such as pipeline management, and our customers are achieving new levels of visibility thanks to the ability to get answers from their transactional data, not just static reports and not by building an on-premise data warehouse.

Do you think the trend of moving ERP to SaaS is going to pick up the same steam as SaaS-based CRM?

Rudin: Yes. SaaS applications are becoming more aligned with business process. We’re pioneering the market shift to business analytics as a service which we think is happening at a faster pace than transactional ERP systems.

Any opinions on the rumor that's been circulating about Salesforce.com approaching Oracle about an acquisition (is it all hogwash and even if so, would it be a good move for either company)?

Rudin: These rumors circulate around our industry so often that it's impossible to tell what's real and what isn't.  But, I think it would be better for Salesforce.com to remain independent.  It's really hard to combine the on-demand model with the traditional enterprise software model.  The risk is that the clashing business models could be fatal for Salesforce.com.

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Jason Burby at ClickZ has posted an interesting commentary on the prediction that 93% of websites plan to add Web 2.0 functionality this year.

Burby points out that although Web 2.0 is all the rage, companies using it do seem to be displaying some level of irrational exuberance for the technology. Some are implementing Web 2.0 just because they can and because it's a neat buzz word, even if the technology does not make a huge amount of sense or add to the value of their site users. Companies fall into the trap of finding neat tools and then looking for some way to work them into a website rather than being user-centric and thinking of their audience.

SaaS sometimes seem to have the same vibe around it, at least in these surveys that always seem to be going around. Surveyors ask companies if they plan to "invest in SaaS" and often meet with either skepticism or overenthusiasm. It really seems that it ought to be about choosing the right tool for the job rather than merely using technology for technology's sake.

Burby concludes that Web 2.0 does indeed make sense for many companies, pointing to Microsoft's Art of Office project as an example, but adds a good caution to be sure to keep the audience in mind rather than "getting caught up in the hype."

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In case you don't already know, OpSource is presenting its annual SaaS Summit this week in San Francisco. The event is scheduled for Wednesday through Friday of this week and has some interesting content on its agenda. The main events will be Thursday and Friday, with keynotes from companies including Microsoft, Omniture, and Salesforce.com. OpSource CEO Treb Ryan will also deliver a keynote.

Beside the keynotes, other interesting sounding sessions include a presentation by William McNee of Saugatuck Research on "SaaS and the Third Wave" and panel discussions about everything from cloud computing to integration to mashups and how these Web 2.0 technologies relate to SaaS.

Sponsors of the event include Microsoft, Aria, and Progress Software -- as well as numerous other companies such as Boomi, Clickability, Business Objects, Serena and Wipro.

The week is sure to have some interesting news from the conference. Stay tuned.

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According to a recent report by Forrester, marketers trying to sell SaaS to SMBs could be looking at road bumps throughout 2008. Analyst Michael Speyer writes in the report that some forecasts of 2008 SaaS growth in that market might be unrealistic and that the majority of non-implementers are skeptical of SaaS hype.

"SaaS marketers now face more skeptical buyers, and the market's low-hanging fruit has been picked," the report states.

Pointing to research, the report correctly points out that SMBs tend to prefer on-premise solutions by wide margins and that concerns about SaaS such as TCO and integration are still prevalent in the marketplace.

That's not news; more importantly, the report offers tips that marketers might be able to use in order to more effectively sell the benefits of SaaS applications. He also emphasizes that marketers can get out in front of the problem by responding to companies' concerns and offers specific tips, such as emphasizing TCO when selling the product.

All of the points brought up in the report seem quite valid. It makes a lot of sense that companies trying to make a case for why someone should implement SaaS products should have real examples to illustrate success in specific disaster scenario. Certainly good food for thought for anyone considering selling a SaaS solution.

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Mark Symonds, CEO of Plexus Systems, has written a good viewpoint piece for IndustryWeek in which he examine the nature of what is and isn't SaaS, and he calls "BS-aaS" on some so-called SaaS offerings.

Pointing out a key difference in some hosted, on-demand offerings, Symonds points out that true SaaS will have customers running off the same code base without worries about upgrades and without the need for locally installed software or hosting hardware but that "pretenders" often attempt to sell the same old client/server applications as SaaS merely by putting them in third-party hosts. He then offers suggestions for how to distinguish a true SaaS application from a pretender.

Got any thoughts about distinguishing SaaS from "BS-aaS"? Post 'em here.

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In The Daily Aztec, writer David Seaton explores the topic of whether Web 2.0 will help to stop an "inevitable crash."

In the article, Seaton draws numerous parallels between the growth of Web 2.0 and the original Internet bubble that burst in 2000, leading many tech startups to crash almost overnight. He points out certain differences between the explosion of Web 2.0 and the original Internet growth spurt, such as how Web 2.0 is so consumer driven whereas the original Internet sites were provided for the public without a lot of back and forth over it.

But he also quotes technology writer John Dvorak in pointing out the numerous clones emerging of successful companies and the overhyping of "unique initiatives," concluding that only time will tell.

An awful lot of hype is starting to surround new technologies like Web 2.0 and SaaS being "recession proof" or somehow immune to slower spending in the rest of the market, and it will be interesting to see how this plays out in reality.

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I was forwarded the following note from a Zoho contact; this is a comment from Raju Vegesna, an evangelist for Zoho, about Microsoft's plans for the upcoming release of Office 14. The comment was originally posted at Vegesna's blog but was made available for reposting. I thought it was interesting, so here it is:

I just came across this article from Computerworld quoting Bill Gates that ‘Office 14' will be Web-friendly. “Microsoft won’t provide the full functionality of Office online, but it will offer limited online capability for viewing and editing the data in Office applications. It already does this for its Outlook e-mail client with a product called Outlook Web Access, and it will offer similar capabilities for other applications in Office 14, Gates said in a speech at the Microsoft Office System Developer Conference in San Jose.” I guess, Microsoft seems to be feeling the pressure from online office apps. I am glad to see them adapt to the change on the application side. I guess the next step for Microsoft will be to adapt to the new pricing model for productivity apps - FREE.

These productivity applications have been around for years and don’t you think they should be commodity by now? Paying $400 for an office suite made sense when the price of the desktop/laptop was $5K. Now the price of the hardware has come down to $400 and we still pay $400 for an office suite. On top of it, there is a new version every two or three years asking for an upgrade (of features/$$$?). Maybe someday we’ll see a model like Web apps where “All upgrades are included”.

What do you think? Shouldn’t productivity apps be commodity by now?

What do you think? As always, it would be great if you post your thoughts below!

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Last week, IBM announced that it was teaming up with UCLA and NC State to deliver a Web 2.0 curriculum to a new generation of workers (read: college students). So I thought it would be interesting to find out about the motivation behind the initiative; I sent some questions to Kevin Faughnan, director of the IBM Academic Initiative.

Is there a deficit in the market right now of talented workers who truly understand Web 2.0 technologies?

Faughnan: There is a large and growing need in the market for talent and skills around Web 2.0 right now. According to Skillproof, a Connecticut-based IT Labor research group, the number of job openings for IT professionals nationwide has increased by 45.2% from 2004 to 2007, and the top growth areas from 2004 to 2007 were SOA (grew 1316%), Virtualization (609%) and PHO (295%). At the same time, the number of computer science majors in the United States declined 32% from the fall of 2000 to the fall of 2004.

What are the biggest areas for which there is demand right now in this area?

Faughnan: In a survey of employers, Skillproof found the top skill sets desired, more than any other software development skills, are around Web 2.0. SOA, Linux and Ajax -- the building blocks of the Internet's commercial growth. Gartner Group predicts that by 2008, the majority of Global 1,000 companies will quickly adopt several technology-related aspects of Web 2.0 to advance their businesses.

What would be some advice for an existing IT professional looking to expand skills in this area?

Faughnan: There are a few things IT professionals can do to expand their Web 2.0 skills. First, experiment: The easiest way to learn is by doing. Use tools available through programs like Project Zero to gain experience with Web 2.0. technologies and techniques like AJAX, REST-based services, and Dojo. IT professionals should also look to join organizations such as Eclipse and Project Zero, which bring together IT professionals from multiple companies to exchange ideas and best practices, which can help professionals gain the widest range of experience and skills.

Later this year, IT professionals can also leverage Lotus Mashups to build and assemble Web 2.0 widgets into new applications. Lotus Mashups will include an easy-to-use tool that helps individuals with no IT skills create and share any type of situational application on the fly, so that business users can quickly assemble components from across the Web and within the enterprise. Lotus Mashups will be available commercially as well as for free to the academic community.

If this all sounds interesting to you, be sure to sign up for ebizQ's Web 2.0 in the Enterprise Virtual Conference. The conference will include a keynote from Gartner's David Mitchell Smith on innovating in the enterprise with Web 2.0.

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Web 2.0 is certainly raising some new concerns for businesses (and by the way, if you're interested in Web 2.0, you should be sure to sign up for ebizQ's Web 2.0 and the Enterprise Virtual Conference.

Mark Anderson at TheStandard.com posted a blog about how businesses should tread carefully and consider the users before implementing lofty revenue schemes.

He points to a recent Business Week article that tracked a new phenomenon -- the novelty of Web 2.0 may be starting to wear off. BW writers Spencer Ante and Catherine Holahan cautioned that estimates in the growth of Web 2.0 might be a little overenthusiastic; growth rates are slowing and the average user is spending less time on the sites. Users are not clicking on ads, and sometimes, they're even getting sick of the ads and abandoning the sites altogether.

Anderson predicts that revenue projections by Web 2.0 companies are going to turn out to be way too optimistic, and he muses that the lack of a business model for the Web 2.0 concept may be partially to blame, ending in a pretty good conclusion:

The lesson to future entrepreneurs should not be confused. Don't go out and get a million eyeballs, and then try to monetize them. Go out and get a million customers.

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Earlier this month, Santa Clara, Calif.-based JamCracker announced a new SaaS-based solution to enable channel providers to quickly add on-demand applications tot heir portfolios, complete with a front and back-end service delivery infrastructure.

Steve Crawford, VP of marketing with JamCracker, recently answered some questions about the release.

Q: In 50 words or less, explain why this release is important.

A: Jamcracker WebStores provide an easy on ramp that allows resellers to create a new revenue branch, without making any major technology and capital investments, off their existing core business.

Q: What technological challenges do VARs and other resellers face when attempting to launch SaaS applications?

A: Traditionally, resellers had to implement a service delivery, billing, and support infrastructure, plus negotiate master distribution agreements with software vendors, in order to launch an on-demand application or service. Jamcracker WebStores remove these obstacles by offering a turn-key SaaS Platform that makes it extremely easy and fast for resellers to launch services, sell them, support them, and bill for them.

Q: How long does it typically take for a VAR or other reseller to become SaaS-enabled from the time of calling Jamcracker to purchase the license for the application?

A: A combination of automated workflow tools and quick evaluation system ensures a turnaround time of less than one business day for resellers to start selling on-demand services from the Jamcracker catalog to their customers. There are three simple steps to setting up a Jamcracker WebStore.

1. Registration
2. On-boarding - signing contracts, branding the WebStore with colors/logos, etc., and adding services from the catalog
3. Enablement - completing simple online training and marketing modules

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Joe McKendrick has made the case on his FASTForward Blog that Web 2.0 may be "recession-proof". Similar claims have been made by multiple industry watchers about SaaS, as well. So what's so special about Web 2.0?

McKendrick cites some good examples; newly laid-off workers can use social networks to find new positions and also quotes an analyst who sees significant value in social networks and blogs from a marketer standpoint.

The claims about SaaS being recession proof often center around the idea that outsourcing generally saves companies money, so companies facing financial woes are likely to turn to technologies like SaaS. Computerworld blogger Mark Hall quotes Matt Smith of LiveOffice as saying, "Any type of recession is positive for us."

But MGI research had an opposite view in a December post on Seeking Alpha, in which it pointed out that SaaS may indeed prove vulnerable to recession because companies might downsize their workforces, leading to a reduction in the number of user seats they seek and many companies' lack of efficent revenue infrastructures.

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Rumors are floating around the Web that Salesforce.com may have approached Oracle about a possible deal. News of the possibility certainly sent Salesforce.com's stock spiking.

Not everyone believes in the truth of the rumor, and of course, only time will tell if we're to suddenly see a press release announcing the sale of Salesforce.com, but many analysts and readers are skeptical. Some say the deal would benefit Salesforce.com, which faces increasing competition despite being a trendsetter, while others doubt that Oracle would buy Salesforce.com right now but anticipate it might at some point.

Analyst Peter Goldmacher of Cowen & Co wrote in a research note:

"While we would not be surprised if [Salesforce.com] made such an overture, we would be very surprised if Oracle didn't laugh them out of the building."

In contrast, Denis Pombriant of Beagle Research Group told InternetNews.com a different opinion:

"Marc [Benioff] could run Oracle at some point but $75 is too cheap. Force.com is the big new thing that Larry—in my opinion—would like to sell into every existing account he has and then some."

Neither Oracle nor Salesforce.com commented on the rumor.

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After rejecting Microsoft's takeover bid earlier this week, Yahoo seems to be in a whirlwind of activity as it attempts to move forward.

The Silicon Valley-based search/portal/web apps company rejected the bid from MS saying it was too low. Microsoft doesn't seem too interested in accepting defeat, however, as it issued a statement that the response does not change its belief in the proposal. The firm may be planning a hostile takeover attempt, and Mashable.com is reporting that Microsoft has hired a proxy firm to begin contacting shareholders in Yahoo. One major shareholder has publicly stated that Microsoft will have to increase its bid in order to succeed, reports BBC News.

The takeover bid also seems to have caught the interest ofother potential investors, and MarketWatch is now reporting that Yahoo has been discussing a possible deal with News Corp. Google, however, is apparently "losing interest" in a search outsourcing deal it had been considering with Yahoo, with Google fearing it could encounter additional regulatory scrutiny if the two companies ended up tied together closely.

In better news for Yahoo,Yahoo has also just announced a major partnership with T-Mobile to deliver mobile servers to millions of European T-Mobile customers -- and Yahoo's win was Google's loss, reported PC World. Google had previously provided the services to T-Mobile.

Yahoo also announced earlier today that it has acquired Maven Networks, an online video platform provider. That news, in particular, seems to signify that Yahoo is not quite yet planning on being acquired by Microsoft. Either way, the next few weeks should be an interesting time for Yahoo, which has certainly been an Internet staple since the days of the dotcom boom.

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Lots of people are speculating right now that with possible economic hard times coming, SaaS could end up getting a boost because companies don't want to invest in large-scale software installations. Graham Barnes, CEO of BidShift, is one believer in the idea that SaaS might be a wise choice for these reasons. BidShift offers SaaS-based staffing tools for the healthcare industry. Barnes recently offered some thoughts on that specific industry, as well as SaaS overall.

Are hospitals and healthcare organizations (as well as other industries that use this sort of software) facing increasing pressure to cut costs for IT operations?

Barnes: Hospitals and healthcare organizations continue to face increasing pressure to cut costs in all areas, including IT and labor costs, while maintaining and improving outcomes and patient satisfaction. BidShift's SaaS solution is primarily aimed at reducing hospital labor costs, which represent approximately 60 percent of the expense budget, without increasing IT costs. As BidShift's SaaS solution requires almost no IT involvement once approved by executives, the benefits of allowing nurses to select and fill open shifts themselves can be realized with minimal expense and no capital expenditure.

With all the talk of an economic recession, do you agree with predictions that companies may try to cut costs by shifting some applications to SaaS and if so why?

Barnes: With or without a recession, the SaaS delivery model offers the lowest and most predictable cost of ownership. As all companies will look to constantly improve their operations, SaaS applications become more attractive. In the face of recessionary pressures, the need to improve services to maintain revenues becomes even more important to companies. Simply trimming costs without paying attention to quality of service is unacceptable, especially in healthcare.

How does BidShift's solution work through SaaS (how is staffing management handled through SaaS as opposed to a locally installed software package)?

Barnes: BidShift offers hospitals full access to our software by anyone with an Internet connection. Nurse staff managers can set up profiles for each nurse position in each hospital unit. Configuration of the various incentives and work rules are installed during initial set up through the Web site. Then, specific open shifts are posted in advance and individual nurses can log in to view and request the shifts, from anywhere (even from home). BidShift's engineering department maintains all the servers in secure, reliable data centers and handles all software upgrades to ensure minimal downtime.

Installed software can take months to set up and usually has problems surrounding hospitals’ firewalls and other security measures. These obstacles make it difficult to quickly and efficiently manage staff. Using a SaaS solution minimizes these challenges, as full installation happens within weeks instead of months. Software maintenance is managed through the SaaS provider, thereby relieving the company’s (or in this case a hospital’s) time spent on software problems and maintenance.

If SaaS provides functionality benefits in addition to reduced cost, do you feel that the overall software industry will eventually shift to a majority of applications being delivered via SaaS?

Barnes: The only barrier to majority deployment of SaaS application delivery is the need to provide constant client visibility and improvement of the software value over time, in order to justify the recurring monthly cost. If this is not done, customers may look for a conventional software product with a one-time cost, forgetting the challenge and cost of maintaining current versions and operations support.

I think if these issues are addressed and remembered during the evaluation process and throughout the use of the SaaS solution, I do believe we will see a huge shift toward SaaS application delivery. As an example, BidShift addresses these issues by not requiring the installation of any hardware, no initial capital expenditure, little to no corporate IT involvement or support and hosting of the application on BidShift servers.

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OpSource, a SaaS company that specializes in SaaS application delivery, today announced that it will acquire LeCayla Technologies, an Irish SaaS billing provider. I was able to get some answers from Richard Dym, the CMO of OpSource, about the reasons for the acquisition and OpSource's future plans.

What was the rationale behind the acquisition?

Dym: Self-service on-boarding and billing is a strategic component of any SaaS solution that wants to be able to scale in the face of success. Through the acquisition of LeCayla, OpSource acquires the best self-service on-boarding and billing solution designed to meet the diverse needs of SaaS and web companies. In addition, OpSource gains the expertise of LeCayla's first-rate engineering team; establishes a development center in Dublin and will accelerate its European operations.

What new options with the resulting new on-boarding and billing solution offer to customers?

Dym: LeCayla's self-service on-boarding and billing solution is the most flexible self service solution available that meets the needs of the widest range SaaS and web companies. Specific details of our new offering will be announced at the OpSource SaaS Summit 2008, February 27th - 29th in San Francisco.

Any estimates on the amount of time that customers might save with the new solution?

Dym: In general, developers can save as much as 70% of their application development time and commensurate resources by utilizing web services from OpSource such as OpSource Billing. Our new billing solution will also reduce the integration of billing from a professional services project that might take months to a self-service integration that could be done in a week depending on complexity.

Will support continue for the existing customers?

Dym: Absolutely, not only will support for LeCayla's customers continue, OpSource is looking forward to introducing LeCayla's customers to our OpSource On-Demand, our complete Web Operations solution.

Are there other areas in which OpSource may choose to expand in the future?

Dym: Our goal is to provide our customers with a complete web operations solution that includes everything necessary for them to run successful web businesses. Components of our platform that we believe are strategic, such as our OpSource Billing, will be owned and delivered by OpSource. Other mission critical but not strategic components will provided by or in junction with OpSource customers and partners.

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The news media is still abuzz with speculation on Microsoft's surprise multi-billion dollar bid to buy Yahoo and what the acquisition might mean for the industry, if it indeed even takes place. Tim Low, VP of Marketing for Daptiv (a company that offers project management and collaboration software through SaaS) had some interesting comments on Microsoft's bid. Low worked for Microsoft for several years before joining Daptiv. This is what he had to say:

Microhoo?

1. SaaS is just as important as Search: Most of the coverage is focusing on search. While the search market share bump will undoubtedly drive revenue for Microsoft, I see the acquisition as a validation of software as a service model. Yahoo does it really well with consumer web services like Yahoo Mail and IM, not to mention Flickr which is really cool.

2. New Blood: Microsoft needs an infusion of outside energy and people who've seen the world from outside Redmond. This could be a great way to do that. Typical Yahoos have likely worked at other Silicon Valley companies, and have a breadth of experience that might really bring life into Microsoft if it lets them. Hybrid vigor might be the way Microsoft is finally able to move beyond the PC era.

3. Search might be the easy part. Just swap in the Yahoo technology, add their existing market share, and you've probably stopped the bleeding. The other pieces of Yahoo are going to be challenging though. From Flickr to email, to calendaring and many other online services, Yahoo overlaps with efforts at Microsoft. Historically Microsoft has not been able to clearly position a new service (windows live hotmail anyone?) in a way that business or consumer customers comprehend, so I think these myriad overlaps present perhaps a much bigger challenge to integrate into the company's operations. I would make live/die choices for each, and have one survivor with a simple name.

4. Which brings me to #4. Brand is important. A rose is a rose is a rose is a rose, except at Microsoft where it's Microsoft Windows Live Hotmail. I wouldn't be too hasty in dumping the Yahoo brand. It brings a lot of attributes Microsoft needs for the next decade like freshness and whimsy, approachability and fun--attributes that Microsoft will struggle to create under the Windows or Office brand. Does Yahoo become the brand for Microsoft on-demand services? Who knows? So far they haven't seemed to understand software as a service, just 'software plus services'. I just hope they realize that they're buying a lot more than technology and engineers, and they should put every single asset to work for their shareholders.

Do you agree? Disagree? Share your thoughts in the comments area.

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Workday, Inc. yesterday announced that it had reached a definitive agreement to acquire Cape Clear. Workday is a provider of on-demand, SaaS-based ERP software and Cape Clear produces an Enterprise Service Bus platform.

As a part of the acquisition, Workday expects to accelerate support for custom integration on demand, and the Cape Clear solution will now be available only as part of an offering called Workday Integration On Demand -- but Workday will support existing Cape Clear customers. The acquisition will be complete in 30 days.

Workday present Annel Bhusri had this to say:

"Integrating business applications has always been much too difficult. At Workday, we made integration a core capability from the very start, and adding Cape Clear to our portfolio serves to deepen our focus and capability in this vital area. Increasingly, customers are looking to Workday to build and manage integration as a service. With Cape Clear’s ESB, we expect to rapidly increase our portfolio of both packaged and custom integration capabilities."

In a blog post at Cape Clear's website, CEO Annrai O'Toole wrote, "This could be the day that the middleware industry finally broke the mould on how to deliver integration technology — this could also be the day that SOA finally stood up and announced its intention to be a real driver of business value, and not just a driver of technology innovation."

ZDNet's Phil Wainewright posted an analysis of the acquisition, saying that the move shows that customers want middleware bundled with the application stack, meaning less integration work. He said the move could send other messages as well, pointing out that many Workday customers are former PeopleSoft customers who are tired of upgrades and constant need to switch to newer versions for necessary functionality and he predicted that Workday's momentum will increase over the next two years.

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After reading this blog post by ZD Net UK's David Meyer a few minutes ago and doing further research, it does seem indeed that UK web hosting company Fasthosts is offering MS Office via subscription.

It isn't really true SaaS; PC Advisor UK reports that users will have to download the whole suite of products but does require users to keep PCs connected to the Internet in order to use the products. Fasthosts is working on the ability to allow offline MS Office usage in this manner.

The fee for the subscription is apparently just under 6 British pounds per month -- a heckuva lot less than buying a full license.

TechRadar also reports that the version will stay current and quotes Fasthosts' CTO:

“[It’s] an excellent way to obtain the very latest versions of the software we all need, affordably, on a pay-as-you-go basis,” says Mark Jeffries, CTO of Fasthosts. “Its low monthly cost and easy installation will suit a great many home and business users.”

This appears to be a new thing for MS Office and it will be fascinating to see if other partners follow suit if Fasthosts' initiative gets good response.

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Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer offered a little bit more explanation of Microsoft's "Software Plus Services" initiative during a presentation to Wall Street analysts earlier this week, reports InternetNews.com.

In the speech, Ballmer desribed the software-plus-services and reiterated that Microsoft would not transition to a pure SaaS model immediately but would add services to existing offerings.

I'll be interested to see further details as MS fleshes out the strategy. The Software Plus Services idea is interesting as a way to be able to say Microsoft is offering on-demand, subscription-based services but I still do not see how this model would offer any of the core benefits of SaaS, other than being subscription-based.

And in another interesting twist, ZDNet UK's David Meyer is reporting that an ISP and hosting company called Fasthosts appears to be offering Microsoft Office through SaaS. Meyer reports that the software does appear to still need to be downloaded, but that the payment model is "pay as you go." Meyer is attempting to track down more info and reports that the MS Office spokesperson is refusing to comment.

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It's a well known principle that large vendors usually enter new markets by making acquisitions, and over the weekend, Microsoft made a bid to buy Yahoo. Obviously, the acquisition would give Microsoft an entry into all sorts of markets, but CMP's ChannelWeb Network points out that the acquisition could be a "sign of software services times."

The article raises some interesting points -- Yahoo could bring a different product mentality to Microsoft and accelerate the software giant's move into SaaS, "jumpstarting" its entry into the field, said one executive in the article.

Seeing this news, and reading CMP's article, the idea makes perfect sense. Microsoft in the past has been often criticized for staying mum on SaaS plans and for not being more aggressive at moving into the field. The company has even been maintaining a party line that the right way to do SaaS is to have add-on services to locally installed software. But if they wanted to enter the pure-play SaaS field, I can't imagine a better strategy than to buy a company like Yahoo. The move would position Microsoft well to compete with Google also, a conclusion that seems to be floating around in all the media coverage of this acquisition.

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