THINK IT Services

One of the most vexing challenges facing today’s IT and business decision-makers is how to integrate critical corporate data across a widening array of on-premise and on-demand systems and applications.

Many believe that the age-old data integration issues of the past have only been compounded by today’s rapidly expanding assortment of Cloud-based solutions which raise the expectation of easy end-user access from anywhere at any time.

While there are a growing number of application program interfaces (APIs), Web-based connectors and Cloud-oriented systems integrators that are reducing the difficulty of overcoming this integration issue, it still represents an important impediment that many organizations are reluctant to face.

Intuit announced a new program yesterday aimed at addressing the data integration issue. The Intuit Anywhere program promises to give software developers a new method of extracting QuickBooks data directly into their third-party applications, including web and mobile.

This new data export and integration capability is an extension of the Intuit Partner Platform (IPP). It utilizes a set of widgets and data services to permit customers to more easily take their data generated within QuickBooks and import it into the other Intuit-ecosystem apps which help them run their businesses.

In conjunction with its unveiling of the beta program which is aimed at testing and fine-tuning the Intuit Anywhere capability, the company also announced six new IPP partners that will be participating in the beta program:

• Bill.com 
• Concur 
• eBay 
• FreshBooks 
• Mavenlink 
• MethodCRM.com

Intuit has recently been more actively promoting the scale of its Cloud business, power of its platform, and reach of its alliance partners in the market, including Microsoft and Salesforce.com.

The new Intuit Anywhere program promises to make the data captured in its Quickbooks flagship product more ubiquitous which should strengthen Intuit’s position in the market.

THINKstrategies announced today that Accept Corporation 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 is an ongoing program which recognizes SaaS companies that are producing tangible business benefits for specific user organizations. These benefits can include increased sales, lower costs, higher customer satisfaction, faster operations and greater profitability.

Accept Corporation’s SaaS-based Accept 360 Innovation Management solution empowers product teams to more quickly develop compelling products that generate greater revenues, because they’re better aligned with the market and company strategy.

Click here to read more about the measurable business benefits which earned Accept Corporation the latest BoSS Award.

Click here to learn more about the BoSS Award program or to apply for an Award.

Based on the success of the BoSS Awards program which focuses on SaaS solutions, THINKstrategies has launched the Cloud Computing Business Value (CCBV) Awards program to recognize companies which are delivering Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) solutions producing measurable business benefits for their customers. For more information regarding the CCBV Awards, go to http://www.thinkstrategies.com/cloudcomputingawards.html.

My past fews weeks have been consumed with weekly visits to the Bay Area to speak at SaaScon, moderate tracks at Under the Radar and co-host the AlwaysOn OnDemand conference, as well as numerous on-site client meetings. In between, I also had the privilege of presenting a kickoff keynote presentation at a VIP dinner for the State of the Cloud conference in Boston.

My hectic travel schedule has given me little time to comment on a variety of industry announcements which have occurred during this period. So, here’s my ‘lightening round’ assessment of some of the more significant events worth noting,

• Cloud Conference Observations
  • SaaScon: When was the last time you heard CIOs talk about being heroes in their organizations? Well, the CIOs who spoke at SaaScon repeatedly described how the SaaS solutions which they’re implementing in their organizations are generating an overwhelmingly positive response from their end-users and corporate executives. And, they admitted that this has made their jobs gratifying again.
  • Under the Radar:  This was a terrific day of company presentations and American Idol-style judging sessions aimed at uncovering the next hot Cloud companies. Most of the presenters won’t become major players, but many may be acquired by bigger companies. While the remainder will die on the vine because of poorly conceived solutions or go-to-market strategies.
  • AlwaysOn OnDemand: It was a privilege to work with Tony Perkins and his staff to organize and co-host this first-time event. Tony is a living legend in the tech industry because of his association with the Red Herring publication and his very influential conference business. The AlwaysOn events have become important meetingplaces for industry leaders, investors and aspiring companies. The content of the OnDemand conference was also first-rate as you can see in the online videos.
  • State of the Cloud: What happens when a major financial institution decides that it wants to better understand the rapidly evolving cloud computing marketplace? Well, in the case of Fidelity Investments, they decided to put together a first-class conference aimed at top-level enterprise decision-makers. And, because of Fidelity’s tremendous influence, they were able to bring together a very impressive list of speakers and sponsors to examine various aspects of the cloud computing environment.
• VMforce: Salesforce.com’s new alliance with VMware might seem like a minor event for the casual observer who has yet to fully grasp the strategic importance of the company’s Force.com platform. However, Salesforce.com’s long-term success is predicated on building a large and loyal cadre of software developers on its Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS). While it has had some initial success, its growth as been stymied in part because of the proprietary nature of its development language. VMforce opens Force.com up to a vast community of Java developers and alleviates much of the concern about vendor lock-in. I expect Salesforce.com to reach out to other important development communities to encourage even broader acceptance of its PaaS capabilities, especially as it begins to feel competitive  pressure from Microsoft Azure.
• IT Service Management Wars: One of the key battlefields in 2010 which I identified at the beginning of the year is SaaS-based IT service management (ITSM). The latest entrant into this space is BMC which unveiled a new version of its Remedy solution built on Salesforce.com’s Force.com platform. BMC’s new offering follows Nimsoft’s release of an on-demand version of its solution shortly after its acquisition by CA was announced. You can expect plenty of additional acquisitions in this market segment as IT organizations become increasingly receptive to SaaS alternatives to traditional, on-premise management systems.
• Cloud-Oriented Application Monitoring and Management: Now that SaaS solutions are becoming mainstream and more enterprises and ISVs are leveraging PaaS and Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) to develop and deliver applications, the new battlefield is Application Monitoring and Management. I’ve not only be deluged by a continuous stream of briefings from start-ups in this segments, but also had the pleasure of moderating the Application Management track of  the Under the Radar conference where some of the hottest new players in this segment showed their wares. While the fundamental value proposition of these companies is compelling, I expect many of them to struggle to convince corporate decision-makers, as well as  service providers, that their solutions are necessary to optimize the performance of their cloud-based applications and operations as opposed to ‘nice to have’. So, you can expect a flurry of quick acquisitions and then a prolonged series of company failures.
• Interesting reading,
  • Banks to build their own cloud-based global banking infrastructure and network - Is this a new cloud or the realization of the old ‘extranet’ idea?
  • SaaS-querade: When On-Premise Vendors Try to Pass as SaaS Vendors - This column echos the talks I give about why SaaS is different than hosting and the old ASP model.
  • The Next Crisis For Customer Satisfaction - This column challenges CIOs and business decision-makers to understand how enterprise applications must change to better serve end-users and achieve their corporate objectives. Salesforce.com Chatter is an example of where the world must go.

Finally, check out my new online presentation entitled, “Will SaaS and Cloud Computing Dis-Intermediate the Channel?”

THINKstrategies announced today that AccelOps 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 is an ongoing program which recognizes SaaS companies that are producing tangible business benefits for specific user organizations. These benefits can include increased sales, lower costs, higher customer satisfaction, faster operations and greater profitability.

AccelOps allows organizations to better leverage virtualization technologies and cloud computing by providing end-to-end visibility across performance, availability, security and change management while linking the physical and virtual infrastructure to business and business services. AccelOps integrated and service-oriented platform automates the collection, monitoring, analysis and detailed reporting on all performance and IT/event log data with a single pane of glass that cuts through networks, systems, applications, virtualization and technology boundaries.

Click here to read about the measurable business benefits AccelOps is delivering to its customers which earned it a BoSS Award.

Click here to read more about the BoSS Award program and to apply for an award.

Based on the success of the BoSS Awards program which focuses on SaaS solutions, THINKstrategies has launched the Cloud Computing Business Value (CCBV) Awards program to recognize companies which are delivering Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) solutions producing measurable business benefits for their customers. Click here to obtain more information regarding the CCBV Awards.

THINKstrategies announced yesterday that Caspio, Inc. has been named the first winner of the new Cloud Computing Business Value (CCBV) Awards program, which is aimed at promoting the measurable business benefits being delivered by today’s cloud computing solutions.

The CCBV Awards program was announced in January 2010 to recognize Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) and Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) providers delivering tangible business benefits to specific user organizations. These benefits include lower costs, faster deployment times, greater profitability, etc.

The Award program builds on the success of THINKstrategies’ Best of SaaS Showplace (BoSS) Awards program which was initiated in 2009.

Caspio provides an on-demand, do-it-yourself, web application creation PaaS which replaces coding with intuitive point-and-click wizards, enabling users to rapidly produce web database components for capturing, publishing, and managing data online. Caspio’s customers range from one-person entrepreneurs to Fortune-500 corporations, digital media giants, government agencies, and educational institutions.

Click here to read more about Caspio’s award-winning business benefits.

Click here to read more about the CCBV Awards program or to apply for an award.

One of the knocks against Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and the broader cloud computing movement is that these web-based, on-demand services can’t be customized to cater to the complex requirements of specific enterprises.

While SaaS solutions have increasingly included a growing array of user configuration capabilities to respond to the individual needs of various organizations, Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) solutions have emerged over the past couple of years to permit end-users and third-party developers to build their own apps to meet their unique requirements.

The latest indication of the escalating power of these PaaS tools is today’s announcement unveiling Salesforce.com’s new Force.com Visual Process Manager. This new feature will allow users to design and build business process-oriented applications quickly so they can automate them across corporate departments.

Although the new Force.com Visual Process Manager won’t be generally available until later this year, it is the latest sign that cloud computing alternatives to traditional, legacy applications and systems are becoming more and more competitive with their on-premise predecessors.

PaaS solutions may never be able to match the level of customization of legacy applications. However, that isn’t necessarily a bad thing given the black-hole that many enteprises have faced trying to customize traditional enterprise apps to meet their unique needs. This has often been an endless and costly chore for most organizations which has seldom met their corporate objectives. Instead, it has resulted in many organizations being unable to adopt the latest software updates and upgrades from their vendors.

Rather than employ an army of consultants to customize traditional applications, Force.com Visual Process Manager promises to give corporate end-users the ability to create and implement business process-oriented applications which can achieve greater utilization in a shorter time-to-value.

It is also important to note that this new functionality is the outgrowth of another recent, yet unannounced, Salesforce.com acquisition of a small SaaS vendor, called Informavores, founded in Scotland.

This week’s announcement that Microsoft and Intuit are linking their respective Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) capabilities has attracted lots of attention and generated plenty of speculation. It is also the latest escalation of the PaaS wars I predicted would take center-stage this year.

Although Salesforce.com’s Force.com PaaS has gained the lion’s share of industry attention because of the company’s unparalleled marketing machine, I’ve felt that Intuit’s Partner Platform (IPP) represented a dark-horse in the PaaS race because of the vast installed base of small- and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) using Intuit’s QuickBooks and QuickBase, along with its powerful channel relationships.

I’ve also believed that Microsoft would make considerable progress in penetrating the cloud computing market this year, not because of the technical capabilities of its Azure PaaS, but because of its historical prowess in building a vast partner network of ISVs and developers.

With those thoughts in mind, here’s my take on the strategic business implications of this alliance,

1. Both companies are aggressively attempting to catch up to Salesforce.com’s Force.com PaaS initiatives both in terms of mindshare and marketshare. Both companies want to quickly expand their reach into the ISV/developer community to strengthen their competitive position in the PaaS market. (Disclosure: I’ve written a series of whitepapers on behalf of Salesforce.com regarding the Force.com capabilities.)
2. Both companies also want to demonstrate the ‘openness’ of their PaaS capabilities to offset the alliances which Salesforce.com has made with Amazon, Google and Facebook, and capitalize on accusations that Salesforce.com’s Force.com PaaS is limited because it is built on a ‘proprietary’ language.
3. Gaining greater market penetration via access to the other party’s installed base of customers and partners is a given, but capitalizing on their respective functional capabilities and channel relationships is important.
4. Intuit is primarily seeking to make its IPP more attractive to developers by expanding the functionality it can provide its PaaS users. Adding Microsoft’s development and collaboration tools, including the Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS) which consists of SharePoint Online, Communications Online, Exchange Online, and Office Live Meeting gives developers greater functional capabilities to satisfy their customers’ needs.
5. Microsoft is primarily interested in adding the service management capabilities embedded in Intuit’s Partner Platform (IPP) which include service provisioning and monitoring, along with pay-as-you-go billing and pricing. Adding these capabilities makes Azure more relevant to developers from a business perspective.

While this alliance is squarely focused on small businesses, it could also appeal to the regional offices or small divisions of larger enterprises. It could also attract crossover opportunities in the consumer market, especially when you consider the growing influence of consumerization in the corporate world.

But, most importantly it could open new opportunities within traditional channels and create new channel opportunities for cloud services and vendors. Salesforce.com, Google, Amazon and Facebook have not made much progress penetrating the channel and will face serious challenges gaining the trust and confidence of traditional channel organizations who feel threatened by the cloud computing phenomenon. Intuit and Microsoft can leverage their established relationships with key channel companies to overcome their concerns.

This alliance is the most recent in Microsoft’s escalating efforts to regain its dominant position in the software market which has been quickly slipping away with the accelerated growth of SaaS and broader cloud computing services. Microsoft also announced earlier this month that it is teaming with HP in a three-year, $250 million initiative to develop and deliver a new generation of cloud-based solutions.

Conspiracy theorists will also point out that Microsoft announced last June that it is discontinuing its Money software service, which leaves a convenient gap for Intuit to fill with its QuickBooks solutions.

While ‘coopetition’ is not a new idea or business practice in the tech industry, this week’s Microsoft-Intuit alliance is certainly an important new test of the concept. Whether this proves to be a win-win relationship or simply a Machiavellian maneuver by these companies remains to be seen.

It is also important to note that this isn’t a mutually exclusive alliance. Microsoft is already working with Amazon, for instance. In fact, it will probably spark additional discussions and agreements with the other players by both parties.

In the ongoing tug-of-war between on-premise and on-demand vendors, much was made of Steve Lucas’ jump from the SaaS unit of SAP’s Business Objects to Salesforce.com to lead its new Force.com Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) initiative a little over a year ago.

With far less fanfare, Lucas returned to SAP last month as its new SVP of Business User Sales for North America. Since Steve is a friend, and SAP and Salesforce.com are also clients, I won’t share any confidential information or insight. However, his move does raise a series of interesting questions about Salesforce.com’s Force.com initiative and SAP’s plans.

Given Salesforce.com’s rapid growth despite the macro-economic slowdown and the major push the company is giving Force.com, it is surprising to see Steve return to SAP which is still struggling to define its Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)/cloud computing strategies and solutions.

While SAP’s struggles have been well documented, Salesforce.com’s PaaS challenges are less well-known. Wall Street analysts have questioned whether Force.com can become a significant revenue generator for the company, and various software vendors and industry observers have debated the merits of building business applications on the platform.

I’ve interviewed a variety of vendors, as well as enterprise decision-makers, who have successfully leveraged Force.com to build business apps and satisfy their corporate objectives. So, I’m convinced that Salesforce.com is heading in the right direction with Force.com. However, there is no question that the PaaS is still embryonic and will go through a series of refinements before it fulfills its promise.

These challenges are minute compared to those facing SAP as it attempts to add SaaS solutions to its legacy applications. So, SAP had to give Steve a pretty good offer to bring him back.

People move between jobs and companies for a combination of personal and professional reasons. Therefore, having one executive jump ship doesn’t necessarily equate to a tidal shift in the marketplace. The SaaS/cloud computing movement continues to accelerate, while legacy software vendors continue to struggle to sustain their sales and profits.

Whatever the reasons were that drove Lucas to return to SAP, it is surprising that the company didn’t capitalize on this opportunity to boast about winning back a key executive in the same way Salesforce.com used Lucas’ defection from SAP to its PR advantage.

More importantly, Lucas’ moves back and forth between the on-premise and on-demand worlds may personify the mixed emotions of various IT/business decision-makers who are also wavering between their legacy on-premise apps and the promise of cloud alternatives.

I had the privilege of attending a local forum at Bentley University hosted by Intuit this past week entitled “Startups and the Cloud: Entrepreneurship in the Age of Cloud Computing”. 

The size of the turnout for this event was another indication of the growing level of interest in Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and the broader cloud computing phenomenon. It may also be an early indicator of the potential power of Intuit as a key player in this rapidly evolving marketplace.

In a previous blog post, I suggested that two of the most important competitive advantages which leading Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) must display are,

• Sustainability in today’s tough economic climate to ensure they are viewed as solid, long-term suppliers of SaaS development and delivery capabilities.
• An attractive customer base which can make the PaaS vendor a viable channel to market for developers leveraging its toolkit.

Intuit easily qualifies as a potentially powerful PaaS candidate based on both of these criteria. It is a solid software vendor that has built an enormously strong base of small- and mid-size businesses (SMBs), as well as households who take advantage of its financial management applications.

More than two hundred current and aspiring software developers attended Intuit’s forum this week. They were interested in getting insight about the overall SaaS and cloud computing market from a combination venture capitalists and CEOs, including Scott Cook of Intuit who provided his perspectives about building a successful software business in today’s rapidly changing market. The attendees were also curious about Intuit’s PaaS capabilities.

The organizers took advantage of the opportunity to showcase Intuit’s rapidly evolving development platform which should appeal to many aspiring SaaS/cloud computing developers that wants to deliver B2B solutions aimed at SMBs, or even B2C solutions aimed at households using Intuit products.

Intuit’s recent acquisitions clearly demonstrate its determination to be a major player in the SaaS and cloud computing marketplace. And, the turnout at last week’s event illustrates that there are plenty of entrepreneurs and software developers who are interested in leveraging Intuit’s position in the market.

Of course, Intuit will have to provide these developers with the right tools at the right price to fulfill its potential as a major PaaS player.

Phil Wainwright has posted a terrific blog entry regarding the ‘green crystals’ that power Salesforce.com’s multi-tenant platform.

The concept of multi-tenancy has been a cornerstone of the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) movement and a key element of the rapidly evolving cloud computing environment as well.

For anyone who is unfamiliar with the term ‘multi-tenancy’, it is borrowed from the housing market and aims to compare today’s leading SaaS/cloud computing vendors to condominium owners who can obtain more luxurious living quarters without the hassles of owning a single-family home by sharing a common infrastructure and operational services.

While this arrangement offers plenty of conveniences, it also requires some sacrifices when it comes to how far you can customize your particular unit, or version of software in the case of SaaS.

While the value proposition of multi-tenancy is easy to understand, it is hard to get a lot of details about how leading SaaS and cloud computing vendors are actually architecting their multi-tenant platforms to develop and deliver their solutions.

Phil’s blog provides valuable insight into Salesforce.com’s approach. But, what he doesn’t fully answer is the question why Salesforce.com is placing greater emphasis on its approach to multi-tenancy today.

I started to notice Marc Benioff and other company officials promoting their multi-tenant architecture prior to the launch of its Force.com Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), and have watched this aspect of their well-choreographed marketing efforts become more prominent over the past year.

I think there are two primary reasons for Salesforce.com’s growing focus on the multi-tenant topic:

1. The growing popularity of SaaS has attracted a proliferation of players, including legacy independent software vendors (LISVs) who are trying to enter the market with hosted versions of their single tenant applications. Salesforce.com is trying to fend off these late entrants by educating IT/business decision-makers about the benefits of multi-tenancy.
2. Salesforce.com is also trying to convince various software vendors, start-ups as well as LISVs, that its Force.com PaaS capabilities are superior to the plethora of competing platforms in the market by revealing more about its ‘green crystals’. This is especially timely because Salesforce.com is accused by many of having a proprietary platform, rather than an open architecture like others.

Phil correctly suggests that it is essential for Salesforce.com to convince enterprise decision-makers of the unique qualities of its multi-tenant architecture. It is also imperative that Salesforce.com do the same for ISVs as it faces growing competition from PaaS offerings from Amazon, Google, IBM, Microsoft and others.