IT Strategic Consulting Services

The rapid growth in interest and adoption of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), cloud computing and managed services has also brought greater attention and demand for THINKstrategies' strategic consulting services focused on the business implications of this shift in the technology industry from product-centric to services-driven solutions.

In 2009, THINKstrategies worked with 105 companies!

These companies included enterprises re-thinking their sourcing strategies; solution providers re-thinking their go-to-market strategies; and tech investors re-thinking their investment strategies.

During the past year, I conducted a wide array of strategy sessions and made numerous presentations to help corporate decision-makers better understand the business benefits of on-demand services and identify ways they can capitalize on these web-based solutions. I also participated in plenty of vendor-sponsored webcasts and published many whitepapers.

Last year, I was also pleased to serve as the chairman of the CloudWorld and CloudFutures conferences; SaaS/cloud computing track chair at NetworkWorld's IT Roadmap and the Interops conference; and continue to participate in SaaScon, SoftLetter's SaaS University, OpSource's SaaS Summit and the SIIA OnDemand Conference.

You can find some of the upcoming events where I'll be speaking or THINKstrategies will be supporting below.

We also launched the Best of SaaS Showplace (BoSS) Awards program a year ago, which generated a tremendous response and produced over 40 winners in its first year!

I'm also proud of the partnerships we established in 2009 with CloudBook, FVG Virtual Channel, Renovatix Solutions, and RepFolio. You can read more about these relationships below.

As a result of all these initiatives, THINKstrategies' SaaS Showplace and Managed Services Showplace sites continue to be the top-ranked, online directories and best practice resource centers in their respective markets according to Google. In 2009, the SaaS Showplace surpassed 1200 company listings across 80 application, industry and enabling technology categories!

We also continue to add more subscribers to our newsletter mailing list which is now distributed to over 12,200 IT/business decision-makers, IT solution providers, technology investors, and business and industry press!

In this Update, I'll share more of my perspectives regarding the past year and predictions for 2010.

I also encourage you to check out a new series of online presentations I'm producing regarding industry trends via Brainshark, an easy-to-use online authoring and distribution tool. I've chosen to practice my Brainshark presentation skills with an overview of THINKstrategies' services, and talk about why SaaS and Cloud Computing matter.

Please contact me if you'd like to learn how you can leverage THINKstrategies' consulting, strategic marketing and education services to capitalize on today's SaaS solutions, cloud computing capabilities and managed services to achieve your business objectives.

Thanks for your continued support!

Jeff Kaplan

Managing Director

THINKstrategies

A Recap of 2009 and Look Ahead to 2010

The past year saw plenty of activity in the SaaS, cloud computing and managed services markets.

The rapid rise in customer interest and demand for these 'on-demand' services has attracted a 'cloud-rush' of new players and offerings. This proliferation of on-demand alternatives has created a buyer's market, which has combined with the slow economy to extend sales cycles and create greater price competition.

Click here to read my recap of the year and review how I did with my 2009 predictions.

Looking ahead to 2010, I think there will be plenty of new opportunities, but an equal number of important challenges for on-demand service providers and IT/business decision-makers within 'user' organizations. Click here to read more about these challenges.

These evolving market trends will also produce new competitive battlefields. Click here to read more about where these battles will be fought.

For fun, you can also find my observations regarding some of the key technology developments over the past year here.

Contact me if you'd like to discuss these trends further or would like to have me present THINKstrategies' perspectives to your management team, staff, customers or partners.

Best of SaaS Showplace Awards Program

A year ago, THINKstrategies launched its Best of SaaS Showplace (BoSS) Awards program to bring greater attention to SaaS providers, as well as cloud computing companies, which are delivering measurable business benefits to their customers.

Since that time, we have received a continuous stream of nominations which have produced over forty BoSS Award winners worldwide across a wide array of application and infrastructure service areas.

Click here to read about the BoSS Award winners to date and learn more about the nomination process.

SaaS Primers

Although interest and adoption of SaaS is growing rapidly, there are still many IT and business decision-makers within organizations of all sizes who are uncertain about whether take advantage of today's SaaS solutions.

Last year, THINKstrategies published a SaaS primer for CIOs to help them better understand these on-demand service alterantives to on-premise applications. Click here to obtain a copy of this primer.

As more organizations adopt SaaS solutions, it is also becoming imperative for a growing number of independent software vendors (ISVs) to adopt a SaaS model as well. Crossing this 'chasm' entails serious challenges for established ISVs. They must,

Re-architect their applications
Re-structure their revenue recognition models
Re-design their go-to-market strategies
Re-orient their staff to be services-driven rather than product-centric

THINKstrategies also published in 2009 a SaaS Primer for ISVs to help these companies better understand these operational requirements. The Primer includes THINKstrategies' fifteen point scorecard which it has developed as a part of its SaaS Readiness Assessment Services program. Click here to obtain a copy of the Primer.

Contact me if you'd like to learn how you can use THINKstrategies to help you educate IT/business decision-makers regarding the benefits of SaaS, or if you'd like more information about our SaaS Readiness Assessment Services program or other consulting services.

THINKstrategies Teams With FVG Virtual, Renovatix Solutions and RepFolio

THINKstrategies is pleased to be partnering with FVG Virtual Channel, Inc. to produce an independent, digital production which will appear on the Economist.com, called "Cloud Computing Set to Unleash a Perfect Storm in Business".

This production will be hosted by Peter Fingar, the author of "Dot.Cloud", and will include industry perspective from THINKstrategies. In addition, Fingar will interview industry leaders and their customers regarding Cloud Computing, including Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), Platforms-as-a-Service (PaaS), and Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS).

Click here to learn about FVG Virtual Channel sponsorship opportunities in this digital production, and contact me if you'd like to learn more about this opportunity.

We also added a new marketplace capability to the SaaS Showplace by teaming with Renovatix Solutions. Now, SaaS Showplace visitors can connect directly with Renovatix Solutions' mySMBstore.com where they can acquire a growing array of SaaS solutions and cloud computing services.

We've also teamed with RepFolio, a rapidly growing network of SaaS/Cloud computing vendors and independent sales professionals.

Contact me if you'd like to learn more about these partnerships or would like to explore ways you can team with THINKstrategies.

Upcoming Events

Although the year is just getting underway, my travel plans are already starting to pile up.

In addition to a series of corporate kickoff meetings and strategy sessions where I'll be providing THINKstrategies' perspective, here are some of important industry events which I'll either be participating in or supporting in the coming months,