Marc Benioff on Software 2020

Having trouble viewing this email? Click here

March 3, 2010

2020: I See It ClearlyThrough the Clouds

SandHill.com kicks off its new thought leadership series with Marc Benioffs perspective on what 2020 will bring for the software industry: cloud- and collaboration-driven enterprise agility.

By Marc Benioff, salesforce.com

I was a college student obsessed with computers when the movie 2010 (the sequel to the iconic 2001: A Space Odyssey) came out. Twenty-six years laterat the start of the real 2010what interests me most is not the science fiction that remained fiction, but whats really happened thats made the films predicted future obsoleteand how that changes everything as we move ahead.

LAST CHANCE! Software CEO/CFO Outlook

SandHill.com wants your outlook on the software business in 2010. Take a short survey and confidentially share your opinions on how the industry and your company will perform in the coming year. Participants will receive a complimentary copy of the full Software CEO Outlook 2010 report.

Play #56 from the
salesforce.com Playbook:

Embrace Transparency and
Build Trust

This excerpt from Marc Benioffs new book, Behind the Cloud, shares the behind-the-scenes story of how salesforce.com overcame the challenge of its first service disruptions. Read more about how communication solved this technology problem.

Conversation with the Founder:

Mark Leslie, Veritas

Javier Rojas of Kennet Partners talks with Mark Leslie about how he created a $1.5 billion revenue business on a $4 million investment in just 11 years. Gain new insight on restarts, game-changing deals and bootstrapping in this post to the SandHill.com Blog, Return Leaders.

Strategy Matters:

Turning Market Position into
Buyer Demand

Chordiant Software's CMO Marchai Bruchey discusses the sales management strategies which have transformed the companys market position into channel-ready strategies that create buyer urgency. Read highlights from the interview in this post to the SandHill.com Blog, Strategy Matters, and link to a new podcast of the entire interview.

The Week in the Cloud:

Feb. 26, 2010

Kamesh Pemmaraju recaps the latest news, deals and thought leadership in the cloud computing space. Read this week's post on the U.S. federal government's cloud strategy, salesforce.com's cloud success, the need for cloud management tools, and list of Cloud Connect LauchPad finalists: Appirio, Cloudswitch, Maxiscale and Drawntoscale.

Get Your Pass to Attend the Cloud Business Summit

SandHill.com publisher M.R. Rangaswami is hosting the Cloud Business Summit on March 15, 2010 at the Santa Clara Convention Center. The first ten readers to click here will receive one of ten "Friends of SandHill.com" passes to the event.

Enduring Ideas: The Three Horizons of Growth

Based on research into how companies sustain growth, the three horizons approach illustrates how to manage for current performance while maximizing future opportunities for growth. Experience this interactive presentation from The McKinsey Quarterly.

Poll: The Cloud in 2020?

Will cloud computing be the dominant business IT model in 2020?
Take our Pulse Poll >>

The Latest Software Business News on SandHill.com

All Headlines: Ballmer tells The Valley that Bing will be No. 1 some day.

VC Activity: Marathon Technologies received $6.5 million.

M&A Deals: CitrixOnline acquires Paglo Labs.

Executive Moves: HyTrust named Jim Gannon VP of sales.

Quote of the Week

"It's a tough proposition for a large strategic buyer because Novell has four divergent businesses, so to make use of all of its assets will be difficult... It's better for a private-equity firm to take it private and restructure the company."

Abhey Lamba of ISI Group Inc. on Ellliot Associates' bid for Novell

This Week's Sponsor

OpSource delivers a complete Web operations solution for software as a service and web companies. Many of the largest software companies and the most innovative web companies have selected OpSource as their Web operations partner. By doing so, they are able to focus their resources on building on-demand businesses, rather than investing in and managing the complex and costly infrastructure 24x7, staff and services necessary for successful web application delivery. Providing everything but the application itself, OpSource is the only Web operations company whose customers pay only for what they sell, not for the resources they consume. Find out more.

Software Pulse

Software Pulse is a publication of SandHill.com, the online resource for software business strategy.

To subscribe, click here.

To unsubscribe see the bottom of this email.

Send us your feedback,
click here.

SandHill.com is published by Sand Hill Group, which provides investment and management advice to emerging leaders in the $600 billion enterprise software, services and solutions market. Sand Hill Group produces the Software and the Enterprise series of conferences for industry executives, and authors research reports on cutting-edge technology topics.

Share Your Insight

SandHill.com wants to publish your opinions. Email your insight on the software business to SandHill.com editor, Maryann Jones Thompson.

2020: I See It ClearlyThrough the Clouds

SandHill.com kicks off its new thought leadership series with Marc Benioffs perspective on what 2020 will bring for the software industry: cloud- and collaboration-driven enterprise agility.