MSPmentor

In the past week, I’ve run into four of the most successful software as a service (SaaS) companies that Wall Street investors don’t know — at least not yet. Here’s a quick look at the companies, and their critical importance to the SaaS industry. Read More >

As I mentioned August 8, software as a service (SaaS) stocks have been moving higher lately. In fact, MSPmentor’s SaaS 20 Stock Index has climbed four consecutive weeks.

What’s behind the upward trend — empty Wall Street hype? Actually, no. In recent weeks, surprisingly strong earnings results have given our index members a boost. Last week’s biggest winners included Athenahealth Inc. (ATHN, +19.47 for the week ended Aug. 8), SuccessFactors Inc. (SFSF, +18.18%), Kenexa Corp. (KNXA, +16.31%), Concur Tech Inc. (CNQR, +16.17%), Taleo Corp. (TLEO, +13.18%) and Omniture Inc. (OMTR, +10.55%).

Here’s a closer look at each SaaS company and its recent momentum.

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Led by Salary.com, the SaaS 20 Stock Index, which tracks the software as a service market, has posted one of its strongest showings this year. The index rose 3.30% for the week ended August 1 — easily beating one-week performances for the Dow (down 0.5%) and the S&P 500 (up .02%).

The SaaS 20 Stock Index’s biggest weekly winners were:

• Salary.com (SLRY, +22.73%)
• Websense Inc. (WBSN, +16.20%)
• Concur Technology Inc. (CNQR, +14.45%)
• Taleo Corp. (TLEO, +13.95%) and
• RightNow (RNOW, +12.25%)

Still, the news wasn’t all good. The index’s biggest weekly losers were Omniture Inc. (OMTR, -7.28%) and SuccessFactors Inc. (SFSF, -6.45%). And despite a one-month rally, the index is still down more than 13% so far this year.

Here’s a closer look at some of the weekly trends. Read More >

RightNow, a member of our SaaS 20 Stock Index, has released quarterly results that reveal accelerating software as a service (SaaS) sales. You never know how investors are going to react — especially as oil prices fluctuate by the hour. But RightNow’s optimistic financial outlook could be reassuring to the SaaS industry. Here are some of the financial figures RightNow released July 30.

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RightNow, one of the leading publicly held software as a service (SaaS) companies, is scheduled to announce earnings later today (July 30). We’ll provide some perspective once we see the numbers.

RightNow is one of companies within the our SaaS 20 Stock Index.

A strong financial report from Amazon.com lifted the SaaS 20 Stock index a tiny 0.20% gain for the week ended July 25. The index has now climbed almost four percent since early July. Are software as a service (SaaS) stocks ready to continue a rally? We’ll find out on July 30, when RightNow (RNOW) is scheduled to announce 2Q results after the market closes.

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More than 70 percent of successful managed service providers offer some form of managed storage, according to our MSPmentor 100 survey. Despite that lofty figure, the online storage market continues to enjoy strong growth.

One prime example: Vembu since February has attracted roughly 350 new online storage partners — pushing its worldwide customer base to more than 900 partners, according to Lakshmanan Narayan,  president for Vembu. Read More >

Symantec Protection Network (SPN), a software as a service (SaaS) platform launched in May 2008, is off to a solid start with managed service providers and VARs, according to Symantec Senior Director Chris Schin.

Still, Schin concedes that SaaS and the IT channel “are warming up to each other slowly.” His point applies to SaaS across the board — and certainly isn’t limited to Symantec. I spoke with Schin today to get an update on SPN and Symantec’s SaaS strategy for partners. Here’s a quick recap of the conversation.

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