I know, I know. "Inventory management" and "the mobile, social cloud" seem about as related as chalk and cheese. But hear me out (or whatever the literal equivalent is for readers of my blog).
It turns out that how well you manage inventories of the things customers buy is often the prime determinant of how those customers perceive that business. It doesn't matter how appealing it is to do business with you if you don't have or can't find what I want in a timely fashion.
It also turns out that how well your business leverages information technology (IT) directly affects how well it manages inventory. And that if yours is like many if not most businesses, 60 to 80 percent of your IT budget is being spent just to keep what you've got working. Which doesn't leave much room for innovation. Or even improvement to critical business processes such as delivering what customers want in a timely fashion.
Meanwhile, your customers, partners, prospects, competitors and purchase influencers are all increasingly inhabitants of that mobile, social cloud. Which means your company has to be there too.
So what you and your company need is a way to free up more IT resources and to be able to channel more of these to the challenges of better infrastructure management.
Turns out cloud-based resources can help in both areas.
Cloud-based infrastructure management solutions and processes can help your company to automate and offload much of that stuff on which your company's spending most of its IT budget. This will free up dollars and human bandwidth to do other things.
And there are a growing range of premise-based, cloud-based and cloud-enabled inventory management solutions. You can find a great rundown of several of these in an article published by Inc. in May 2011. My favorite: Fishbowl Inventory. It integrates with Intuit's QuickBooks and offers options that can take a company from better inventory management to more and better sales, fulfillment and resource planning and management, as recently covered by eWeek.
Inventory management may sound boring, and often is boring when done manually or using traditional tools. But if you think about and act upon it as the business-critical performance metric it really is, and look to the cloud for help, inventory management could be the coolest challenge you take on in 2012 and beyond.
A Special Offer: If you're interested in Fishbowl Inventory, drop a line to vip@fishbowlinventory.com. I've negotiated a relationship with the company that guarantees that every one of my readers who uses that e-mail address will get priority treatment and help getting started with their free trial of the software. And if you promise to share your feedback with me for possible inclusion in future blog posts or research (anonymously if you prefer), you'll get undying gratitude from me -- AND a five-percent discount from Fishbowl if you purchase Fishbowl Inventory! A win for everybody!
Showing posts with label SaaS. Show all posts
Showing posts with label SaaS. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Cloud-Enabled Infrastructure Management: A Two-Way Need
Is the technology infrastructure upon which your business relies ready for "the cloud(s)?"
As with every meaningful one-on-one relationship, cloud-enabled infrastructure management (or "CEIM," as in "things are not always as they…") is definitely a bidirectional exercise. (Or, if you must, a "two-phase commit.")
Why? Because you've not only got to manage cloud-based business resources alongside any premise-based resources -- the computers at your facilities that are running the applications your business needs -- critical to your business. You've also got to figure out whether and how best to add cloud-based management resources to your current infrastructure management portfolio.
Whew. A step back, upwards and outwards seems appropriate here.
Your business relies upon its technology infrastructure to survive, let alone to thrive competitively. This is increasingly true given the growth of "the mobile, social cloud." Even if your business does no business online (yet!), people are influencing how your business is perceived online, likely even as you read this. Which means you need an infrastructure that enables your business to know and respond to what's being said about it online, in addition to all the other things necessary to make your business work.
Also, neither your technology budget nor your technology staff is infinite, if you even have any of either. Which means you've got to focus on solutions that maximize benefits while minimizing cost and complexity. Which means you either are looking at cloud-based solutions or will be soon. Especially if you own or work for a small or mid-sized business or "SMB." Which means you've got to be able to manage them at least as well as you're managing your current business technology tools.
And no, the tools and processes you've been using to manage premise-based resources are not adequate by themselves to manage cloud-based services too. And yes, there's a growing range of cloud-based infrastructure management services you need to consider. Especially if you're using or considering cloud-based business computing services as adjuncts to or replacements for any premise-based resources.
How to begin? Focus on what infrastructure management is supposed to help your business to do. Run better.
From that perspective, here are four things every infrastructure management solution and process must do, wherever it happens to reside.
Collect all relevant data on use and performance. (Process point: be clear on what's really "relevant.")
Refine that data into actionable information.
Optimize that information based on business-specific goals and processes.
Promulgate that information across all affected constituencies, via reports they can all understand and use.
Then, lather, rinse and repeat. Think of it as a "CROP circle" for the infrastructure that enables and empowers your business. Only less mysterious and controversial than other similarly named items.
Your business' need for an effective CEIM strategy creates a great opportunity to ensure that all of your infrastructure management efforts meet your specific CROP requirements and goals. Take full advantage of that opportunity, and make sure that Sales, Marketing, Operations, IT and all other directly affected constituencies have a seat at the table.
A Request and An Offer: If you'll spend fewer than 10 minutes answering six questions about cloud-enabled infrastructure management and including at least an e-mail address, I'll send you a complementary summary of the results and my analysis and recommendations. You can find the survey at https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ZKSRM9M -- please take it and tell everyone you know to do the same. Thanks!
As with every meaningful one-on-one relationship, cloud-enabled infrastructure management (or "CEIM," as in "things are not always as they…") is definitely a bidirectional exercise. (Or, if you must, a "two-phase commit.")
Why? Because you've not only got to manage cloud-based business resources alongside any premise-based resources -- the computers at your facilities that are running the applications your business needs -- critical to your business. You've also got to figure out whether and how best to add cloud-based management resources to your current infrastructure management portfolio.
Whew. A step back, upwards and outwards seems appropriate here.
Your business relies upon its technology infrastructure to survive, let alone to thrive competitively. This is increasingly true given the growth of "the mobile, social cloud." Even if your business does no business online (yet!), people are influencing how your business is perceived online, likely even as you read this. Which means you need an infrastructure that enables your business to know and respond to what's being said about it online, in addition to all the other things necessary to make your business work.
Also, neither your technology budget nor your technology staff is infinite, if you even have any of either. Which means you've got to focus on solutions that maximize benefits while minimizing cost and complexity. Which means you either are looking at cloud-based solutions or will be soon. Especially if you own or work for a small or mid-sized business or "SMB." Which means you've got to be able to manage them at least as well as you're managing your current business technology tools.
And no, the tools and processes you've been using to manage premise-based resources are not adequate by themselves to manage cloud-based services too. And yes, there's a growing range of cloud-based infrastructure management services you need to consider. Especially if you're using or considering cloud-based business computing services as adjuncts to or replacements for any premise-based resources.
How to begin? Focus on what infrastructure management is supposed to help your business to do. Run better.
From that perspective, here are four things every infrastructure management solution and process must do, wherever it happens to reside.
Collect all relevant data on use and performance. (Process point: be clear on what's really "relevant.")
Refine that data into actionable information.
Optimize that information based on business-specific goals and processes.
Promulgate that information across all affected constituencies, via reports they can all understand and use.
Then, lather, rinse and repeat. Think of it as a "CROP circle" for the infrastructure that enables and empowers your business. Only less mysterious and controversial than other similarly named items.
Your business' need for an effective CEIM strategy creates a great opportunity to ensure that all of your infrastructure management efforts meet your specific CROP requirements and goals. Take full advantage of that opportunity, and make sure that Sales, Marketing, Operations, IT and all other directly affected constituencies have a seat at the table.
A Request and An Offer: If you'll spend fewer than 10 minutes answering six questions about cloud-enabled infrastructure management and including at least an e-mail address, I'll send you a complementary summary of the results and my analysis and recommendations. You can find the survey at https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ZKSRM9M -- please take it and tell everyone you know to do the same. Thanks!
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Cloud Extend for Salesforce: Jedi Mind Tricks for More and Better Sales
In the very first "Star Wars" movie to be commercially released (as opposed to the first episode in the saga, which was the fourth movie to be released, I think -- but I digress), the first Jedi mind trick shown was Jedi master Obi-Wan Kenobi getting a security droid to replace what it was planning to say with what Obi-Wan wanted the droid to say. ("These are not the droids you're looking for.") No muss, no fuss -- the security droid just followed the script the Jedi wrote for him, word for word, with no objections, and the process of escape proceeded according to Obi-Wan's plan.
Would that salespeople were as easily manipulated. Once an Obi-Wan had been identified, he or she could write the script, then distribute it to all of their colleagues, who would follow it perfectly and generate more sales faster than ever before.
If this scenario appeals to you, you should take a look at Cloud Extend for Salesforce, introduced by Active Endpoints at the Dreamforce conference/revival meeting/festival in San Francisco last week.
Here's what Cloud Extend for Salesforce let you do. And by "you," I mean "almost any sales manager or other business-savvy decision maker unafraid to perform basic editing tasks on a typical modern networked computing device. You know, like with a Web browser." You can create guides -- step-by-step recipes for specific sales-related tasks, such as lead nurturing. Active Endpoints calls these "guidance trees," and that's an apt visual description. Remember flowcharts? They look a bit like those, only sideways. They result in scripts users can be instructed to follow explicitly or to treat as suggestions, depending on the sophistication of the user being guided.
You can then easily add specific Salesforce.com actions to specific steps in each script. You can then publish the script, which each user can access and follow from within the already-comfortable Salesforce.com interface. Without leaving the specific task that user is doing. And the scripts capture all kinds of useful information about how well the scripts and their users perform.
Sales managers can build customized scripts that automate and help to improve key business processes. Users get scripts to follow based on proven processes and practices. The adoption and business value of Salesforce.com increases. And little to no IT involvement is required.
If your company uses or is considering using Salesforce.com to support sales efforts, you must look closely at Cloud Extend for Salesforce. Active Endpoints boasts that the solution can "make every sales rep your best rep." If you add Cloud Extend for Salesforce to a well-working Salesforce.com environment and use the information produced to improve and extend your sales processes, that boast will prove true. And likely encourage you to explore opportunities for similar successes beyond sales. As I'm sure Active Endpoints is doing even as you read this…
Would that salespeople were as easily manipulated. Once an Obi-Wan had been identified, he or she could write the script, then distribute it to all of their colleagues, who would follow it perfectly and generate more sales faster than ever before.
If this scenario appeals to you, you should take a look at Cloud Extend for Salesforce, introduced by Active Endpoints at the Dreamforce conference/revival meeting/festival in San Francisco last week.
Here's what Cloud Extend for Salesforce let you do. And by "you," I mean "almost any sales manager or other business-savvy decision maker unafraid to perform basic editing tasks on a typical modern networked computing device. You know, like with a Web browser." You can create guides -- step-by-step recipes for specific sales-related tasks, such as lead nurturing. Active Endpoints calls these "guidance trees," and that's an apt visual description. Remember flowcharts? They look a bit like those, only sideways. They result in scripts users can be instructed to follow explicitly or to treat as suggestions, depending on the sophistication of the user being guided.
You can then easily add specific Salesforce.com actions to specific steps in each script. You can then publish the script, which each user can access and follow from within the already-comfortable Salesforce.com interface. Without leaving the specific task that user is doing. And the scripts capture all kinds of useful information about how well the scripts and their users perform.
Sales managers can build customized scripts that automate and help to improve key business processes. Users get scripts to follow based on proven processes and practices. The adoption and business value of Salesforce.com increases. And little to no IT involvement is required.
If your company uses or is considering using Salesforce.com to support sales efforts, you must look closely at Cloud Extend for Salesforce. Active Endpoints boasts that the solution can "make every sales rep your best rep." If you add Cloud Extend for Salesforce to a well-working Salesforce.com environment and use the information produced to improve and extend your sales processes, that boast will prove true. And likely encourage you to explore opportunities for similar successes beyond sales. As I'm sure Active Endpoints is doing even as you read this…
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Sococo: Real Teamwork in Real Time, in the Cloud
When Gene Roddenberry created the original "Star Trek" television series, he was adamant that the starship Enterprise be big enough to hold hundreds of people. Why? Because then it would be like a street, a large dormitory or an office. A random walk could lead to an unexpected adventure, conversation or great idea.
That's really the only remaining justification for making people come to a common workplace anymore. But it's a powerful justification -- one that's been impossible to replicate faithfully online until Sococo.
I could spend thousands more words, most of which you'd probably skim or skip, trying to explain what makes Sococo so cool, special and fraught with implications for cloud computing and collaboration. Instead, let me try to summarize just enough to get you to try it out.
With Sococo, your computer screen, and that of each of your teammates, is transformed into what looks like an overhead view of the layout of a set of offices, complete with a lobby, conference rooms and common areas, if you want. You can see everyone, know their status, arrange and hold formal meetings and engage in informal spontaneous collaborations. You can also share computer screens and put other applications from the Web, the cloud or elsewhere up on "walls" visible to everyone at your meeting. Oh, and you can communicate via voice or typed on-screen chat, public or private. All within a single interface you can learn well enough to teach others in about the time it'll likely take you to finish reading this blog post.
Neither too many more words nor even a screen shot can do Sococo justice. A poke around the company Web site will help, but only a little. What you need to do is to sign up for the free trial, download the Sococo client software and invite two, three or more colleagues to join your "team." Doesn't matter where they are as long as they have Web access. In less than 30 minutes, you'll start thinking about more and more ways you can use Sococo, in concert with and instead of almost all of the communication and collaboration tools you're using right now.
Sococo adds to online, location-independent collaboration almost everything that's good and useful about collaborating in a shared physical space in real time. Especially including opportunities for spontaneous, ad hoc collaboration, idea germination and cross-pollination. And it enables a level of social interaction among collaborators I've never seen done quite as well online. And I'll wager it looks almost nothing like any cloud-based collaboration tool you're using now. Check it out, and do let me know what you think.
That's really the only remaining justification for making people come to a common workplace anymore. But it's a powerful justification -- one that's been impossible to replicate faithfully online until Sococo.
I could spend thousands more words, most of which you'd probably skim or skip, trying to explain what makes Sococo so cool, special and fraught with implications for cloud computing and collaboration. Instead, let me try to summarize just enough to get you to try it out.
With Sococo, your computer screen, and that of each of your teammates, is transformed into what looks like an overhead view of the layout of a set of offices, complete with a lobby, conference rooms and common areas, if you want. You can see everyone, know their status, arrange and hold formal meetings and engage in informal spontaneous collaborations. You can also share computer screens and put other applications from the Web, the cloud or elsewhere up on "walls" visible to everyone at your meeting. Oh, and you can communicate via voice or typed on-screen chat, public or private. All within a single interface you can learn well enough to teach others in about the time it'll likely take you to finish reading this blog post.
Neither too many more words nor even a screen shot can do Sococo justice. A poke around the company Web site will help, but only a little. What you need to do is to sign up for the free trial, download the Sococo client software and invite two, three or more colleagues to join your "team." Doesn't matter where they are as long as they have Web access. In less than 30 minutes, you'll start thinking about more and more ways you can use Sococo, in concert with and instead of almost all of the communication and collaboration tools you're using right now.
Sococo adds to online, location-independent collaboration almost everything that's good and useful about collaborating in a shared physical space in real time. Especially including opportunities for spontaneous, ad hoc collaboration, idea germination and cross-pollination. And it enables a level of social interaction among collaborators I've never seen done quite as well online. And I'll wager it looks almost nothing like any cloud-based collaboration tool you're using now. Check it out, and do let me know what you think.
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
ERP in the Cloud, and Beyond: Expandable Software's Bob Swedroe
Bob Swedroe is President and CEO of Expandable Software. Expandable provides solutions for enterprise resource planning (ERP) and other business functions, with three key twists.
First off, Expandable offers on-site or cloud-based implementations, depending on user preferences and business needs. Secondly, the company promises seamless integration with what Bob calls "best-of-market solutions." Third, the folks who actually get Expandable solutions up and running for customers are Expandable employees. This gives the company more direct influence over how these implementers do their jobs. This, in turn, lets Expandable offer some pretty impressive levels of support and service.
Bob's a big believer in cloud-based and software as a service (SaaS) solutions, but his perspective is refreshingly different from that of some of his industry peers. So I thought I'd ask him three pointed questions about the business software market. Please enjoy!
Q1: What is the single greatest challenge to success for software providers seeking to deliver modern business software solutions?
A1: The single greatest challenge is a level up from integration…I’d say flexibility in meeting business [requirements] while continuing to reduce the infrastructure worries. Businesses of all sizes want to focus on business rather than systems. This is driving force [behind] SaaS momentum.
Market trending is toward new business models of marketing and selling. We see this with our own business and with the [history of all] business software. We’ve come from point products to integrated business functions. ERP [solutions] by definition are single platforms that have integrated many business functions [originally performed by] point products. Now we are swinging back to point solutions as obviously there is a market for robust point solutions that bring a focused and higher level of complexity and flexibility to solve the issues at hand.
Software providers need to remain true to their core vision AND learn to integrate seamlessly (really seamlessly) with other applications such that the combined applications work together and [are] flexible enough to provide the best-of-breed solution. While the delivery method of the particular application is not important (i.e., on site or SaaS), the application must be able to integrate seamlessly and efficiently with other key applications residing in the cloud.
Again, companies don’t want to worry about the infrastructure. They just want it to work; and it will, because those that don't won't survive.
Q2: What is the single greatest challenge to success for enterprises seeking to deploy business-critical modern business software solutions?
A2: Probably the single biggest challenge is to be able to create a solid, dedicated, focused team [that] includes the company employees and the business solutions provider's employees. In addition, there needs to be complete executive-level support for the implementation to have a good chance of success – and the implementation of a review and monitoring process for the implementation.
Very often, unrealistic demands are set as employees are expected to do their normal job and also to "suck it up" and be on the deployment team. Execs need to be at least aware of the risks and consequences of taking employee’s [personal] bandwidth for granted.
One critical element that is so often overlooked is to find a software solution provider that is a true business partner. As a business partner they should be engaged and concerned about the success of your business. In essence, they become a valued extension of your internal team. The only way to know for sure how good a business partner is a software solution provider, is to perform a very thorough job of due diligence on the software provider. (Editorial Note: you can register to receive a free white paper from Expandable on checking vendor references at http://dortchon.it/gInN9J.)
Sage [an Expandable competitor] just recently created and appointed a Chief Customer Officer (CCO), but many ERP companies and business solutions companies sell, then “drop” their customers. To further add complexity to the issue, if the application is sold, delivered and implemented by a reseller, then the [purchasing] company not only has to perform proper due diligence on the software provider, but also on the reseller as well.
Salesforce.com realizes this as well and has a transfer after the sale to a Customer Success Manager that has primary focus on the customer success with the product. Expandable has a model where everyone [from the company] is/can be involved with the success of our customers.
Q3: What do you see as the next "great leap forward" for the modern business software solutions market - technological, organizational, perceptual or otherwise?
A3: The next "great leap forward" will be driven by the organizational/social changes that are coming as the "new generation" of employee comes through the ranks and the "Baby Boomers" leave. Essentially, the new ways versus old ways of how people work [and] socialize, and their comfort level with new technology will force this change – ubiquitous computing, networking, and real-time information access. The changes will happen. The question now is, how fast? The rate of change will be different for [different] applications and…functions (i.e., sales versus manufacturing.
For many modern software solutions, changes will happen faster than we think. The next generation of successful companies (and their employees) is driving this [change] hard and fast – and it will be adopted. Just 10 years ago there was a war of ATM [Asynchronous Transfer Mode] vs. IP [Internet Protocol]. The big companies drove the adoption [choice] and IP won.
Now the "war" is [between] the cloud or on-site [software deployment]. The younger generation and the now-popular new big companies on the block – Google, Amazon, Salesforce.com, etc. are the new, exciting and upcoming. The old [guard] – Microsoft, IBM (although they are very resilient and probably will continue to be), Oracle, SAP,…etc. [will] be less of a "mover and shaker" and either move with the flow and adjust or move to the background…. This is happening in the marketplace. I believe this trend will increase as the big leap toward more cloud [computing swings us] back to centralized computing to some degree….
Bottom line: there will be ubiquitous business tools available anywhere, anytime for a world that is moving very fast toward a mobile and remote workforce. However, having said that, a key point to consider is [that] the importance of ubiquitous and mobile computing will be dependent on an employee’s role/function in the organization.
Dortch's Recommendations
The more mobile, social and collegial Web is not coming. It's here, and getting bigger, faster and more important to more businesses every day. In this brave new online world, business agility and success will be determined largely by a company's ability to adapt business processes and infrastructures as necessary to identify and meet customer needs most effectively.
Whether your company sells business software, uses business software or both, these trends are going to affect what's available to you and your business. Increasingly, where your applications are hosted will matter less, while the ability to deliver ready access to them where, when and as needed will matter more. And your chosen providers are going to have major if not primary impact on your company's ability to succeed with its chosen technological solutions.
If you haven't already, begin now to focus on due diligence, regarding both your chosen solutions and providers and with your organization's stated goals and plans. Make sure that all of the above are aligned closely and correctly with what your customers and prospects care about most, and with your company's core strengths. And if your solution providers can't provide the assistance and support your business needs to succeed, consider replacing them – based on careful due diligence, of course.
First off, Expandable offers on-site or cloud-based implementations, depending on user preferences and business needs. Secondly, the company promises seamless integration with what Bob calls "best-of-market solutions." Third, the folks who actually get Expandable solutions up and running for customers are Expandable employees. This gives the company more direct influence over how these implementers do their jobs. This, in turn, lets Expandable offer some pretty impressive levels of support and service.
Bob's a big believer in cloud-based and software as a service (SaaS) solutions, but his perspective is refreshingly different from that of some of his industry peers. So I thought I'd ask him three pointed questions about the business software market. Please enjoy!
Q1: What is the single greatest challenge to success for software providers seeking to deliver modern business software solutions?
A1: The single greatest challenge is a level up from integration…I’d say flexibility in meeting business [requirements] while continuing to reduce the infrastructure worries. Businesses of all sizes want to focus on business rather than systems. This is driving force [behind] SaaS momentum.
Market trending is toward new business models of marketing and selling. We see this with our own business and with the [history of all] business software. We’ve come from point products to integrated business functions. ERP [solutions] by definition are single platforms that have integrated many business functions [originally performed by] point products. Now we are swinging back to point solutions as obviously there is a market for robust point solutions that bring a focused and higher level of complexity and flexibility to solve the issues at hand.
Software providers need to remain true to their core vision AND learn to integrate seamlessly (really seamlessly) with other applications such that the combined applications work together and [are] flexible enough to provide the best-of-breed solution. While the delivery method of the particular application is not important (i.e., on site or SaaS), the application must be able to integrate seamlessly and efficiently with other key applications residing in the cloud.
Again, companies don’t want to worry about the infrastructure. They just want it to work; and it will, because those that don't won't survive.
Q2: What is the single greatest challenge to success for enterprises seeking to deploy business-critical modern business software solutions?
A2: Probably the single biggest challenge is to be able to create a solid, dedicated, focused team [that] includes the company employees and the business solutions provider's employees. In addition, there needs to be complete executive-level support for the implementation to have a good chance of success – and the implementation of a review and monitoring process for the implementation.
Very often, unrealistic demands are set as employees are expected to do their normal job and also to "suck it up" and be on the deployment team. Execs need to be at least aware of the risks and consequences of taking employee’s [personal] bandwidth for granted.
One critical element that is so often overlooked is to find a software solution provider that is a true business partner. As a business partner they should be engaged and concerned about the success of your business. In essence, they become a valued extension of your internal team. The only way to know for sure how good a business partner is a software solution provider, is to perform a very thorough job of due diligence on the software provider. (Editorial Note: you can register to receive a free white paper from Expandable on checking vendor references at http://dortchon.it/gInN9J.)
Sage [an Expandable competitor] just recently created and appointed a Chief Customer Officer (CCO), but many ERP companies and business solutions companies sell, then “drop” their customers. To further add complexity to the issue, if the application is sold, delivered and implemented by a reseller, then the [purchasing] company not only has to perform proper due diligence on the software provider, but also on the reseller as well.
Salesforce.com realizes this as well and has a transfer after the sale to a Customer Success Manager that has primary focus on the customer success with the product. Expandable has a model where everyone [from the company] is/can be involved with the success of our customers.
Q3: What do you see as the next "great leap forward" for the modern business software solutions market - technological, organizational, perceptual or otherwise?
A3: The next "great leap forward" will be driven by the organizational/social changes that are coming as the "new generation" of employee comes through the ranks and the "Baby Boomers" leave. Essentially, the new ways versus old ways of how people work [and] socialize, and their comfort level with new technology will force this change – ubiquitous computing, networking, and real-time information access. The changes will happen. The question now is, how fast? The rate of change will be different for [different] applications and…functions (i.e., sales versus manufacturing.
For many modern software solutions, changes will happen faster than we think. The next generation of successful companies (and their employees) is driving this [change] hard and fast – and it will be adopted. Just 10 years ago there was a war of ATM [Asynchronous Transfer Mode] vs. IP [Internet Protocol]. The big companies drove the adoption [choice] and IP won.
Now the "war" is [between] the cloud or on-site [software deployment]. The younger generation and the now-popular new big companies on the block – Google, Amazon, Salesforce.com, etc. are the new, exciting and upcoming. The old [guard] – Microsoft, IBM (although they are very resilient and probably will continue to be), Oracle, SAP,…etc. [will] be less of a "mover and shaker" and either move with the flow and adjust or move to the background…. This is happening in the marketplace. I believe this trend will increase as the big leap toward more cloud [computing swings us] back to centralized computing to some degree….
Bottom line: there will be ubiquitous business tools available anywhere, anytime for a world that is moving very fast toward a mobile and remote workforce. However, having said that, a key point to consider is [that] the importance of ubiquitous and mobile computing will be dependent on an employee’s role/function in the organization.
Dortch's Recommendations
The more mobile, social and collegial Web is not coming. It's here, and getting bigger, faster and more important to more businesses every day. In this brave new online world, business agility and success will be determined largely by a company's ability to adapt business processes and infrastructures as necessary to identify and meet customer needs most effectively.
Whether your company sells business software, uses business software or both, these trends are going to affect what's available to you and your business. Increasingly, where your applications are hosted will matter less, while the ability to deliver ready access to them where, when and as needed will matter more. And your chosen providers are going to have major if not primary impact on your company's ability to succeed with its chosen technological solutions.
If you haven't already, begin now to focus on due diligence, regarding both your chosen solutions and providers and with your organization's stated goals and plans. Make sure that all of the above are aligned closely and correctly with what your customers and prospects care about most, and with your company's core strengths. And if your solution providers can't provide the assistance and support your business needs to succeed, consider replacing them – based on careful due diligence, of course.
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Sinclair Schuller, CEO of Apprenda: the Dortch on SaaS 3-Q Interview
Greetings. I’m refining and revising an interview format I first borrowed/adapted from my friend and colleague Philippe Winthrop of the Enterprise Mobility Foundation. Today’s 3-Q Interview is with Sinclair Schuller, CEO of Apprenda. Apprenda sells software that helps other software companies to deliver SaaS/cloud-based solutions more easily, economically, efficiently and rapidly. Sinclair has some interesting things to say to companies seeking to deliver or to deploy SaaS/cloud-based solutions, as you’ll see right now!
Q1: What is the single greatest challenge to success for software providers seeking to deliver SaaS/on-demand solutions?
A1: Easily, it’s understanding the technical and operating transition that a product company must go through to become a successful and profitable service provider. Software companies that sell on-premises products are not accustomed to offering a service that costs money – they’re used to selling perpetual licenses that have no unit cost associated with the license. As SaaS providers, they’ll be paying for servers, bandwidth, staff, and a number of other things. How efficiently they deliver their software to leverage these costs will play into determining how profitable they are. For example, choosing to not have a multi-tenant architecture could have dire economic consequences on a unit cost level.
[Editorial Aside: there is a debate in the software industry about how relevant multi-tenancy – the ability to support multiple separate groups of users with a single copy of an application – is to cloud computing and SaaS. I recommend that you read a 2008 ZD Net blog post by SaaS/cloud veteran Phil Wainewright, “Why Multi-tenancy Matters.” I also recommend a February 2010 Information Week blog post, “Why Multitenancy Matters in the Cloud,” by Alok Misra, who works for a company that provides cloud-based applications and SaaS enablement services. Without getting to far into the weeds here, multi-tenancy is an important tool for every provider of SaaS/cloud-based solutions, but is not the only way to support multiple users cost-effectively, and may not always be the best way. Back to Sinclair.]
Operationally, [those software companies] need to consider a bevy of other issues: how will I provision customers to the SaaS offering? Will they self provision? Does it require manual labor? How will I track what customer owes what money based on usage? How will I roll out an update across dozens or even hundreds of servers with minimal downtime? All of these critical considerations play into the single greatest challenge: transitioning from a product company to a service company. We work with Microsoft .NET ISVs [independent software vendors] that struggle with these questions every day, so it’s given us amazing insight.
Q2: What is the single greatest challenge to success for enterprises seeking to deploy business-critical SaaS/on-demand solutions?
A2: Establishing trust. Enterprises have built significant confidence in their IT competence, and despite carrying the costs of direct responsibility, they lower their trust [concerns] since “it’s run in-house.” Enterprises need to understand that in reality (using subjective measure) deploying a SaaS offering is safer and more trustworthy in nearly all regards. After all, do these enterprises hide their money on-premises “under a mattress” or let a third-party provider – a bank – guard their most liquid assets?
Q3: What do you see as the next "great leap forward" for the SaaS/on-demand solutions market – technological, organizational, perceptual or otherwise?
A3: I think the great leap forward will be SaaS enablement. To date, most SaaS/cloud offerings have been built as “one-offs.” That is, each SaaS company re-invented the wheel by dealing with a huge amount of SaaS-specific architecture. Technologies like SaaSGrid will define the “gold standard” of architectures by defining advanced cloud middleware, allowing companies to leverage robust SaaS stacks. This will catalyze the development of new innovative SaaS solutions by drastically reducing the amount of engineering and money spent in building pure SaaS offerings. At the end of the day, it means that the end user will have many, many more SaaS applications to choose from because someone else has helped with the architectural heavy lifting.
Dortch’s Recommendations:
R1: If you are a business technology decision makers pursuing or considering SaaS/cloud-based solutions, find a partner – a reseller or integrator, preferably one with which you’ve worked before – who “gets” your business and how SaaS/cloud solutions are evolving. If you’re a small or mid-sized business, you just don’t have the resources to devote to figuring this SaaS/cloud stuff out without help. And even if your company has an IT department, it might be worth bringing in some outside perspective, and you’re going to have to buy your solutions from someplace. It might as well be someone who knows stuff, rather than someone who just sells stuff. And if you work for a reseller or integrator, make sure your company is asking the right questions and implementing the right knowledge, policies, practices and technologies that will enable it to become such a partner – or consider changing jobs.
(In this context, I highly recommend to users, resellers and integrators the “SaaS 2.0” blog by Dan Druker of Intacct, especially the recent entries on “SaaS & Cloud Computing and the Channel.” And for what is intended as a darkly humorous take on IT teams and SaaS/cloud solutions, check out my blog post, “The Cloud? You Ain't READY for the CLOUD! (Or ARE You??)”)
R2: Once you’ve identified one or more candidate partners, as Ronald Reagan so often admonished his Soviet Union counterparts back when there was a Soviet Union, “trust, but verify.” Ask questions about multi-tenancy, data center redundancy and other critical elements of the infrastructures that will be supporting the services upon which your company relies. And ask even harder and more specific questions about your prospective partners’ relevant business experience and expertise, and their track record in helping companies similar to yours succeed with SaaS/cloud-based solutions. Make sure to record the results of these Q&A sessions, for prospective partner comparisons and because they likely each contain information you can use, no matter which partner or partners you ultimately choose.
R3: When selecting SaaS/cloud-based solutions and partners alike, focus on those that are focused on combining proven and broadly supported underlying practices, processes and technologies. Integration of new solutions and processes with the resources your company already uses and understands is paramount to the success of any new solutions, SaaS/cloud-based or otherwise. And just like you likely don’t have time to become a SaaS/cloud expert and to run your business, few if any vendors or resellers can succeed by inventing and building everything from scratch. So keep an eye on companies such as Apprenda and solutions such as SaaSGrid, of which there will be more. And keep an even sharper eye on how widely supported such solutions become, and what underlying platforms are adopted by the providers of the applications and services critical to your business. (Almost forgot: the Focus.com community is an invaluable asset for relevant observations and discussions here!)
Q1: What is the single greatest challenge to success for software providers seeking to deliver SaaS/on-demand solutions?
A1: Easily, it’s understanding the technical and operating transition that a product company must go through to become a successful and profitable service provider. Software companies that sell on-premises products are not accustomed to offering a service that costs money – they’re used to selling perpetual licenses that have no unit cost associated with the license. As SaaS providers, they’ll be paying for servers, bandwidth, staff, and a number of other things. How efficiently they deliver their software to leverage these costs will play into determining how profitable they are. For example, choosing to not have a multi-tenant architecture could have dire economic consequences on a unit cost level.
[Editorial Aside: there is a debate in the software industry about how relevant multi-tenancy – the ability to support multiple separate groups of users with a single copy of an application – is to cloud computing and SaaS. I recommend that you read a 2008 ZD Net blog post by SaaS/cloud veteran Phil Wainewright, “Why Multi-tenancy Matters.” I also recommend a February 2010 Information Week blog post, “Why Multitenancy Matters in the Cloud,” by Alok Misra, who works for a company that provides cloud-based applications and SaaS enablement services. Without getting to far into the weeds here, multi-tenancy is an important tool for every provider of SaaS/cloud-based solutions, but is not the only way to support multiple users cost-effectively, and may not always be the best way. Back to Sinclair.]
Operationally, [those software companies] need to consider a bevy of other issues: how will I provision customers to the SaaS offering? Will they self provision? Does it require manual labor? How will I track what customer owes what money based on usage? How will I roll out an update across dozens or even hundreds of servers with minimal downtime? All of these critical considerations play into the single greatest challenge: transitioning from a product company to a service company. We work with Microsoft .NET ISVs [independent software vendors] that struggle with these questions every day, so it’s given us amazing insight.
Q2: What is the single greatest challenge to success for enterprises seeking to deploy business-critical SaaS/on-demand solutions?
A2: Establishing trust. Enterprises have built significant confidence in their IT competence, and despite carrying the costs of direct responsibility, they lower their trust [concerns] since “it’s run in-house.” Enterprises need to understand that in reality (using subjective measure) deploying a SaaS offering is safer and more trustworthy in nearly all regards. After all, do these enterprises hide their money on-premises “under a mattress” or let a third-party provider – a bank – guard their most liquid assets?
Q3: What do you see as the next "great leap forward" for the SaaS/on-demand solutions market – technological, organizational, perceptual or otherwise?
A3: I think the great leap forward will be SaaS enablement. To date, most SaaS/cloud offerings have been built as “one-offs.” That is, each SaaS company re-invented the wheel by dealing with a huge amount of SaaS-specific architecture. Technologies like SaaSGrid will define the “gold standard” of architectures by defining advanced cloud middleware, allowing companies to leverage robust SaaS stacks. This will catalyze the development of new innovative SaaS solutions by drastically reducing the amount of engineering and money spent in building pure SaaS offerings. At the end of the day, it means that the end user will have many, many more SaaS applications to choose from because someone else has helped with the architectural heavy lifting.
Dortch’s Recommendations:
R1: If you are a business technology decision makers pursuing or considering SaaS/cloud-based solutions, find a partner – a reseller or integrator, preferably one with which you’ve worked before – who “gets” your business and how SaaS/cloud solutions are evolving. If you’re a small or mid-sized business, you just don’t have the resources to devote to figuring this SaaS/cloud stuff out without help. And even if your company has an IT department, it might be worth bringing in some outside perspective, and you’re going to have to buy your solutions from someplace. It might as well be someone who knows stuff, rather than someone who just sells stuff. And if you work for a reseller or integrator, make sure your company is asking the right questions and implementing the right knowledge, policies, practices and technologies that will enable it to become such a partner – or consider changing jobs.
(In this context, I highly recommend to users, resellers and integrators the “SaaS 2.0” blog by Dan Druker of Intacct, especially the recent entries on “SaaS & Cloud Computing and the Channel.” And for what is intended as a darkly humorous take on IT teams and SaaS/cloud solutions, check out my blog post, “The Cloud? You Ain't READY for the CLOUD! (Or ARE You??)”)
R2: Once you’ve identified one or more candidate partners, as Ronald Reagan so often admonished his Soviet Union counterparts back when there was a Soviet Union, “trust, but verify.” Ask questions about multi-tenancy, data center redundancy and other critical elements of the infrastructures that will be supporting the services upon which your company relies. And ask even harder and more specific questions about your prospective partners’ relevant business experience and expertise, and their track record in helping companies similar to yours succeed with SaaS/cloud-based solutions. Make sure to record the results of these Q&A sessions, for prospective partner comparisons and because they likely each contain information you can use, no matter which partner or partners you ultimately choose.
R3: When selecting SaaS/cloud-based solutions and partners alike, focus on those that are focused on combining proven and broadly supported underlying practices, processes and technologies. Integration of new solutions and processes with the resources your company already uses and understands is paramount to the success of any new solutions, SaaS/cloud-based or otherwise. And just like you likely don’t have time to become a SaaS/cloud expert and to run your business, few if any vendors or resellers can succeed by inventing and building everything from scratch. So keep an eye on companies such as Apprenda and solutions such as SaaSGrid, of which there will be more. And keep an even sharper eye on how widely supported such solutions become, and what underlying platforms are adopted by the providers of the applications and services critical to your business. (Almost forgot: the Focus.com community is an invaluable asset for relevant observations and discussions here!)
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
EnterpriseWizard: A, If Not The, Future of Business Applications
Where business software is concerned, last year’s big question was, "Why can’t business applications be as easy to use as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter?"
This year's question should be, "Why aren't business application development, alignment with key business processes and process optimization as easy as building Facebook pages or blogs and Web sites with Weebly or Google Sites?”
I know, it's overly long, but it's still a good question.
As I see it, two key obstacles stand in the way of legacy/traditional approaches to business applications and business process automation.
I believe that one of the first real-life examples of such an approach is being taken by Colin Earl and his merry little band at a software company called EnterpriseWizard. And that's all I'm going to tell you here, at least for now. You can read more about EnterpriseWizard and why I think what I do about the company in a Brief I wrote for Focus.com -- "Integrated Collaboration, Communication and Process Automation in the Cloud: EnterpriseWizard." Then, you should visit the EnterpriseWizard Web site, paying particular attention to the user success stories, which span a range of use cases and company sizes.
EnterpriseWizard isn't for every company's every software need. But I believe it is a bellwether for how many business applications are likely to be built and delivered in the future. And I mean the near-term future, as is starting...oh, pretty much now.
This year's question should be, "Why aren't business application development, alignment with key business processes and process optimization as easy as building Facebook pages or blogs and Web sites with Weebly or Google Sites?”
I know, it's overly long, but it's still a good question.
As I see it, two key obstacles stand in the way of legacy/traditional approaches to business applications and business process automation.
- Adaptation – legacy/traditional approaches are notoriously difficult, expensive, time-consuming or impossible to adapt to specific business processes, needs or goals.
- Adoption – in part because of their adaptation limitations, legacy/traditional approaches almost never achieve sufficient user adoption levels to drive high, consistent or sustained business value.
I believe that one of the first real-life examples of such an approach is being taken by Colin Earl and his merry little band at a software company called EnterpriseWizard. And that's all I'm going to tell you here, at least for now. You can read more about EnterpriseWizard and why I think what I do about the company in a Brief I wrote for Focus.com -- "Integrated Collaboration, Communication and Process Automation in the Cloud: EnterpriseWizard." Then, you should visit the EnterpriseWizard Web site, paying particular attention to the user success stories, which span a range of use cases and company sizes.
EnterpriseWizard isn't for every company's every software need. But I believe it is a bellwether for how many business applications are likely to be built and delivered in the future. And I mean the near-term future, as is starting...oh, pretty much now.
Friday, February 26, 2010
Can CA acquire its way into cloud management market leadership?
Since mid-2009, CA (the former Computer Associates) has acquired data center automation assets and expertise from Cassatt, as well as the companies NetQoS (network performance management and service delivery management solutions) and Oblicore (IT service level management software). This week, CA announced plans to buy 3Tera, a pioneering provider of solutions for building and deploying cloud-based services.
CA is clearly positioning itself as a "one-stop shop" for solutions to manage both cloud-based and premise-based IT infrastructures. But CA faces a growing range of competitors, particularly where cloud-based infrastructure management is concerned. (See the Focus Brief "Infrastructure Management 'In the Cloud:' Why Now May Be the Time at Your Business" at http://bit.ly/HostedITManagement.) And CA has a long and decidedly uneven history of successfully integrating and leveraging acquired companies, their people and assets.
So can CA extend its leadership in premise-based IT management into the cloud successfully?
Well, I'm not convinced. And I'm not the only one asking. As Matthew McKenzie, Senior Editor at Enterprise Efficiency, a site you should check out and bookmark, wrote in his piece, "CA Builds a Solid Strategy on Cloud Acquisitions, "It's up to CA to put the pieces together and build a truly valuable software stack for its customers. I see that happening, and I also see CA offering a lot of long-term value for IT executives with private- or hybrid-cloud development plans. But this time around, one thing is clear: Milking these acquisitions like a bunch of sickly cash cows simply is not an option."
True and well said. Having followed CA since its inception, I am both cautiously hopeful and at least a little wary. But I have no real stake in what happens. If you do or your company does, however, I'd advise you to watch CA closely, especially for signs that top people from its acquisitions are leaving or have left. I also recommend that if you do business with CA, you demand a briefing about its cloud-related road map, under a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) if need be. That will at least help you to set a baseline for comparing what CA says to what CA does. Close alignment between the two is good; non-alignment is a cause for concern -- as is a lack of useful, actionable information from the company.
Lots has happened and continues to happen at CA. Whether all this activity translates into actual change or progress is still an open question. Caveat emptor. And in the meantime, come on over to Focus.com to discuss, at http://bit.ly/CAandtheCloud. Thanks!
CA is clearly positioning itself as a "one-stop shop" for solutions to manage both cloud-based and premise-based IT infrastructures. But CA faces a growing range of competitors, particularly where cloud-based infrastructure management is concerned. (See the Focus Brief "Infrastructure Management 'In the Cloud:' Why Now May Be the Time at Your Business" at http://bit.ly/HostedITManagement.) And CA has a long and decidedly uneven history of successfully integrating and leveraging acquired companies, their people and assets.
So can CA extend its leadership in premise-based IT management into the cloud successfully?
Well, I'm not convinced. And I'm not the only one asking. As Matthew McKenzie, Senior Editor at Enterprise Efficiency, a site you should check out and bookmark, wrote in his piece, "CA Builds a Solid Strategy on Cloud Acquisitions, "It's up to CA to put the pieces together and build a truly valuable software stack for its customers. I see that happening, and I also see CA offering a lot of long-term value for IT executives with private- or hybrid-cloud development plans. But this time around, one thing is clear: Milking these acquisitions like a bunch of sickly cash cows simply is not an option."
True and well said. Having followed CA since its inception, I am both cautiously hopeful and at least a little wary. But I have no real stake in what happens. If you do or your company does, however, I'd advise you to watch CA closely, especially for signs that top people from its acquisitions are leaving or have left. I also recommend that if you do business with CA, you demand a briefing about its cloud-related road map, under a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) if need be. That will at least help you to set a baseline for comparing what CA says to what CA does. Close alignment between the two is good; non-alignment is a cause for concern -- as is a lack of useful, actionable information from the company.
Lots has happened and continues to happen at CA. Whether all this activity translates into actual change or progress is still an open question. Caveat emptor. And in the meantime, come on over to Focus.com to discuss, at http://bit.ly/CAandtheCloud. Thanks!
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Sendside: Sales Automation and Acceleration as a Service – SaaaaS!
Let’s start with some disclosures. Before I became Director of Research at Focus, I consulted with Sendside, and am a big fan of the company and its management team. So it’s with at least a small dash of personal pride that I write about the company here – but you can and should still take my opinions at least semi-seriously.
That said, observers and pundits, including Gartner, are increasingly saying that if and as the economy begins to improve, one of the first things areas in which companies are going to re-start spending is in sales. Specifically, companies seem likely to invest in solutions that will help them make more sales more quickly and more inexpensively.
Hard to argue with logic like that. No better way to accelerate economic recovery than to shorten sales cycles and increase sales numbers. But how best to do so?
I would argue that anything that helps to engage, inform, persuade and invite prospects to take further action – like, for example, to give your offering a try – is a likely winner here. And I believe Sendside has developed a platform and an architecture that can help almost any company do all of these things, in ways that are automated, repeatable, scalable, economical and effective.
With Sendside, you can combine traditional e-mail with all kinds of other communications, in a variety of formats. What’s really cool, however, is that you can combine these into packages that are as easy to send, receive, open and share as a typical e-mail. No more convoluted combining of documents, spreadsheets, marketing collateral and what-have-you. No more bulky, slow-to-send-and-download giant e-mails. And no more concerns about whether or not your recipient has all of the software necessary to read/see what you’ve sent the way you meant for it to be read/seen. Your electronic outreach is faster, easier, less intrusive and confusing and more likely to be more readily consumed and more effective.
What’s more, Sendside can tell you who’s received what, who’s opened what, and when they did so. This makes following up – what sales and marketing people sometimes refer to as “lead nurturing” – easier, more consistent, and more effective. It can also greatly accelerate sales cycles and prospect conversion.
You can learn a lot more by visiting www.sendside.net and downloading one or both of the white papers I wrote for them before joining Focus. One takes an IT-centric view, while the other is more business-focused. Then, check out the Sendside solution itself. Ask the Sendside team to send you a Sendside package, then maybe get yourself a personal Sendside account so you can send some packages to your colleagues. Then, let the Sendside team and me know what you think.
(By the way, if you haven’t read them yet, I also have some thoughts on Microsoft’s new Office Web Applications and their implications for Web-based collaboration. They’re over at my DortchOnCollaboration blog. You might find those interesting as well.)
Monday, August 3, 2009
10 Signs that It May be Time to Consider Software as a Service (SaaS)
Greetings, and many apologies -- it's been a hectic past couple of months, and I'm now neck-deep in a consulting engagement that I'm hoping turns into a full-time job soon. Said engagement is with Focus (http://www.focus.com), which aims to help buyers of business technologies to make better, more considered purchase decisions. Anyway, I've just published my first piece of contributed Focus research, "10 Signs that It May be Time to Consider Software as a Service (SaaS)," and would be extremely grateful if you were to visit the Focus Web site to read it. It's at http://www.focus.com/ugr/how-to/hosting-bandwidth/10-signs-it-may-be-time-consider-software-service-saas/. Many thanks, and more soon, I promise!
Thursday, June 18, 2009
3Qs, 3As and 3Rs with Treb Ryan of OpSource
So I'm wondering, where best to get some interesting insights (beyond my own, of course!) on SaaS and cloud computing right now? And I figure it makes sense to ask someone who makes a living helping t
o enable commercial pursuit of those technologies.
(See, it's out-of-the-box thinking like that that's why we industry analysts and commentators garner the huge levels of respect and remuneration we enjoy. But I digress.)
So I came up with three basic, yet insightful questions, and ran them by my respected industry colleague Treb Ryan, CEO of OpSource. Treb's company provides solutions that enable “cloud operations for serious SaaS and Web businesses,” as it says at its Web site. OpSource has a strong partner ecosystem, a pragmatic business focus, and as you'll see below, a pretty sharp CEO.
Dortch: What is the single greatest challenge to success for software providers seeking to deliver SaaS/on-demand solutions?
Ryan: T
he single greatest challenge of success for a SaaS company is the cost of customer acquisition. Traditional sales models when applied to SaaS [are] very expensive [ways] to grow your business. SaaS companies should look at low-cost customer acquisition strategies, such as free on-line trials, “freemium” products or a robust channel base, to help lower the cost of customer acquisition.
Dortch: What is the single greatest challenge to success for enterprises seeking to deploy business-critical SaaS/on-demand solutions?
Ryan: For companies deploying mission-critical SaaS [or cloud-based on-demand solutions] it [is] usually integration with your existing SaaS and non-SaaS data – ensuring, for example, that you don't have a separate employee record for example in your Taleo [on-demand talent management solution] implementation than you do in you payroll system.
Dortch: What do you see as the next "great leap forward" for the SaaS/on-demand solutions market – technological, organizational, perceptual or otherwise?
Ryan: Ubiquitous APIs [application programming interfaces]. All SaaS data and interactions will be available as standardized API calls to any other cloud application. This will solve the integration question, open up new channels in the form of value-added solutions and really open the SaaS world [up] to whole new levels of innovative cloud applications based on multiple data sources and interfaces. Think of the unified contact [management features] on the new Palm Pre that brings in information from Facebook, LinkedIn, your personal [contacts] and [Microsoft] Exchange. Very cool.
First off, big thanks to Treb for the time and the interesting observations and insights. Now, my recommendations.
If you are or wish to become a successful SaaS or cloud-based solution provider, unless your solutions focus specifically on IT infrastructure management and optimization, try to stay the heck out of that business. Getting into it if you aren't there already is not only asking for trouble, it's almost guaranteed to make customer acquisition and other operational imperatives more expensive and difficult. It also flies in the face of the primary benefits of SaaS and the cloud.
If you are deploying or wish to deploy SaaS or cloud-based solutions, you should start with a clear, detailed plan of what specific business goal(s) or benefit(s) you're trying to achieve. That plan should include a detailed assessment of current relevant assets, including the information driving business decisions, actions and processes today. You may find that you need a foundation of accurate, consistent and timely information before you need any new SaaS or cloud-based solution. (See my SearchSAP.com column, “For MDM, start by getting to know your enterprise data” for more on this – it's importance extends way beyond SaaS and the cloud.)
Whether you are or want to be a SaaS/cloud-based solution provider, user or both, focus your attention on technologies, providers and partners that support open, well-documented APIs. Even if you never write a line of code, APIs represent a safety net of interoperability and integration that can smooth and increase the business value of your SaaS/cloud-based solution. It can also help keep you away from that nasty infrastructure stuff I mentioned earlier.
More from some of those I consider “the few with a clue” in upcoming outings. If you've got subjects or people to suggest, or questions or comments, do please let me know here and/or at medortch@dortchonit.com.
o enable commercial pursuit of those technologies.(See, it's out-of-the-box thinking like that that's why we industry analysts and commentators garner the huge levels of respect and remuneration we enjoy. But I digress.)
So I came up with three basic, yet insightful questions, and ran them by my respected industry colleague Treb Ryan, CEO of OpSource. Treb's company provides solutions that enable “cloud operations for serious SaaS and Web businesses,” as it says at its Web site. OpSource has a strong partner ecosystem, a pragmatic business focus, and as you'll see below, a pretty sharp CEO.
Dortch: What is the single greatest challenge to success for software providers seeking to deliver SaaS/on-demand solutions?
Ryan: T
he single greatest challenge of success for a SaaS company is the cost of customer acquisition. Traditional sales models when applied to SaaS [are] very expensive [ways] to grow your business. SaaS companies should look at low-cost customer acquisition strategies, such as free on-line trials, “freemium” products or a robust channel base, to help lower the cost of customer acquisition.Dortch: What is the single greatest challenge to success for enterprises seeking to deploy business-critical SaaS/on-demand solutions?
Ryan: For companies deploying mission-critical SaaS [or cloud-based on-demand solutions] it [is] usually integration with your existing SaaS and non-SaaS data – ensuring, for example, that you don't have a separate employee record for example in your Taleo [on-demand talent management solution] implementation than you do in you payroll system.
Dortch: What do you see as the next "great leap forward" for the SaaS/on-demand solutions market – technological, organizational, perceptual or otherwise?
Ryan: Ubiquitous APIs [application programming interfaces]. All SaaS data and interactions will be available as standardized API calls to any other cloud application. This will solve the integration question, open up new channels in the form of value-added solutions and really open the SaaS world [up] to whole new levels of innovative cloud applications based on multiple data sources and interfaces. Think of the unified contact [management features] on the new Palm Pre that brings in information from Facebook, LinkedIn, your personal [contacts] and [Microsoft] Exchange. Very cool.
First off, big thanks to Treb for the time and the interesting observations and insights. Now, my recommendations.
If you are or wish to become a successful SaaS or cloud-based solution provider, unless your solutions focus specifically on IT infrastructure management and optimization, try to stay the heck out of that business. Getting into it if you aren't there already is not only asking for trouble, it's almost guaranteed to make customer acquisition and other operational imperatives more expensive and difficult. It also flies in the face of the primary benefits of SaaS and the cloud.
If you are deploying or wish to deploy SaaS or cloud-based solutions, you should start with a clear, detailed plan of what specific business goal(s) or benefit(s) you're trying to achieve. That plan should include a detailed assessment of current relevant assets, including the information driving business decisions, actions and processes today. You may find that you need a foundation of accurate, consistent and timely information before you need any new SaaS or cloud-based solution. (See my SearchSAP.com column, “For MDM, start by getting to know your enterprise data” for more on this – it's importance extends way beyond SaaS and the cloud.)
Whether you are or want to be a SaaS/cloud-based solution provider, user or both, focus your attention on technologies, providers and partners that support open, well-documented APIs. Even if you never write a line of code, APIs represent a safety net of interoperability and integration that can smooth and increase the business value of your SaaS/cloud-based solution. It can also help keep you away from that nasty infrastructure stuff I mentioned earlier.
More from some of those I consider “the few with a clue” in upcoming outings. If you've got subjects or people to suggest, or questions or comments, do please let me know here and/or at medortch@dortchonit.com.
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Heard of Rearden Commerce Yet? You Will...and Soon!
How about an on-demand, electronic personal assistant that can help you and your company save money – as much as 40 percent – on travel, shipping and almost everything else you and your colleagues do or use?
Is that a value proposition that gets your attention, or that of your CFO or CEO? If not, either I'm not being sufficiently clear, or you should be seriously considering a job change. I'll try again; you do what you think you need to do after reading a bit more.
Rearden Commerce provides an on-demand platform linking business users with services ranging from hotel, air travel and car rental reservations to airport parking, conferencing, shipping, international mobile telephony and expense management and reporting.
Rearden forms alliances with providers, negotiates discounts wherever possible, and sometimes acquires companies outright. For example, Rearden now owns ExpenseWire, developers of the expense management solution resold by leading payroll processing provider Paychex and the Orbitz for Business travel service. It also owns Global Ground Automation, developers of software that automates ground transportation reservation management. Strategic allies include American Express, JP Morgan Chase (watch this one!) and the above-mentioned Paychex. Rearden claims that more than 160,000 suppliers and partners are using its platform to deliver services to more than 4 thousand corporate customers and 2 million users.
All this means you or your company can take advantage of in-place discounts negotiated directly or by Rearden, or price-shop among available competitors Rules-driven software ensures spend management and the best available price on each purchase. And it's all accessible via a single interface, the Rearden Personal Assistant, which runs on computers and a growing range of mobile devices.
Unified business service access and spend management as an on-demand service. If reining in costs while providing easy access and choice gets any better than this for business users, whether corporate or individual, someone please show or tell me – but until that happens, if you run a business, work for a business, or are a business and you consume business services, you've got to check out Rearden Commerce. I think it's a prime example of a SaaS solution that delivers business benefits across the entire value chain, from service providers to the companies and individuals that do business with them – with (almost) no IT infrastructure required.
Is that a value proposition that gets your attention, or that of your CFO or CEO? If not, either I'm not being sufficiently clear, or you should be seriously considering a job change. I'll try again; you do what you think you need to do after reading a bit more.
Rearden Commerce provides an on-demand platform linking business users with services ranging from hotel, air travel and car rental reservations to airport parking, conferencing, shipping, international mobile telephony and expense management and reporting.
Rearden forms alliances with providers, negotiates discounts wherever possible, and sometimes acquires companies outright. For example, Rearden now owns ExpenseWire, developers of the expense management solution resold by leading payroll processing provider Paychex and the Orbitz for Business travel service. It also owns Global Ground Automation, developers of software that automates ground transportation reservation management. Strategic allies include American Express, JP Morgan Chase (watch this one!) and the above-mentioned Paychex. Rearden claims that more than 160,000 suppliers and partners are using its platform to deliver services to more than 4 thousand corporate customers and 2 million users.
All this means you or your company can take advantage of in-place discounts negotiated directly or by Rearden, or price-shop among available competitors Rules-driven software ensures spend management and the best available price on each purchase. And it's all accessible via a single interface, the Rearden Personal Assistant, which runs on computers and a growing range of mobile devices.
Unified business service access and spend management as an on-demand service. If reining in costs while providing easy access and choice gets any better than this for business users, whether corporate or individual, someone please show or tell me – but until that happens, if you run a business, work for a business, or are a business and you consume business services, you've got to check out Rearden Commerce. I think it's a prime example of a SaaS solution that delivers business benefits across the entire value chain, from service providers to the companies and individuals that do business with them – with (almost) no IT infrastructure required.
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Imitation Being the Sincerest Form of Flattery...
...I am borrowing an idea from my former Aberdeen Group colleague and the coolest enterprise mobility analyst I know, Philippe Winthrop, an analyst at Strategy Analytics and the guy behind the most excellent blog "Enterprise Mobility Matters." In his recent posting, "Fireside Chats on Enterprise Mobility," he describes a nifty interviewing methodology he's introduced at his blog.
Quite simply, I'm borrowing -- NOT stealing -- and adapting it for those of you interested in SaaS and cloud computing. (At MIT, where I went to school, they said MIT students never lie, cheat or steal -- they elaborate, collaborate and borrow.)
I'm starting to e-mail questions to some of the people I believe to be the leading lights in the industry, and will share my questions, their answers, and my reactions to them with you here. So stay tuned, and send suggestions for interview subjects and questions you'd like to see them answer. Meanwhile, thank Philippe for me, should you see him or visit his blog, which I strongly urge you to do!
Quite simply, I'm borrowing -- NOT stealing -- and adapting it for those of you interested in SaaS and cloud computing. (At MIT, where I went to school, they said MIT students never lie, cheat or steal -- they elaborate, collaborate and borrow.)
I'm starting to e-mail questions to some of the people I believe to be the leading lights in the industry, and will share my questions, their answers, and my reactions to them with you here. So stay tuned, and send suggestions for interview subjects and questions you'd like to see them answer. Meanwhile, thank Philippe for me, should you see him or visit his blog, which I strongly urge you to do!
Monday, May 4, 2009
Oracle's New SaaS Offerings: The Last Nail in the Coffin for "Bits on Disks?"
What a difference two weeks, 10 months, some acquisitions, and an economic downturn can make.
Two weeks ago, I opined in this space that Oracle's acquisition of Sun Microsystems could soon result in some new SaaS offerings. And last June, Larry Ellison was widely quoted as saying SaaS offerings weren't profitable enough -- although he was also widely reported as expecting that to change.
Well, it's changed, at least according to today's Oracle-related news stories. They seem to indicate that Oracle is planning to launch several (maybe seven?) new SaaS offerings really soon, according to stories in The Wall Street Journal (subscription required for full access), at VNUnet, and elsewhere. And I believe'em.
Since that June 2008 conference call with Larry Ellison, Oracle's launched a new release of its CRM On Demand solution, and Oracle Sourcing On Demand, a SaaS tool for supply management. And its Oracle On Demand Web site claims 4.5 million end users.
Oracle is serious about SaaS. And that means all the other SaaS and cloud computing solution vendors had better get ready for some aggressively serious competition. This should benefit users in terms of broadening choices and perhaps creating opportunities for advantageous contractual negotiations. But it is likely to get rough for those solution developers and providers without deep pockets, loyal, evangelical customers, or both. Such vendors are likely to be acquired by Oracle, acquired by some other larger and more stable vendor, or to disappear. Which won't be good for those users who've bet their companies' competitive agility on those vendors without sufficient protection, as I've discussed here previously.
Given Oracle's latest and anticipated SaaS moves, Microsoft's continually evolving SaaS/cloud strategy, and everything Salesforce.com and its partners do, the next 12 to 18 months could be the most interesting and challenging for SaaS and cloud computing users and vendors since...well, since the last 12 to 18 months.
So, as I advised two weeks ago, stay tuned. And feel free to let me know your thoughts, hopes, fears, and plans in response to all of this, if any. And you might consider reducing or eliminating as many long-term commitments to and investments in traditional software licenses as practical for your organization's particular needs. While the future of SaaS and cloud computing is roiling, the future for most traditionally licensed "bits on disks" seems certain -- and limited at best.
Two weeks ago, I opined in this space that Oracle's acquisition of Sun Microsystems could soon result in some new SaaS offerings. And last June, Larry Ellison was widely quoted as saying SaaS offerings weren't profitable enough -- although he was also widely reported as expecting that to change.
Well, it's changed, at least according to today's Oracle-related news stories. They seem to indicate that Oracle is planning to launch several (maybe seven?) new SaaS offerings really soon, according to stories in The Wall Street Journal (subscription required for full access), at VNUnet, and elsewhere. And I believe'em.
Since that June 2008 conference call with Larry Ellison, Oracle's launched a new release of its CRM On Demand solution, and Oracle Sourcing On Demand, a SaaS tool for supply management. And its Oracle On Demand Web site claims 4.5 million end users.
Oracle is serious about SaaS. And that means all the other SaaS and cloud computing solution vendors had better get ready for some aggressively serious competition. This should benefit users in terms of broadening choices and perhaps creating opportunities for advantageous contractual negotiations. But it is likely to get rough for those solution developers and providers without deep pockets, loyal, evangelical customers, or both. Such vendors are likely to be acquired by Oracle, acquired by some other larger and more stable vendor, or to disappear. Which won't be good for those users who've bet their companies' competitive agility on those vendors without sufficient protection, as I've discussed here previously.
Given Oracle's latest and anticipated SaaS moves, Microsoft's continually evolving SaaS/cloud strategy, and everything Salesforce.com and its partners do, the next 12 to 18 months could be the most interesting and challenging for SaaS and cloud computing users and vendors since...well, since the last 12 to 18 months.
So, as I advised two weeks ago, stay tuned. And feel free to let me know your thoughts, hopes, fears, and plans in response to all of this, if any. And you might consider reducing or eliminating as many long-term commitments to and investments in traditional software licenses as practical for your organization's particular needs. While the future of SaaS and cloud computing is roiling, the future for most traditionally licensed "bits on disks" seems certain -- and limited at best.
Monday, April 20, 2009
Oracle + Sun = More SaaS Options (Especially for SMBs)?
As I discussed with my learned and respected industry colleague Frederic Paul of bMighty.com earlier today, Oracle's acquisition of Sun Microsystems could result in nifty new software as a service (SaaS) offerings for SMBs and larger enterprises as well. Here's how.
1. Oracle's Fusion Middleware platform is built entirely upon Java, for which Sun is the principal commercial shepherd. Java's a great solution for building and delivering new applications, SaaS-enabled and otherwise. Greater integration among Java, Fusion Middleware, and applications and databases could and should make SaaS-enabled solutions easier and faster to build and deliver.
2. Sun is fairly experienced at delivering SaaS and cloud computing solutions, especially to large customers and in concert with partners.
3. Both Sun and Oracle understand what larger companies want and need to make SaaS and cloud computing solutions "enterprise-ready." At the same time, each has had some success at packaging and delivering solutions for smaller enterprises, often scaled down from those enterprise solutions. And each has partners good at supporting SMBs.
3. Despite public pronouncements to the contrary, Oracle leadership understands that SaaS and cloud computing are going to be significant alternatives to traditional "bits on disks" and premises-based servers. (Oracle still holds a big stake in Salesforce.com, as I understand it.)
4. The combination of Java, Fusion Middleware, Oracle applications and databases, and Sun servers and services means that Oracle could offer a range of premises-based, SaaS, and cloud computing solutions through its significant partner ecosystem. Many of these solutions could be scaled down, integrated, and pre-configured into SMB-ready offerings, much as IBM does now with its "Express" portfolio. But the ability to deliver software and services AS services bodes well for Oracle plus Sun, and perhaps for users seeking alternatives to expensive and difficult-to-manage premises-based IT infrastructures.
As we analysts love to say, "stay tuned..."
1. Oracle's Fusion Middleware platform is built entirely upon Java, for which Sun is the principal commercial shepherd. Java's a great solution for building and delivering new applications, SaaS-enabled and otherwise. Greater integration among Java, Fusion Middleware, and applications and databases could and should make SaaS-enabled solutions easier and faster to build and deliver.
2. Sun is fairly experienced at delivering SaaS and cloud computing solutions, especially to large customers and in concert with partners.
3. Both Sun and Oracle understand what larger companies want and need to make SaaS and cloud computing solutions "enterprise-ready." At the same time, each has had some success at packaging and delivering solutions for smaller enterprises, often scaled down from those enterprise solutions. And each has partners good at supporting SMBs.
3. Despite public pronouncements to the contrary, Oracle leadership understands that SaaS and cloud computing are going to be significant alternatives to traditional "bits on disks" and premises-based servers. (Oracle still holds a big stake in Salesforce.com, as I understand it.)
4. The combination of Java, Fusion Middleware, Oracle applications and databases, and Sun servers and services means that Oracle could offer a range of premises-based, SaaS, and cloud computing solutions through its significant partner ecosystem. Many of these solutions could be scaled down, integrated, and pre-configured into SMB-ready offerings, much as IBM does now with its "Express" portfolio. But the ability to deliver software and services AS services bodes well for Oracle plus Sun, and perhaps for users seeking alternatives to expensive and difficult-to-manage premises-based IT infrastructures.
As we analysts love to say, "stay tuned..."
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Are Your SaaS Vendors in Trouble? And If So, What Can/Should You Do?
So what do green energy, software as a service (SaaS), radio frequency identification (RFID), and their offshoots and affiliates all have in common as industries or markets?
Two things, for the purposes of this particular rant.
Thing the First is that they were all predicted as recently as the end of 2008 to be some of the few areas that were likely to weather what was (apparently) seen by many (but not everyone) then as a looming but temporary economic...unpleasantness.
Thing the Second is that given the significantly more robust and sustained nature of said...unpleasantness, all three of arenas are facing significant, sustained challenges. In many cases, these challenges are life-threatening to at least some companies – and unspoken of by almost all of them, especially those not publicly traded and therefore compelled to make at least some financial disclosures.
Now, it's not lost on me that among SaaS companies, Salesforce.com is not only a market leader and publicly traded. According to its most recently disclosed financial information, while challenged, it is not in any real, imminent danger. (As I expected during the recent media mini-furor over whether or not SaaS was going to make it, or something like that.) I worry far more about the ecosystem of smaller and emerging SaaS and SaaS-related suppliers, including some of Salesforce.com's partners.
I especially worry when I see no recent announcements of major customer wins, or even significant pilots. I also worry when I see no announcements of strategic alliances – or see what are touted as such, but that include no laudatory statement from any senior executives from the supposed “strategic partner.”
I'm not sayin'. I'm just sayin'.
Green energy is not one of my core strengths, so I'll leave that to others more expert and focused than I. (I would But where SaaS and RFID are concerned, well, I'm concerned. And I'll have more to say about both Real Soon Now. Meanwhile, though, if you don't have them in place yet, craft, execute, and enforce some effective, protective, and business-driven service level agreements (SLAs) with every SaaS or RFID vendor or reseller critical to your business. And keep close tabs on the financial health of those vendors. To the extent that such tabs are possible, at least.
Two things, for the purposes of this particular rant.
Thing the First is that they were all predicted as recently as the end of 2008 to be some of the few areas that were likely to weather what was (apparently) seen by many (but not everyone) then as a looming but temporary economic...unpleasantness.
Thing the Second is that given the significantly more robust and sustained nature of said...unpleasantness, all three of arenas are facing significant, sustained challenges. In many cases, these challenges are life-threatening to at least some companies – and unspoken of by almost all of them, especially those not publicly traded and therefore compelled to make at least some financial disclosures.
Now, it's not lost on me that among SaaS companies, Salesforce.com is not only a market leader and publicly traded. According to its most recently disclosed financial information, while challenged, it is not in any real, imminent danger. (As I expected during the recent media mini-furor over whether or not SaaS was going to make it, or something like that.) I worry far more about the ecosystem of smaller and emerging SaaS and SaaS-related suppliers, including some of Salesforce.com's partners.
I especially worry when I see no recent announcements of major customer wins, or even significant pilots. I also worry when I see no announcements of strategic alliances – or see what are touted as such, but that include no laudatory statement from any senior executives from the supposed “strategic partner.”
I'm not sayin'. I'm just sayin'.
Green energy is not one of my core strengths, so I'll leave that to others more expert and focused than I. (I would But where SaaS and RFID are concerned, well, I'm concerned. And I'll have more to say about both Real Soon Now. Meanwhile, though, if you don't have them in place yet, craft, execute, and enforce some effective, protective, and business-driven service level agreements (SLAs) with every SaaS or RFID vendor or reseller critical to your business. And keep close tabs on the financial health of those vendors. To the extent that such tabs are possible, at least.
Monday, February 9, 2009
SaaS Growth Halted Immediately as Salesforce.com Executives Flee – or Not...
“SaaS Growth Thrown Into Question,” wrote my former colleague (and, despite my past influence, one of the most insightful people I know) John Foley for Information Week's cloud computing blog last Friday.
“Shakeup at Salesforce.com,” wrote Ben Worthen for the Wall Street Journal's “Digits” blog on the same day.
“Tough Times at Salesforce.com,” wrote Jeffrey M. Kaplan for “Seeking Alpha,” a fairly cool Web site devoted to stock market opinion and analysis, just today.
Do these folks know something you and I don't? Maybe – but I don't think so.
What got them all cautious was the departure from Salesforce.com of Steve Cakebread, now-former president and chief strategy officer, and two senior sales executives, Gary Hanna and Dave Orrico. Oh, and the fact that Salesforce.com canceled its European edition of its annual multi-day tent revival/prayer meeting, Dreamforce, in favor of a free, one-day event. And the fact that Salesforce.com stock fell about 5% on a day when a lot of other stocks went up.
But seriously, if you were Steve Cakebread, which would you really rather help to run right now? Salesforce.com, from which he'd already tried to retire once, or your family-owned, high-profile, high-quality Napa Valley winery? I live in Sonoma County, which is often seen as a friendly competitor to Napa, and I know which one I'd pick – and I'm a big fan of Salesforce.com and SaaS in general.
As for Messrs. Hanna and Orrico, with all due respect, it could be and has been argued by others that there might have been too many sales executives at the company anyway, especially given the current economic turbulence.
And regarding replacing Dreamforce Europe with Cloudforce London – well, I've been saying for some time now, most recently in a December 2008 blog posting, that the big trade show is probably going the way of...well, bits on disks versus SaaS, just to pick an analogy at random.
Is Salesforce.com in trouble? I seriously doubt it. Is it facing uncertainties, and the prospects of fewer, smaller deals and even some customer churn during the next few months? Almost certainly. But when I look at the range of resources the company has, particularly its ecosystem of partners, the Salesforce.com Foundation, and the team still in place, I can't help but believe the company remains a good bet for users, partners, and even investors. Yes, there will be more competition for customer dollars, from companies such as SaaS solution provider Zoho and platform-as-a-service (PaaS) purveyor LongJump. But Salesforce.com has enough irons in enough fires, and enough bright, clever people committed to its success and that of its customers, that it will weather this storm just fine.
What does it all mean, then? If you're a user considering SaaS with little to no investment in Salesforce.com solutions, it “couldn't hoit” to look at some alternatives, including those from the two other vendors I just mentioned. If your company is already invested in Salesforce.com solutions and relationships, don't panic – just ensure your contractual terms are known, well-documented, and sufficiently favorable to and protective of your company.
And if you're wondering if overall growth of the SaaS/PaaS/on-demand software market is in jeopardy? Well, I'm still predicting growth in 2009 and beyond. It may be slower than the past few months, and it may be distributed across more companies than I and others may have originally thought. But the basic dynamics remain the same – companies want to do more with less, and SaaS and its related technologies enable that more easily and economically than almost any alternative. And Jeffrey Kaplan apparently agrees with me. In his above-referenced blog entry, he states:
“I’m convinced Salesforce.com will withstand the current crisis, just as I’m confident that the SaaS and broader cloud computing market will prosper long-term despite of today’s economic challenges. Salesforce.com is still the biggest and among the most influential players in the SaaS and cloud computing market, and I’d much rather be in the on-demand services sector than in either the housing or automotive industries.”
Mr. Kaplan adds that critical to the survival and success of SaaS companies will be their abilities to focus on tangible benefits, such as cost savings or higher sales productivity, operating efficiency, and/or customer satisfaction. These are the kinds of things you should focus on, too, if you're trying to consider or promote SaaS solutions at your company, whatever its core business or size. Meanwhile, let's stop wasting time speculating, and build better business infrastructures and service level agreements (SLAs) for managing vendor relationships effectively, while we wait for credible public statements, from Salesforce.com and elsewhere.
At least, that's what I think. What about you?
“Shakeup at Salesforce.com,” wrote Ben Worthen for the Wall Street Journal's “Digits” blog on the same day.
“Tough Times at Salesforce.com,” wrote Jeffrey M. Kaplan for “Seeking Alpha,” a fairly cool Web site devoted to stock market opinion and analysis, just today.
Do these folks know something you and I don't? Maybe – but I don't think so.
What got them all cautious was the departure from Salesforce.com of Steve Cakebread, now-former president and chief strategy officer, and two senior sales executives, Gary Hanna and Dave Orrico. Oh, and the fact that Salesforce.com canceled its European edition of its annual multi-day tent revival/prayer meeting, Dreamforce, in favor of a free, one-day event. And the fact that Salesforce.com stock fell about 5% on a day when a lot of other stocks went up.
But seriously, if you were Steve Cakebread, which would you really rather help to run right now? Salesforce.com, from which he'd already tried to retire once, or your family-owned, high-profile, high-quality Napa Valley winery? I live in Sonoma County, which is often seen as a friendly competitor to Napa, and I know which one I'd pick – and I'm a big fan of Salesforce.com and SaaS in general.
As for Messrs. Hanna and Orrico, with all due respect, it could be and has been argued by others that there might have been too many sales executives at the company anyway, especially given the current economic turbulence.
And regarding replacing Dreamforce Europe with Cloudforce London – well, I've been saying for some time now, most recently in a December 2008 blog posting, that the big trade show is probably going the way of...well, bits on disks versus SaaS, just to pick an analogy at random.
Is Salesforce.com in trouble? I seriously doubt it. Is it facing uncertainties, and the prospects of fewer, smaller deals and even some customer churn during the next few months? Almost certainly. But when I look at the range of resources the company has, particularly its ecosystem of partners, the Salesforce.com Foundation, and the team still in place, I can't help but believe the company remains a good bet for users, partners, and even investors. Yes, there will be more competition for customer dollars, from companies such as SaaS solution provider Zoho and platform-as-a-service (PaaS) purveyor LongJump. But Salesforce.com has enough irons in enough fires, and enough bright, clever people committed to its success and that of its customers, that it will weather this storm just fine.
What does it all mean, then? If you're a user considering SaaS with little to no investment in Salesforce.com solutions, it “couldn't hoit” to look at some alternatives, including those from the two other vendors I just mentioned. If your company is already invested in Salesforce.com solutions and relationships, don't panic – just ensure your contractual terms are known, well-documented, and sufficiently favorable to and protective of your company.
And if you're wondering if overall growth of the SaaS/PaaS/on-demand software market is in jeopardy? Well, I'm still predicting growth in 2009 and beyond. It may be slower than the past few months, and it may be distributed across more companies than I and others may have originally thought. But the basic dynamics remain the same – companies want to do more with less, and SaaS and its related technologies enable that more easily and economically than almost any alternative. And Jeffrey Kaplan apparently agrees with me. In his above-referenced blog entry, he states:
“I’m convinced Salesforce.com will withstand the current crisis, just as I’m confident that the SaaS and broader cloud computing market will prosper long-term despite of today’s economic challenges. Salesforce.com is still the biggest and among the most influential players in the SaaS and cloud computing market, and I’d much rather be in the on-demand services sector than in either the housing or automotive industries.”
Mr. Kaplan adds that critical to the survival and success of SaaS companies will be their abilities to focus on tangible benefits, such as cost savings or higher sales productivity, operating efficiency, and/or customer satisfaction. These are the kinds of things you should focus on, too, if you're trying to consider or promote SaaS solutions at your company, whatever its core business or size. Meanwhile, let's stop wasting time speculating, and build better business infrastructures and service level agreements (SLAs) for managing vendor relationships effectively, while we wait for credible public statements, from Salesforce.com and elsewhere.
At least, that's what I think. What about you?
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Service-now.com's Latest Release: New Features AND New Transparency!
Service-now.com, provider of SaaS-based IT service and infrastructure management solutions, will officially announce on Feb. 5 the Winter 2009 release of its software platform. It's the company's 15 software release in more than three years, and most users never even noticed, since they were at home for the weekend. Once they got back to their computers, though, they saw some pretty nifty new and enhanced features, such as:
Equally compelling, the privately held company is also planning to disclose at least some high-level financial results, including recurring annual revenues approaching $20 million, 235 enterprise customers and 2.1 million users in 30 countries, and 18 consecutive months of positive cash flow. If the company continues moving forward through the current economic unpleasantness, as many of us expect the larger SaaS market to do, it could position itself well for sustained growth. It could also become perceived as an increasingly safe bet for those companies considering or pursuing SaaS and interested in the financial health of current or candidate vendors. Which should be all of the companies considering or pursuing SaaS. As I may have mentioned once or twice previously.
Service-now.com understands that success with SaaS is about much more than SaaS technologies. It's easier to be open when the news is good, but I've got to believe earlier, consistent openness helped to lead to Service-now.com's good news. Along with effective, useful technologies, of course.
More soon. Stay tuned.
- The ability to open, update, and close service requests, incidents, problems, and changes from Apple iPhone, Google Android, and RIM Blackberry mobile devices, to replace those sticky notes that tend to follow IT infrastructure and service managers around;
- Powerful, role-based global search of people, policies, processes, tools, and other resources;
- Home page and dashboard layout and content management features that enable companies to leverage familiar “look and feel” features and to decide based on their unique requirements who sees what information in what forms;
- Graphical workflow features that ease and speed application creation and modification without extensive “plumbing” requirements; and
- Project management features that integrate with the software's change, release, and service level management features.
Equally compelling, the privately held company is also planning to disclose at least some high-level financial results, including recurring annual revenues approaching $20 million, 235 enterprise customers and 2.1 million users in 30 countries, and 18 consecutive months of positive cash flow. If the company continues moving forward through the current economic unpleasantness, as many of us expect the larger SaaS market to do, it could position itself well for sustained growth. It could also become perceived as an increasingly safe bet for those companies considering or pursuing SaaS and interested in the financial health of current or candidate vendors. Which should be all of the companies considering or pursuing SaaS. As I may have mentioned once or twice previously.
Service-now.com understands that success with SaaS is about much more than SaaS technologies. It's easier to be open when the news is good, but I've got to believe earlier, consistent openness helped to lead to Service-now.com's good news. Along with effective, useful technologies, of course.
More soon. Stay tuned.
Savvis' Savvy SaaS Moves
[UPDATED with financial information and recommendations below.]
In December 2008, Savvis announced that it had successfully completed its fifth consecutive SAS 70 Type II examination. As I've written here previously, SAS 70 compliance is a strong indicator that an infrastructure provider's own infrastructure is reliable and robust.
In January 2009, Savvis made what I think is one of the most interesting staff-related announcements by a SaaS-related vendor so far this year. The company hired Thomas Riley, former U.S. Ambassador to Morocco, as Senior Vice President and Managing Director of Savvis International. Riley's charter is primarily to grow the company's international business, especially in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia/Pacific regions, Savvis said.
On Feb. 2, Larry Steele, Savvis' Vice President of SaaS, published a piece at ebizQ.net (where I blog about business intelligence, by the way), entitled “Do You Need a SaaS Hosting Provider?” “While many vendors understand what it means to host an application and provide it to customers via the Web, few fully recognize the transformational elements that are necessary to successfully implement their SaaS offering,” Steele writes.
I agree. This is why I'm advising every current or potential SaaS vendor to read Steele's piece, as well as the Andre Yee ebizQ piece I referred to in an earlier blog entry. I also strongly recommend that every current and potential SaaS user read these same pieces, and use them to craft questions and standards for current and prospective vendors. And those users and vendors should add Savvis to their short lists of SaaS infrastructure support providers with which it's worth having detailed conversations.
Meanwhile, Savvis, which is traded on the New York Stock Exchange, announced earlier today year-over-year revenue growth for the latest financial quarter and for the year as a whole. The company added that it achieved positive free cash flow for the first time during the fourth quarter of 2008. Savvis expects 2009 to be economically turbulent -- among other things, a major client, the American Stock Exchange, is being acquired, which could result in up to $27 million in lost annualized revenues for Savvis. But while the company is offering no guidance regarding anticipated 2009 financial results, the company is committed to continued growth and positive free cash flow, according to a spokesperson.
Well, let's hope so. Meanwhile, though, these results jibe with what I'm increasingly seeing as a general condition for SaaS vendors and users. The industry is experiencing the same downturn as the rest of the economy, but seems poised to weather the storm more robustly than perhaps many other market segments. This bodes well for SaaS users, especially those who do their homework and focus on vendors with strong commitments to both technological and financial robustness. As you may have read here previously. At the risk of repeating myself. Again.
In December 2008, Savvis announced that it had successfully completed its fifth consecutive SAS 70 Type II examination. As I've written here previously, SAS 70 compliance is a strong indicator that an infrastructure provider's own infrastructure is reliable and robust.
In January 2009, Savvis made what I think is one of the most interesting staff-related announcements by a SaaS-related vendor so far this year. The company hired Thomas Riley, former U.S. Ambassador to Morocco, as Senior Vice President and Managing Director of Savvis International. Riley's charter is primarily to grow the company's international business, especially in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia/Pacific regions, Savvis said.
On Feb. 2, Larry Steele, Savvis' Vice President of SaaS, published a piece at ebizQ.net (where I blog about business intelligence, by the way), entitled “Do You Need a SaaS Hosting Provider?” “While many vendors understand what it means to host an application and provide it to customers via the Web, few fully recognize the transformational elements that are necessary to successfully implement their SaaS offering,” Steele writes.
I agree. This is why I'm advising every current or potential SaaS vendor to read Steele's piece, as well as the Andre Yee ebizQ piece I referred to in an earlier blog entry. I also strongly recommend that every current and potential SaaS user read these same pieces, and use them to craft questions and standards for current and prospective vendors. And those users and vendors should add Savvis to their short lists of SaaS infrastructure support providers with which it's worth having detailed conversations.
Meanwhile, Savvis, which is traded on the New York Stock Exchange, announced earlier today year-over-year revenue growth for the latest financial quarter and for the year as a whole. The company added that it achieved positive free cash flow for the first time during the fourth quarter of 2008. Savvis expects 2009 to be economically turbulent -- among other things, a major client, the American Stock Exchange, is being acquired, which could result in up to $27 million in lost annualized revenues for Savvis. But while the company is offering no guidance regarding anticipated 2009 financial results, the company is committed to continued growth and positive free cash flow, according to a spokesperson.
Well, let's hope so. Meanwhile, though, these results jibe with what I'm increasingly seeing as a general condition for SaaS vendors and users. The industry is experiencing the same downturn as the rest of the economy, but seems poised to weather the storm more robustly than perhaps many other market segments. This bodes well for SaaS users, especially those who do their homework and focus on vendors with strong commitments to both technological and financial robustness. As you may have read here previously. At the risk of repeating myself. Again.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Enabling the Inevitable: Selecting Strong SaaS Providers
At ebizQ, where I blog primarily about business intelligence, Andre Yee, senior vice-president for products at Eloqua, blogs about SaaS. He recently posted an entry I recommend to everyone -- "Is SaaS Enterprise-Ready? How to Assess Your SaaS Vendor." In this intelligent and helpful post, Yee recommends that potential SaaS users look at their candidate vendors from several key perspectives, to determine if those vendors have what it takes to support those users' business requirements. Specifically, Yee recommends getting all the information available about:
One is interoperability, with other SaaS solutions and with incumbent infrastructures and applications. The other is financial stability.
Of course, interoperability with what's in place seems obvious, but is frequently inadequately addressed by those seeking to implement new solutions, SaaS-based or otherwise. And where SaaS is concerned, interoperability with other SaaS solutions could become critical. If your company decides a particular SaaS solution needs replacing with another, that effort should not require a fleet of forklifts.
Further, if you're betting on a particular SaaS solution and vendor, that bet should be as safe and well-covered as possible. And no company can bet its own competitive agility on any vendor that may not be around long enough to sustain the promised advantages of SaaS.
But "interoperability" is a slippery slope, and many if not most SaaS vendors are privately held, making financial information difficult or impossible to obtain. As the computer in Douglas Adam's incredibly wonderful book "Life, the Universe, and Everything" said, "Hmm...tricky."
One incredibly useful step: find out who's actually providing and managing the SaaS vendor's infrastructure. See if they're working with proven providers and solutions, such as Salesforce.com's Force.com platform, Google, or Amazon.com's Amazon Web Services, or with specialists such as OpSource or Inforonics. And get as many details as you can about how deep those relationships are, and how stringent and enforceable the relevant service level agreements (SLAs) are as well.
Another is to look closely at every SaaS vendor's partner ecosystem. This not only tells you how broadly supported a vendor and its solutions are by other companies, but also offers clues as to options for an exit or transition strategy, should one become necessary.
Still another good step: make sure your company's own IT infrastructure (and yes, your company does have one, extensive or not) is sufficiently well-managed to be "SaaS-ready." I'm a big fan of Service-now.com for this, because they offer SaaS-based solutions for IT infrastructure management. But any approach you find that enables effective management without making it another full-time job for your company is better than no management at all, a situation I've seen all too often.
SaaS may be inevitable for a lot of businesses, but it's not going to be without challenges for many if not most of them. So, as should be done with every significant business decision, "trust, but verify."
- Reliability;
- Security;
- Scalability;
- Business Process Integration;
- Data Conversion Services; and
- the ability to pass a SAS 70 Audit. ("SAS 70," according to Wikipedia, "defines the professional standards used by a service auditor to assess the internal controls of a service organization and issue a service auditor’s report." Without getting into too many more details -- yes, it's very, very important.)
One is interoperability, with other SaaS solutions and with incumbent infrastructures and applications. The other is financial stability.
Of course, interoperability with what's in place seems obvious, but is frequently inadequately addressed by those seeking to implement new solutions, SaaS-based or otherwise. And where SaaS is concerned, interoperability with other SaaS solutions could become critical. If your company decides a particular SaaS solution needs replacing with another, that effort should not require a fleet of forklifts.
Further, if you're betting on a particular SaaS solution and vendor, that bet should be as safe and well-covered as possible. And no company can bet its own competitive agility on any vendor that may not be around long enough to sustain the promised advantages of SaaS.
But "interoperability" is a slippery slope, and many if not most SaaS vendors are privately held, making financial information difficult or impossible to obtain. As the computer in Douglas Adam's incredibly wonderful book "Life, the Universe, and Everything" said, "Hmm...tricky."
One incredibly useful step: find out who's actually providing and managing the SaaS vendor's infrastructure. See if they're working with proven providers and solutions, such as Salesforce.com's Force.com platform, Google, or Amazon.com's Amazon Web Services, or with specialists such as OpSource or Inforonics. And get as many details as you can about how deep those relationships are, and how stringent and enforceable the relevant service level agreements (SLAs) are as well.
Another is to look closely at every SaaS vendor's partner ecosystem. This not only tells you how broadly supported a vendor and its solutions are by other companies, but also offers clues as to options for an exit or transition strategy, should one become necessary.
Still another good step: make sure your company's own IT infrastructure (and yes, your company does have one, extensive or not) is sufficiently well-managed to be "SaaS-ready." I'm a big fan of Service-now.com for this, because they offer SaaS-based solutions for IT infrastructure management. But any approach you find that enables effective management without making it another full-time job for your company is better than no management at all, a situation I've seen all too often.
SaaS may be inevitable for a lot of businesses, but it's not going to be without challenges for many if not most of them. So, as should be done with every significant business decision, "trust, but verify."
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