THINK IT Services

Rally Software is the latest winner of THINKstrategies’ Best of SaaS Showplace (BoSS) Award 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.

Rally Software is a leader in Agile application lifecycle management (ALM) dedicated to making distributed development organizations faster and leaner by dramatically cutting the time, cost and effort needed to deliver high quality applications. An example of the business benefits of Rally Software’s SaaS solution is HomeAway Inc., the largest international network of vacation rental websites, with more than 360,000 paid listings of rental homes, condos, apartments, villas, cottages and cabins in more than 118 countries.

Click here to learn more about Rally Software’s winning BoSS Award submission.

Click here to learn more about the BoSS Award program.

There have been a series of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)/cloud computing research reports and industry rumors which have emerged over the past few days and weeks which I haven’t had a chance to comment on because of my hectic travel and work schedule.

I’d ordinarily try to dedicate a standalone blog post to each of them, but don’t have the time and don’t want to give them more attention than they deserve. But, I have had a number of clients and friends ask me for my opinion on these developments, so here’s a quick round-up of my thoughts.

1. Will Oracle Buy Salesforce.com?  This rumor popped up again this week in a Wedge Partners research report summarized on Barron’s Tech Daily website. I suggested this scenario two years ago, and still think there is a chance that Larry Ellison will make a hostile bid for Salesforce.com. But, Ellison knows that this maneuver is less likely to succeed today because the companies are such fierce competitors. However, he will be happy if his acquisition bid does succeed in derailing Salesforce.com’s momentum. I’ve suggested to many of my colleagues and clients over the past year, and want to publicly state here, that if Oracle makes a hostile bid for Salesforce.com, I predict Google will come to the company’s rescue and acquire Salesforce.com. The two companies have established a strong working relationship and share the same corporate mission of converting the world to the ‘cloud’. Yet, Google continues to struggle in its efforts to win enterprises. Google would gain greater credibility and access to large-scale organizations via a Salesforce.com acquisition.
2. Offshore Companies Aiming At On-Demand Services? A recent Saugatuck Technologies research note proclaimed that India-based software development and business process outsourcing (BPO) companies are eying the SaaS marketplace and broader cloud computing opportunities. Although it is nice to have Saugatuck document this trend, I’ve been commenting on the intersection of the offshoring and on-demand services industries since 2006. I’ve also been getting a steady stream of inquiries from India-based firms of all sizes for more than two years hunting for acquisition opportunities in the SaaS market as these companies seek more cost-effective service delivery mechanisms to offset the labor-arbitrage which they are facing in their traditional people-intensive software development and BPO businesses. As I stated in my 2009 predictions, today’s economy will continue to make these acquisitions more economical.
3. Is Business Intelligence a Viable SaaS Business? Forrester Research issued a new report suggesting, “The SaaS BI space is largely unproven.”  This came as news to a myriad of SaaS-oriented BI vendors listed on the SaaS Showplace. I’ve known and done business with many of these companies for the past three years. As I stated in 2007, and in numerous whitepapers and webcasts, SaaS-based BI solutions are perfectly designed to respond to the escalating pressures on companies of all sizes to better leverage corporate and customer data to improve their performance. Not only are they more economical and easier to deploy, but they are better architected to permit multi-user access across increasingly dispersed organizations. That is why the rising demand SaaS BI vendors are experiencing disputes Forrester’s findings.

Debating the meaning of ‘cloud computing’ has become a popular pastime among analysts, journalists, vendors and even customers.

The latest entrant into the discussion is the Wall Street Journal which published an article today entitled, “The Internet Industry Is on a Cloud — Whatever That May Mean.” (Registration may be required.)

In addition to raising the fundamental question about how to properly define cloud computing, the WSJ article also mentions Oracle CEO/Chairman’s Larry Ellison’s comments over the past few years downplaying the market opportunity for cloud computing and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions.

Although I’ve offered my own views on this topic before in this space, here are some additional thoughts in response to the WSJ article:

1. What is cloud computing?

Cloud computing is a set of web-based enabling tools and services which permit users to acquire computing capabilities to build or support applications, or perform specific functions on a pay-as-you-go basis.

2. What are the key characteristics of cloud computing?

Web-based, easily provisioned, highly economical, very flexible and reliably scalable.

3. How is cloud computing segmented, e.g. SaaS, PaaS, etc.?

Everyone uses SaaS and cloud computing interchangeably, starting with Salesforce.com and the press. THINKstrategies distinguishes them in the following way – Cloud computing has emerged a broad set of loosely coupled web-based enabling tools and services in response to the success of SaaS. SaaS solutions are ‘packaged’ applications acquired in a pay-as-you-go fashion and delivered via the Web. PaaS is an integrated set of development and delivery tools and services which permit a vendor or user organization to build their own SaaS solutions.

4. What makes this different than the old ASP model?

ASPs were outsourcers who were simply moving the same old crappy apps out of the customer’s data center and operating it in a centralized and remote data center. They didn’t have a better pricing model or offer any new functionality.

Today’s SaaS/PaaS/cloud computing solutions have been built to reside on the web, where it can better serve a more dispersed and mobile customer base with more user-friendly and flexible pricing and packaging.

5. Why has Larry Ellison resisted the SaaS/cloud computing movement?

It is a Machiavellian subterfuge aimed at downplaying the market opportunity to discourage potential competitors, such as SAP, from entering the market.

Ironically, Ellison originated the idea of the ‘thin client’ during the dot.com boom and Oracle was a pioneer in the ASP era. Today, Oracle is a major supplier of database systems for many of the largest SaaS companies, including Salesforce.com. 

Oracle is also the purveyor of a widening array of on-demand software services, starting with Siebel On-Demand and most recently adding Sourcing On-Demand. And of course, Ellison is also a personal investor in Salesforce.com and NetSuite.

6. Why is cloud computing a major transformation of the IT/software industry and not just another overhyped trend?

First, because SaaS/cloud computing solutions are delivering measurable business benefits, and generating high customer satisfaction and referral rates.

Second, corporate executives and end-users need and want a better way to acquire and utilize technology and business applications to meet their rapidly changing business and workplace requirements.

Third, a new generation of workers—Generation “F” for Facebook, as Gary Hamel described in the WSJ Tuesday—are entering the market who have grown up online and will demand web-based services to do their jobs.

Finally, because today’s tough economic climate demands that organizations of all sizes fundamentally change the way they do business, and few will resist the temptation to revamp the way they procure and use technology and applications so they can get a better ROI at a lower TCO.

Dell’s announcement today of a new EqualLogic PS6000 series of storage arrays might appear to be a straightforward attempt to elevate the company’s stature in enterprise data centers. But, I think the company has an opportunity to aim higher than that.

Dell has always been about providing better computers at a lower price by finding economies at every stage of the development and delivery supply-chain. Some call this commoditizing markets. Others see it disintermediating the channel. Anyway you look at it, from its inception, Dell has been in the business of redefining and disrupting the way the computer industry operates.

Dell helped to bring PCs and laptops to the masses via direct online sales. It made it easy for companies to acquire servers in the same fashion. Now, Dell is setting its sites on transforming the way companies operate their data centers by leveraging its EqualLogic capabilities to raise the bar regarding the performance and flexibility of today’s server technology, as well as simplifying and automating the deployment process.

Dell’s foray into the data center will be a welcome relief to some CIOs and other corporate executives who have been pleased with Dell’s products and services at the departmental and end-user level, and frustrated with the complexities and costs of traditional hardware in their data centers.

But, I would be disappointed if Dell stopped there because I think there are a growing number of enterprise CIOs and corporate executives who would be very interested in offloading, or ‘out-tasking’, portions of their internal data center requirements to a Dell-powered ‘cloud computing’ service.

By offering a cloud computing service, Dell not only creates a new revenue stream but also provides a showplace where corporate customers can see Dell’s computing power at work.

Dell has already made it clear that it wants to redefine the IT services market by building service functionality into its computers and automating many other aspects of traditional support and consulting services. Dell has also made a series of acquisitions to achieve this vision, including EqualLogic, Everdream and SilverBack Technologies.

Just as the overall cloud computing industry has evolved from the success of the SaaS movement, Dell has an opportunity to extend its technology capabilities and brand equity into the clouds by leveraging its new functionality and corporate history as a business innovator to respond to customers’ growing receptivity to cloud computing services.

NTRglobal 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.

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.

NTRglobal is a leading provider of remote support and management of enduser devices for IT service desks and managed service providers (MSPs). NTRadmin is a SaaS services solution for automating IT tasks with NTRadmin customizable BOTs and remote network management which enables IT system administrators to control, monitor and secure hardware and software assets regardless of geographical location.

A case study example of the value of NTRadmin is Toshiba Tec, which needed a high-availability solution that worked across its IT communications platform to ensure business continuity, boost productivity and accelerate its business processes.

Click here to learn more about measurable business benefits NTRglobal’s SaaS solution delivered to Toshiba Tec and other customers.

Click here to learn more about the BoSS awards.

One of my predictions for 2009 was that this would be the year of the channel in the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) market.

While the direct sales and delivery model associate with SaaS fundamentally disrupts the traditional role of the channel, the SaaS industry still needs to establish an successful channel strategy to cost-effectively extend its footprint across various market segments and win greater mainstream adoption.

In addition to relying on various resellers as channels to market, legacy software vendors also viewed other independent software vendors (ISVs) as potential channel partners because they extended their software functionality into new market segments. The same holds true in the SaaS industry.

The latest example of this strategy is NetSuite’s announcement that it is putting greater emphasis on its ISV partnering efforts via a new SuiteCloud Developer Network (SDN) and SuiteApp.com single-source online marketplace.

These new offerings are not innovative, but they are timely because they could help NetSuite maintain the momentum which it reported at the end 2008.

NetSuite has been far behind Salesforce.com in size and growth in part because it hadn’t placed as much emphasis on building an ecosystem of third-party ISVs as a key component of its overall go-to-market strategy.

Part of the problem was that NetSuite had to establish a sufficient track-record of success to attract a critical mass of ISVs interested in utilizing NetSuite’s solution as a platform to address specific industry requirements. This has been a tougher task for NetSuite than Salesforce.com because it is far harder to convince a CFO to buy a SaaS solution than a renegade salesperson.

NetSuite compounded this challenge by insisting on building an all-in-one solution which looked more like a traditional enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution from SAP and Oracle than the easy-to-use SaaS solutions which have gained widespread customer acceptance in other segments of the market. NetSuite’s all-in-one product packaging also added a layer of complexity which made it difficult for ISVs to create their own unique industry-specific solutions.

Now that NetSuite is finally gaining acceptance among CFOs and has begun to modularize its SaaS solution, it is in a better position to appeal to other ISVs.

Company executives who briefed me regarding the new SDN also admitted that they hadn’t put enough effort into helping ISVs be successful in the past. They are now committed to providing partners more hand-holding and greater sales/marketing support. The company has even recruited partner development specialists from Salesforce.com to staff the program.

This new initiative comes on the heels of NetSuite’s previous announcement that it has teamed with HP to educate and encourage value-added resellers (VARs) to sell and deliver its SaaS solution.

The company executives who I spoke with last week also conceded that they will probably not match the vast number of ISVs which Salesforce.com has attracted to its AppExchange and Force.com platform. Instead, they are hoping that their new partner program will attract a smaller number of specialized ISVs who can help NetSuite penetrate new market segments.

It remains to be seen whether NetSuite will be successful in the execution of its new partner program. But, it will be worth watching whether third-party ISVs and VARs can take NetSuite’s solution into new markets successfully and demonstrate the channel opportunities for SaaS companies.

THINKstrategies, Inc. announced today that Daptiv 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.

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.

Daptiv is a leading provider on-demand, collaborative business solutions, including Project Portfolio Management (PPM) capabilities. A case example of the measurable business benefits of Daptiv’s on-demand PPM capabilities is Chase Paymentech Solutions, LLC.

Click here to read more.

I moderated a panel at OpSource’s SaaS Summit this week entitled “Selling SaaS to the Enterprise” which included representatives from Cast Iron Systems, Oracle and the Business Objects unit of SAP, as well as the Manager of Global Operations Business Technology at Pfizer.

They all agreed that SaaS and cloud computing are making serious inroads into the enterprise but still face significant challenges, including scalability, security and flexibility issues.

In response to the flexibility topic, there was general consensus among the panelists that customers want a choice of on-premise and on-demand alternatives to serve various corporate requirements.

Although I’m very proud to have correctly predicted many of the major trends which have shaped the SaaS market evolution, I’ve never believed that the world would move entirely to an all on-demand environment for a variety of customer and vendor-driven reasons. Therefore, I’ve always expected most organizations to operate in an hybrid environment.

As the SaaS movement gains mainstream acceptance, it also becomes less of a revolution. As a result, the radical view of an all, on-demand world has given way to a more realistic expectation of a mixed computing environment, albeit dramatically less dependent on inefficient, legacy on-premise hardware and software.

My previous blog post suggested that the heterogeneous computing requirements of customers calls for a new definition of hybrid solutions based on the portability of SaaS solutions so they can offer customers a choice of on-demand and on-premise alternatives.

The post generated a long list of responses from a wide array of SaaS vendors offering these alternatives, as well as a few purists who said it couldn’t or shouldn’t be done.

Microsoft’s GM of ISV and National System Integrator Partners, Greg Urqhart, gave an updated version of the company’s ‘Software Plus Services’ pitch at the SaaS Summit which Microsoft has been promoting for a few years.

It has been easy for industry purists to ridicule Microsoft’s S+S idea as a self-serving rationalization for justifying its legacy, on-premise business while also attempting to hold current and prospective customers by promising competitive on-demand solutions sometime in the future.

While these are legitimate criticisms which I share, I also believe that Microsoft’s view of customers’ preference for computing choices is right on.  The question is when and how will Microsoft fulfill its promise to deliver a viable and competitive portfolio of on-demand solutions which satisfy customers’ rapidly changing technical and business requirements.

In the meantime, Microsoft is depending on a series of incremental innovations, along with the power of its brand, ISV partner network and channel relationships to safeguard its immediate reputation and long-term revenue against the onslaught of today’s SaaS and cloud computing challenges.

These attributes also fit the criteria I laid out for winning in the Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) business. Of course, it again depends on how well Microsoft can execute on its promises.

Amazon’s latest pricing changes might make its cloud computing services more palatable to some IT decision-makers within enterprises, but doesn’t address the fundamental concerns of business decision-makers who are still unwilling to leverage its radical new capabilities.

While reducing costs is a key driver of cloud computing and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), trust is the most important reason why companies of all sizes decide to fully engage with a vendor. Trust is achieved by delivering the functionality you promise, but also by providing the support they need in case something goes wrong.

Until Amazon and other cloud computing vendors are able to provide this level of support, it will not be a key component of enterprises’ computing strategies.

Support is more than offering SLAs. Support means giving customers someone to contact or even call when there is a problem or they have a question.

In contrast, one of the primary reasons SaaS is gaining acceptance and experiencing growing adoption among enterprises, as well as small- and mid-size businesses (SMBs), is because the leading vendors have matured their support capabilities to satisfy business decision-makers along with their IT counterparts.

Some people use the SaaS and cloud computing terms interchangeably, and I agree that they share many of the same attributes and benefits. However, I continue to be concerned that uneducated IT/business decision-makers will reject SaaS offerings because of the inadequacies of the less mature cloud computing services. 

I hope Amazon and other cloud computing vendors learn quickly that their mainstream acceptance will depend more on their support capabilities than their technical innovations.

I’m pleased to be serving as the first conference chairman of IDG World’s new CloudWorld industry forum where I look forward to bringing together a cross-section of customers and vendors to discuss these topics.

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 and appointment scheduling, but it was limited in its scheduling capabilities and the PSRs had to use spreadsheets to set up appointments. The company decided to adopt TimeTrade’s SaaS-based solution TESA.

Click here to read about the measurable business benefits Bosley generated by implementing TESA.

Click here to learn more about THINKstrategies’ BoSS Award program.