IT Strategic Consulting Services

While many of you were taking advantage of the holidays to relax and reflect on the past year and the new one to come, we spent the past few weeks updating and upgrading our website, and preparing for the launch of a series of new services and initiatives in 2009.

Despite last year's economic crisis, THINKstrategies experienced tremendous growth in 2008. Our success was a reflection of the growing interest among IT/business decision-makers, solution providers and investors in on-demand services.

Not only did THINKstrategies' business grow, but our SaaS Showplace and Managed Services Showplace online directories and resource centers also added many more company listings, whitepapers, webinars and other valuable resources.

As a result, the Showplace sites are now the top ranked online directories in the SaaS and Managed Services markets on Google!

I'm also proud that this newsletter added over 2500 subscribers in 2008, and is now distributed to over 10,500 IT/business decision-makers, IT solution providers, technology investors, and business and industry press!

There is no question that 2009 will be a more difficult year for all of us. You can find our top ten predictions for the new year below.

THINKstrategies is committed to being the most 'trusted advisor' to IT/business decision-makers who want to leverage the right on-demand solutions to achieve their corporate objectives; IT solution providers who are trying to gain a competitive advantage in the market; and technology investors looking for the best on-demand service providers to support.

In addition to our top ten predictions for 2009, this newsletter includes an update of all the enhancements we've made to our website, as well as our latest research and perspectives on the market.

Please contact me if you'd like to learn how you can leverage THINKstrategies' consulting and strategic marketing services to achieve your business objectives.

I also welcome your feedback and suggestions regarding our website enhancements and industry perspectives.

Best wishes for a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year!

Jeff Kaplan

Managing Director

THINKstrategies

Predictions for the On-Demand Services Market in 2009

THINKstrategies believes the on-demand services market is poised to experience tremendous growth in 2009.

However, these growth opportunities are counter-balanced with a significant set of challenges due to today's unprecedented economic crisis and the rapid maturation process reshaping the market.

Click here to read my top ten predictions for the on-demand services market in 2009.

Contact me if you'd like to discuss these predictions or would like to learn how you can leverage THINKstrategies' services to properly respond to the on-demand market opportunities and challenges.

THINKstrategies Website Enhancements and Added Features

If you've taken a look at our predictions for 2009 above, you may have noticed the new look and location of my blog. This is just one of many updates and upgrades we've made to the THINKstrategies website.

We've made the following enhancements to the THINKstrategies website in order to make it more valuable and easy to navigate,

Migrated the THINK IT Services blog from Blogspot to WordPress and integrated the blog into the THINKstrategies website. You can now find the blog at www.thinkstrategies.com/blog/. (Be sure to update your RSS feeds.)
Streamlined the website navigation to make it easier for visitors to find our latest research, services, commentaries, podcasts/webcasts, press mentions, news and events.
Added a Customers page, so prospective clients can see the types of companies we've helped over the past seven years.
Added a new Strategic Alliances page to show prospective clients and partners the extensive 'ecosystem' which THINKstrategies has created.
Created links to our latest video links and sample presentations. We've added videos from the SIIA On-Demand Conference and posted a set of THINKstrategies presentations on SlideShare.
Added Google Search to make it easier for visitors to find THINKstrategies' information and insight regarding SaaS, cloud computing, managed services and other on-demand market trends across our websites.

These changes were made possible with the help of Trigent, an IT professional services company focused on software development, integration, implementation, support and outsourcing through its hybrid onshore and offshore operating model.

Latest SaaS Research

THINKstrategies' latest SaaS survey in conjunction with Cutter Consortium not only found that the level of SaaS adoption doubled in 2008, but also identified the types of vendors customers prefer and uncovered the reasons why some organizations continue to refrain from leveraging SaaS solutions.

Click here to obtain copies of our latest Executive Updates entitled "Customer Concerns Continue to Constrain SaaS Growth", and "SaaS Market Proliferation: Buyer's Market or Industry Shakeout?", as well as our initial Executive Update entitled "SaaS Market Surging".

New Showplace Sponsors, Perspectives and Benefits

NTRglobal is the newest sponsor of the SaaS Showplace. NTRglobal is a leading provider of remote support, remote access and remote systems management solutions.

NTRglobal has contributed a whitepaper entitled, "Achieving Sustainable Business Growth With A Remote Support Solution", to the SaaS Showplace.

Ping Identity, a leading provider of secure single-on solutions for on-demand services, has also posted a whitepaper on the Showplace entitled, "Federated Identity and Software as a Service (SaaS): Single Sign-on to the Cloud."

The Managed Services and SaaS Showplace Best Practice Portals, powered by iCentera, includes additional whitepapers regarding managed services and SaaS industry trends and how-to guides.

Many thanks to our 2008 sponsors for their support of the SaaS and Managed Services Showplace directories and resource centers.

Click here if you'd like to learn more about Showplace sponsorships.

Upcoming Events

In 2008, I participated in over 60 vendor-sponsored webcasts, company events and industry panels.