Migrating to SaaS Delivery: Decision or Reaction?

May 11, 2011

Migrating to SaaS Delivery: Decision or Reaction?

Given the growing maturity of the SaaS market, most would think this a fait accompli for vendors; but in reality it is a lot more difficult to execute than it is to propose.

By Fred Landis, SaaS and Product Marketing Strategies

Gartner reports that aggregate SaaS revenue reached $9.2B in 2010, up over 15 percent from the previous year (compared to 8.5 percent for enterprise software overall) and forecasted for higher growth in 2011. Strong growth projections are validated by others as well; multiple industry analyst organizations are on record stating total revenue from Cloud-based and SaaS applications will outstrip enterprise revenue in the next few years.However, many ISVs have not thought through their go-to-market strategy and modified their internal culture and expectations to compliment a SaaS, recurring- revenue model.

It is one thing for Marketing and Sales to recognize the changing competitive conditions that challenge customer acquisition; but if the rest of the organizational processes and revenue model are structured around the legacy business, dependence on SaaS moving forward is fraught with risk and pitfalls.

$8.3 Billion in Software M&A Activity

Check out our new M&A page. In addition to the daily links to M&A news, you'll now find monthly and quarterly reports from Software Equity Group summarizing all the recent activity. The cumulative value of all software buyouts and mergers worldwide during the first three months of 2011 totaled $8.3 billion. Is that higher or lower than the total for Q4 of 2010? Download the PDF reports on our M&A page to find out the answer... plus much more M&A information to keep you in the know.

Unextreme Exploring

Guy Smith of Silicon Strategies Marketing points out that new markets continually appear but marketing budgets are finite; he suggests an approach around this challenge in this post to the SandHill.com blog, Best Practices: Software Marketing.

Software Export Compliance: Monitor Closely or Pay the Price

Bashyam Anant of Flexera Software discusses trends in electronic software delivery and software producers' compliance with export trade restrictions in this post to SandHill blog, New Era, New Thinking.

Did You Know?

A research study of multiple surveys classifies software execs as "high" or "average" performers according to how high they score on four "mental toughness" skills. The high performers have the ability to make a difference in their organizations. Do you know the four skills? Read more in this Sand Hill article by Dr. Graham Jones, founder of Lane4.

Cloud Strategy and Roadmap: The Path to an Agile Business

Kamesh Pemmaraju of Sand Hill Group discusses the first four crucial steps for successfully moving to the cloud in this post to the Sandhill.com blog, Leaders in the Cloud.

Private Cloud Benefits. Are Users Destined to Live in the Rain Shadow?

Chris Dowse of Neochange discusses the benefits drop-off susceptibility of private clouds in this post to SandHill.com blog, Software Monetization Best Practices.

Poll: SaaS Delivery Readiness

Which of the following areas was initially – or still is – the biggest challenge to your company morphing to delivering SaaS applications?
Take our Pulse Poll >>

The Latest Software Business News on SandHill.com

News Summary: Barreling Through—Unholy teaming; devops make impacts; Amazon smudges SAP; and more software news of the week.

VC Activity: Software firm gets cash influx: Venture capitalists pour $7.2M into PeopleMatter.

M&A Deals: RIM Acquires German Software Developer Ubitexx.

Executive Moves: New executives step up at AppSense and other software companies.

Quote of the Week

“The great advantage of China is they offer a huge market and there is very little legacy technology to impede innovation. I am very excited about Cloud Computing in China... China has already produced innovative technology-rich Internet service companies that rival Google, eBay, and Amazon. China is in a great position to leverage Cloud Computing technologies and leapfrog Western companies that run on traditional IT.”

- Sheng Liang, CEO, Cloud.com

This Week's Sponsor

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