Articles about SaaS

Adobe's latest offering Adobe Document Cloud will, says the company, address the waste and inefficiency associated with document processes.

It's made up of a set of integrated services that use a consistent online profile and personal document hub. Users will be able to create, review, approve, sign and track documents whether on a desktop or mobile device.

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One of the best ways of getting people to buy your product is to get your existing customers to recommend it. That’s equally true in the business world as it is for consumer products.

A new infographic from SaaS customer management specialist Bluenose looks at how companies can create more powerful advocates for their B2B and SaaS products.

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It's hard to track down the exact origins of the phrase "Software as a Service" (SaaS), although it seems that it dates as far back as 2001.

When most people think of SaaS, they think of web-enabled applications like Gmail and Salesforce, which is not surprising. The public cloud and advancing web technologies created a popular trend of building web-apps hosted by a particular vendor and delivered (streamed?) over the Internet. Subscriptions make logical sense since you never really download the software, and instead access it on demand. So instead of buying a perpetual license to *Version X* of the software, you buy a monthly/yearly/etc subscription and in exchange get an always up to date version of the software and support.

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Passwords are increasingly being seen as inadequate for protecting information and businesses and end users alike are looking for more secure alternatives.

San Francisco-based SASSPASS is making it easier to implement two-factor authentication with the launch of its Computer Connector. In conjunction with a SAASPASS mobile app it enables quick and easy 2FA for Macs and PCs.

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There has been a lot of discussion in the treasury management software market over the years about which deployment method is the best for clients. The general consensus, both among industry experts and, as evidenced by growth figures put out by analysts such as IDC and Apps Run The World, is that the installed model is on its last legs and SaaS (software as a service) is how the majority of treasury systems will be deployed in the future.

Given this backdrop, it’s not hugely surprising that the treasury vendors themselves are clamoring to talk about how their solutions are SaaS, in order to capitalize on market interest.

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I recently read a LinkedIn discussion about SaaS vs. locally installed software. There were many myths presented, mostly to suit the agendas of the vendors and their respective technologies (I know, I know -- shocking that such things would happen on LinkedIn).

The discussion spiraled towards the (incorrect) conclusion that treasurers are paranoid about cloud software's security issues. However, I've not personally encountered such paranoia. What I've instead found is that treasurers are inquisitive about any pitfalls a cloud delivery model presents -- as they should be. Most often they will engage their IT colleagues to evaluate the security, infrastructure, and technology of any proposed third party solution. Treasury is not often equipped to make this assessment, and would otherwise risk falling prey to the agenda (and technology choices) of the vendors. Security assessments typically focus on three areas:

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Much has been written about the pros and cons of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications versus on-premise software. Although SaaS is clearly the driving trend for a wide range of compelling reasons, does every organization need to be forced into making a choice? For some there are still very good reasons for keeping an application in your own data center.

Depending on your business needs, choosing an application that you can deploy in either model and that gives you the option of moving back and forth between a SaaS environment and on-premise may give you the best of both worlds.

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The growth of the cloud and the use of software as a service (SaaS) has had a dramatic effect on both businesses and individuals, allowing people to access corporate applications and data from anywhere and on any device. But it also gives IT managers a security headache as it becomes harder to build and enforce consistent policies, especially when employees are using their own devices.

In a bid to tackle this, security specialist Adallom is launching a complete solution for SaaS applications. This offers seamless cloud-based security that audits all SaaS activities and provides real-time information on user activity.

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Data security and privacy worries are among the most often cited barriers preventing businesses from moving to the cloud. Backupify hopes to address that concern by rolling out a core set of APIs that will allow Software as a Service ISVs (Independent Software Vendors) to integrate the firm’s data protection functionality into their applications.

The aim of the Backupify Developer Platform is to make it easier for SaaS companies to offer the ability to store a secure second copy of their customer’s data off-site through Backupify, thereby assuaging their client’s security concerns. Something Backupify says "will help accelerate market acceptance of SaaS applications by allowing ISVs to continue to focus on what they do best while relying on Backupify to protect their customers’ data".

The Backupify functionality can be offered as an integrated component of the ISV's SaaS solutions, or as an optional upgrade.

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The Commodore 64 celebrates its thirtieth birthday this month. That’s 64 kilobytes for around $600. A massive amount of RAM at the time. And for another $600 you could buy a 5.25-inch floppy disk drive, which could store 170kB on a disk. Programs loaded completely into RAM so that you could remove the program disk from the drive and insert another one to store data. Where can you get a word processor or database that will run in 64k now? Yes, of course we’re routinely doing things now that were only distant dreams back then. But I began my computing experience running my business on just such a Commodore 64.

By 1986 mass market PC clones featured a colossal 512k of RAM and a 4.77MHz processor. But although that was a massive step forward, in no time you needed to upgrade to 640k RAM, and then find ways of using the extended memory registers between 640k and 1MB. In 1990, Windows 3.0 needed 7MB of disk space -- so you’d need a hard drive to run it, which not everyone had.

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Cloud-based customer service startup Freshdesk on Tuesday announced the availability of the HTML5-based mobile app version of its helpdesk solution called FreshMobile. Like Salesforce's recently launched Desk.com mobile support solution, FreshMobile hooks up with the Freshdesk CRM system and lets agents resolve customer queries from any mobile device.

The idea behind FreshMobile is that it makes mobile support possible while working within the constraints of a mobile device. Freshdesk agents can create, save and reuse canned response templates for replying to tickets from their mobile device. The application also introduces a feature called "Solution Suggest," which uses previous activity to learn the most likely course of action on a given support ticket.

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SaaS is now moving toward greater success in online backup, Web conferencing, and some other areas, but not really in either integration or business intelligence, say Forrester Research analysts.

Software-as-a-service (SaaS) originally got off the ground with customer relationship management and human resources applications, Forrester notes in a new report. But although SaaS will keep gaining ground in those two areas, SaaS will also pick up considerable momentum in online backup, Web conferencing, collaboration, and IT systems management, the analysts predict.

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At an event this week described as "the Woodstock of developers conferences," Salesforce.com announced the new Force.com Sites hosted cloud environment and accompanying integration tools for Amazon and Facebook.

After first inventing itself as a premier SaaS (software as a service) practioner, Salesforce.com is now reinventing itself as a "cloud computing" company. This week, it's introducing a "PaaS" (platform as a service) hosted environment called Force.com Sites, along with new developers tools for Facebook front-end and Amazon back-end integration.

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With the number of Ruby developers projected by Gartner to more than quadruple to 4 million by 2013, start-up New Relic is getting into the act with an application management service for Ruby on Rails (RoR) that runs cross-platform.

Already in use among high profile Web sites that include Twitter, Hulu, and Helium.com, Ruby on Rails is an open source, database-driven Web application framework -- geared to ease of use and high productivity -- based on Ruby, an object-oriented programming language derived from Perl. Now, New Relic is launching a software-as-a-service (SaaS) package for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux, for managing applications created in the emerging cross-platform Web development environment.

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At the Microsoft Office SharePoint Conference on Monday, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates unveiled plans to provide a software-as-a-service offering not just to the large enterprises already eligible for such a service from Microsoft, but to companies of all sizes.

Through the new Microsoft Online Services, business with less than 5,000 employees will be able to subsribe to Internet-based applications from Microsoft and its partners instead of buying hardware servers and software licenses. Initially, the company will offer subscription-based applications around e-mail and its SharePoint teamware.

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