MSPmentor

Salesforce.com (CRM) delivered good news — and bad news — in its latest quarterly results, pulling down the SaaS 20 Stock Index 2.86 percent for the week ended August 22. It’s the first time since July 11 that our software as a service index has posted a weekly decline.

None of our 20 index members climbed in a significant way for the week ended August 22. Major weekly decliners included:

• Salesforce.com (CRM, -15.61%)
• RightNow (RNOW, -8.99%)
• Athenahealth Inc. (ATHN, -8.14%)
• Kenexa Corp. (KNXA, -5.43%)
• SuccessFactors Inc. (SFSF, -3.70%)
• Google (GOOG, -3.63%)
• Vocus Inc. (VOCS, -3.22%).

But the real SaaS story on the week was Salesforce.com. Here’s why investors went running for the door.

Read More >

Software as a service (SaaS) and open source continue to converge. The latest example is Apatar On-Demand, which now synchronizes Salesforce.com CRM and Intuit QuickBooks accounting software.

Apatar specializes in open source tools for data integration. And filling the gap between Salesforce.com and QuickBooks should be of great interest to VARs and managed service providers. Here’s a bit more about some of the trends here.

Read More >

John Roberts is sitting in the middle of the perfect storm. As CEO of SugarCRM, he leads one of the fastest-growing open source application providers. And roughly 30 percent of SugarCRM’s customer wins now involve software as a service (SaaS) or an on-demand approach — meaning the company competes with traditional CRM (Siebel) and hosted models like Salesforce.com.

I interviewed Roberts for our June 19 MSPmentor: Live podcast. We covered four key topic areas:

Read More >

Now that Apple has finally announced the next-generation iPhone (known as iPhone 3G0, it’s time for managed service providers to formulate a support strategy for the Apple device.

I’m not suggesting that the iPhone 3G will bury RIM BlackBerry or Windows-based smart phones. And don’t forget: Dozens of Google Android devices are just around the corner as well. But the iPhone 3G is for real, and MSPs can’t afford to ignore it.

Read More >

The next time somebody tells you software as a service (SaaS) is a home-run opportunity, tell them to take a close look at MSPmentor’s SaaS 20 Stock Index, which tracks many of the world’s “leading” SaaS companies.

Since December 31, the index has fallen more than 12 percent, and at least four SaaS companies have seen their shares slide more than 30 percent this year. Here’s a bit more about the SaaS 20 Stock Index, and some of the trends it’s tracking.

Read More >

Salesforce.com announced strong quarterly financial results today, and the company expects revenue for its full year (ending in January 2009) to exceed $1 billion. Does that mean Salesforce.com will become the first $1 billion software as a service (SaaS) company?

Read More >

Talk about role reversal. A few months ago, RightNow was plummeting and NetSuite was skyrocketing. But the two software as a service (SaaS) companies appear to have traded places. Only a day after RightNow announced financial progress, NetSuite delivered growth projections that disappointed Wall Street.

The bottom line for SaaS — and the people who follow the SaaS industry — is pretty clear.

Read More >

Microsoft is preparing an “application streaming” initiative, in an effort to more effectively position Microsoft Office against Google Apps, according to ComputerWorld. Anyone who thinks this is nothing more than a commodity software war needs to think again.

While Google has lined up major colleges to standardize on Google Apps, Microsoft is quietly pushing cable companies to embrace its software as a service (SaaS) product portfolio. Here’s the scoop. Read More >