Posts Tagged ‘SaaS’
Tuesday, May 21st, 2013
 The emergence of software-as-a-service (SaaS), cloud, IT consumerization and mobile are expected to advance the future of the software industry, finds PwC U.S. in its annual Global 100 Software Leaders report. The report, in its fourth year of publication, highlights a deeper understanding of the underlying forces and trends that are influencing the industry.
The PwC study finds that the effects of globalization and consolidation are changing the landscape of the software sector and how companies develop, market, sell, distribute and support their products. Acquisitions are viewed as an R&D strategy as well as a key way to acquire talent and build SaaS capabilities more effectively and efficiently.
“Software companies and vendors are especially beginning to feel the effects of the software-as-a-service (SaaS) technology on their business models,” said Patrick Pugh , PwC’s U.S. software and Internet leader.
“Vendors need to continually evaluate both the changing priorities of customers and the industry because these evolving sentiments are causing deep structural changes and fundamentally shaping business models.”
SaaS racked up 40 percent of revenues
According to the report, SaaS revenue accounted for at least 40 percent of software revenue for 10 companies on the Global 100, in which nine of the top 10 are U.S.-based.
While U.S. companies lead revenue share on both the global and North American lists of software vendors, PwC finds that powerful newcomers, as well as companies from emerging markets, will increasingly challenge the dominance of the large North American vendors.
“To drive future growth, North American software vendors must prioritize transforming their business models to address the realities of the SaaS environment and incorporate social enterprise, IT consumerization and data analytics. Furthermore, U.S. companies can find new opportunities to expand globally by tailoring their software to specific vertical markets and geographic regions,” added PwC’s Pugh.
Key industry drivers include:
- Priority on pricing: Pricing is the paramount issue for the entire sector. With the rise of IT consumerization via low and no cost online platforms, software companies are already struggling to explain the difference in value between a low-cost mobile app and a full-strength, licensed enterprise software package.
- SaaS is gaining traction: Although SaaS represented only 4.9 percent of total software revenues in 2011, a consistent and significant shift towards SaaS is occurring. Roughly half of 800 North American organizations confirmed they evaluate cloud based solutions when buying software. Perpetual license revenue has been shrinking since 2004 while subscription revenue (including SaaS) is forecast to grow at a 17.5 percent compounded annual rate, reaching 24 percent of total software revenue by 2016. Software companies are now closely evaluating aspects of their business models, including delivery methods, pricing strategies and sales compensation options.
- Customer is king: With the adoption of intuitive cloud services, mobile devices and low-cost apps, CIOs are no longer the sole decision makers in the software purchasing process; end users must be satisfied in order to retain and grow enterprise sales. Additionally, customer perception of the value of software has changed dramatically. Vendors must develop strategies to counter the expectation that software should be free.
- Emerging hybrid models bring new challenges: There will be a range of business models, from traditional licensed software, to pure SaaS, to hybrid approaches, all of which will pose challenges for vendors in the foreseeable future.
- Vendors will need to identify and adopt new business models while trying to maintain revenues and profits during a time when overall industry pricing is under pressure. Industry executives also worry that the new subscription-based business models will increase dependency on renewals and risk of customer turnover.
Tags: cloud IT, mobile, PWC, reshaping vendor operations, SaaS, software industry, trends
Posted in Cloud, IT, Mobile, Telecommunications | No Comments »
Friday, April 12th, 2013
 You can see what’s hot and what’s not looking at the merger and acquisition picture in any industry, and in online and mobile, analytics, SaaS, mobile payments and food service and content firms are like spice to the big dish Internet companies these days.
Deal volume increased three percent relative to the prior quarter in online and mobile industry mergers and acquisitions in the first quarter of 2013, according to mid-market investment bank Berkery Noyes in its mergers and acquisitions trend report, but transaction value decreased 50 percent, from $15.8 billion in Q4 2012 to $7.9 billion in Q1 2013.
The SaaS/ASP segment experienced the largest quarterly rise in volume, improving 16 percent. Meanwhile, transaction volume in the E-Commerce segment increased six percent between Q4 2012 and Q1 2013.
Highest value deal
The segment’s highest value deal in Q1 2013 was Google’s announced acquisition of Channel Intelligence for $125 million.
In addition, major financial technology players completed several large Online and Mobile payments acquisitions during Q1 2013. For instance, ACI Worldwide acquired Online Resources Corporation for $203 million and FIS acquired mFoundry for $120 million.
M&A involving transactions with a large mobile component increased 33 percent over the past three months. Along these lines, there were several acquisitions in the food service information and content space.
Yahoo, OpenTable buys
 This included Yahoo!’s acquisition of Alike, which enables users to make recommendations about their favorite food establishments; and OpenTable’s acquisition of Foodspotting, an application that helps users share information about particular dishes.
With four transactions, Yahoo! was the most active Online and Mobile Industry acquirer during the quarter. Several of Yahoo!’s recent acquisitions demonstrate its renewed focus on mobile under CEO Marissa Mayer .
Yahoo! has already completed three mobile transactions thus far in 2013, acquiring social news application Summly, as well as applications Alike and Jybe. In contrast, Yahoo! only made two mobile transactions last year, both of which occurred in Q4 2012.
E-marketing and Search segments
As for the E-Marketing & Search segment, M&A activity increased nine percent in Q1 2013. \
“The ability to better profile and target consumers has necessitated the development and growth of companies that can analyze shoppers’ behavior and develop appropriate offerings to the consumer,” said Evan Klein , Managing Director at Berkery Noyes.
“This shift has led to the growth of data analytics businesses and, with the need to develop deeper relationships with consumers, the growth in loyalty marketing companies.”
 Just call me Larry. Regarding the segment’s social media marketing subset, one notable acquisition in Q1 2013 was Twitter’s acquisition of BlueFin Labs.
A key goal of acquiring the social television analytics company is for Twitter to gain additional advertising revenue by leveraging viewer data. TiVo and The Nielsen Company completed E-Marketing acquisitions in 2012, both of which focused on improving the ability to measure digital audiences.
A copy of the ONLINE AND MOBILE INDUSTRY M&A REPORT FOR FIRST QUARTER 2013 is available at the Berkery Noyes website.
Tags: ACI Worldwide, Alike, analytics, Berkery Noyes, BlueFin, Channel Intelligence, food service and content, Google, Jybe, M&A, Mergers and acquisitions, mobile and online, mobile payments, SaaS, twitter, Yahoo
Posted in Acquisitions, Google, Internet/New Media, Mobile, Studies, surveys, reports, Twitter | No Comments »
Thursday, February 28th, 2013
By Allan Maurer
 Carter Griffin Technology media has been raining coverage on the cloud services revolution, but Carter Griffin, general partner with Updata Partners, says, “The cloud is actually under-hyped.”
He means that there is still a sky full of growth to come for cloud services as they’re more widely adopted in the Enterprise space.
“Software as a service (SaaS) penetration of Enterprise customers is only 13 percent,” he says. He notes that the only areas with double-digit penetration are customer relationship management (pioneering SaaS firm salesforce.com) and collaboration.
Founded pioneering SaaS firm
“All other app tool sets are only single-digit penetration,” Griffin says.
Griffin joined Updata in 2005 and is a General Partner. Updata has $500 million in assets under management and invests from $5 million to $20 million per company in software, internet and business service firms.
Prior to Updata, Carter co-founded Brivo Systems in 1999 and served as Chairman and CEO until selling the company to a strategic acquirer. Brivo Systems pioneered the software-as-a-service model in the physical security market by introducing the first-ever on-demand system for facility access control.
Participating at the Southeast Venture Conference
 He’s one of more than two-dozen venture capitalists participating in the upcoming Southeast Venture Conference in Charlotte, NC, March 13-14.
Regarding cloud services being under-hyped, he adds, “Look at the consumer trends, the small and medium-sized business trends. Consumers are using Dropbox, iTunes, apps on smartphones, all touching the cloud to make them useful.”
SMBs, he points out, “Don’t have the legacy of an Oracle. With a clean slate to choose from, they pick a hosted cloud-based phone system, gmail, Webx for meetings, Dropbox for collaboration.”
Employees driving the trend in the Enterprise
 Those trends will ultimately influence Enterprises, “So you’re going to continue to see cloud adoption rise at a very fast rate,” Griffin says. “It’s penetrating the Enterprise because individual employees pull those mobile devices and work habits into the office. It’s truly a massive seachange.”
What makes the cloud model so interesting for startups and smaller firms?
“They’re much less expensive for a company (than buying and installing software and infrastructure) and allow a much shorter startup time. So you get time effectiveness at a lower cost.”
Mistake to “roll your own?”
He notes, however, “Over time you may wind up paying more with your cloud provider. Typically, you’ll use those tools on a recurring basis.”
Griffin says he thinks it may be a mistake even for larger companies with the luxury of big balance sheets to invest instead in the infrastructure to “roll their own.”
“It’s often wrong because the services required to maintain on premises apps can be five and ten times the cost of managed services.”
Griffin thinks we’ll see “across the board” adoption of cloud services by Enterprise firms. “The deepest penetration will be in firms with distributed employees – benefited by the mobile trend.”
He adds that he expects to see companies with heavy computing needs turn to the cloud as well. “In the past you needed your own data center with a lot of horsepower to crunch big data in house. It was the only way you could do it. Now look at genomics, oil and gas exploration – the thinking is to push all the computing to the cloud.”
Massive opportunity for startups
The laggards, Griffin says, “are the financial institutions and heavily regulated industries.”
Cloud-based tools also offer “A massive opportunity for startups,” he says. “All the old traditional on-premise tools have SaaS counterparts now. The obvious ones are taken, but there are many, many opportunities within that for growth.”
Another important factor for startups is that the cloud is “An equalizer for geography. All these tools are available to everyone in the developed world. That’s fantastic news for entrepreneurs who don’t live in Silicon Valley. If you have access to enough engineering talent, it’s just as easy to build a great company using the cloud if you’re in Topeka, Kansas.”
Tags: Carter Griffin, cloud services, Enterprise, SaaS, SEVC 2013, SMBs, Southeast Venture Conference, Updata Partners
Posted in Cloud, entrepreneurship, Events, IT | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, September 5th, 2012
By Allan Maurer
 Mike Baker, CEO, co-founder, Boston-based DataXU. Everyone in marketing has heard the comment that “We know only half of our advertising works, we just don’t know which half” Boston-based DataXU thinks it can change that, fulfilling the promise of digital marketing.
“Our premise is that we’re now living in a digital world,” says DataXU CEO Mike Baker. He says that by 2020 95 percent of all media will be digital, “Even outdoor billboards and magazines, and the migration to digital is creating all this data. Everything we do on a digital device creates a data trail.”
Founded in 2009, DataXU (pronounced Data Zoo), ”Helps markerters and big brands such as Ford, General Mills and American Express manage their digital investments,” Baker tell us. “Using big data and analytics, we created a system that uses machine learning to understand which advertising is actually working and which is wasted.”
A fully-integrated digital marketing platform
The company’s flagship product is DX3, a fully-integrated digital marketing management platform for the enterprise sold as software as a service (SaaS).
In a single platform, DataXu delivers campaign management, audience management, attribution management, cross channel media buying, complex targeting, and advanced reporting.
DataXU, he says, “Measures everything: websites, mobile apps, sponsored videos. We tell our clients what’s working and what’s not to help them improve their return on investment.”
He says typical results increase the efficiency of a firms digital investments by 20 percent or more. “What that means,” he explains, “is that if you’re spending $100,000 for digital marketing, you see 20 percent more results in acquiring new customers.”
DataXU has been growing rapidly. It raised more than $35 million in venture backing, has 200 employees and 300 customers.
A digital marketing veteran and a rocket scientist
Baker himself is a veteran of the digital marketing field.
Before co-founding DataXu, he was vice president at Nokia, where he created and ran Nokia Interactive. Baker came to Nokia through its acquisition of mobile advertising leader Enpocket in 2007, where he was the founding investor and CEO.
He has also been executive vice president at Engage Technologies, an innovator in online advertising and behavioral targeting. An active angel investor in digital media, he is currently chairman of the board of Nexage, a mobile advertising solutions provider.
His co-founder and the chief technology officer at DataXU, Willard Simmons, is an actual rocket scientist. He developed and tested real-time flight software for guidance, navigation, and control of the Atlas family of space launch vehicles. He developed the company’s technology.
The technology is complex, but the value proposition is very simple, Baker notes.
“It really is rocket science. The idea of making systems go in real time – steering a rocket to its destination – is very useful in advertising,” Baker says. “You measure the data and make course corrections to automatically reach more customers for less money.”
Fees for the company’s product are based on usage. “The more someone derives value from the software, the more we get paid,” Baker says.
Trends: mobile, machines talking to machines
We asked him what trends he’s seeing now.
“A couple are interesting,” he says. “A lot more people are watching quick 5-minute videos on computers and mobile devices than before. And people are going ga-ga with games and social networking on mobile.”
Bigger trends tied to those, he adds, include big brands allocating more and more of their advertising investments in digital channels. “We saw it during the Olympics with all those digital tie-ins.”
Another is “The way ads are bought and sold. It used to be like the TV show “Mad Men.” People pitched big ideas. Went out for lunch and smoozed. Now it’s machines connected to machines, Google and Facebook. The machines, talking to each other, say, ‘Do you want to buy this ad spot for a consumer looking at news of a Hurricane?’ Or ‘How much will you pay me for this guy in Cleveland?’ From nothing three years ago, that will include of third of all transactions in digital media by 2016.”
Baker also points out that SaaS has changed the software business. “In the old days you would pay millions for a software license, another million for installation, and 20 percent a year to fix bugs. It would be 12 months before you find out if you any ROI from that.”
Now, he says, “You pay nothing up front. DataXU can deploy in two days. You can show ROI in a week and it’s even better after a month. You don’t have to wait long to see machine learning work.”
Tags: Allan Maurer, Automatic, big data, Boston, DataXU, digital campaigns, DX3, machines talking to machines, Marketing, Mike Baker, SaaS, Willard Simmons
Posted in Analytics, Internet/New Media, Marketing | No Comments »
Tuesday, May 15th, 2012
 Technology merger & acquisition activity slowed in the first quarter of 2012, but not as much as in other industries, according to Ernst & Young’s Global technology M&A update: January–March 2012 report.
The report says five megatrends – smart mobility, cloud computing, social networking, big data analytics and convergence maintain a positive outlook for tech M&A.
The biggest increases in tech M&A deals, the report says, came from online video technology and SaaS companies. Deal volume was also strong in mobile apps, healthcare IT, advertising/marketing tech, patents, social networking and big data analytics.
Aggregate deal volume fell
Aggregate deal value of global technology mergers and acquisitions (M&A) fell 12% year-on-year (YOY) to US$25.1b in the first quarter of 2012.
This was only half the value decline of M&A in all industries, as ongoing economic uncertainty continues to take its toll on global deal-making.
Private equity (PE) deal values for technology, meanwhile, climbed 171% YOY in 1Q12, despite falling significantly in all industries, according to Ernst & Young’s Global technology M&A update: January–March 2012 report.
The total volume of announced 1Q12 deals was 756 (counting both disclosed- and non-disclosed-value deals), up just 1% from 748 in 1Q11.
Growth flattens
Quarterly deal volume appears to have reached a plateau after two years of strong growth in 2009 and 2010 — for the last five quarters the number of deals has ranged from a low of 722 to a high of 756.
Joe Steger, Global Technology Industry Transaction Advisory Services Leader at Ernst & Young, says: “Even though technology M&A activity is down YOY, it’s doing a lot better than M&A in other industries.
“During the first quarter of 2012, the same disruptive megatrends that have been fueling global technology M&A since 2009 are now sustaining technology M&A against the continuing macroeconomic pressures that are holding back other industries.
“And the long-term outlook for technology M&A remains positive because those megatrends represent the driving force of disruptive innovation that is revitalizing and reshaping the technology industry.”
Five megatrends continue to drive technology deal-making
Steger was alluding to five long-term “megatrends” that are generating disruptive innovation in technology and leading to technology-enabled innovation in other industries.
They are smart mobility, cloud computing, social networking, “big data” analytics and a growing sense of “blur” and convergence, as technology sectors come together and the technology industry enters other industries as enabling innovation. In addition, all five megatrends are driving increased information security requirements.
Online video, SaaS deals surge
Though the 1Q12 technology report details many influential deal-driving factors, the biggest increases in transaction volume came from deals targeting online video technology and SaaS companies. These also generated the largest deals of 1Q12 by dollar value.
These were a US$5b transaction targeting technology that can relay video to mobile devices and aUS$2b deal targeting a provider of workforce management SaaS. In China, meanwhile, the country’s largest video website announced a US$1.1b agreement to acquire its chief rival.
At the same time, a multitude of smaller transactions demonstrated that both online video and SaaS deal-driving trends have widespread strength, according to the report.
Similar deal volume strength was seen in mobile applications, health care information technology, advertising/ marketing technologies, patents, social networking and “big data” analytics deals.
Patents, social networking deals change character
Ernst & Young’s Global technology M&A update: January–March 2012 report notes that the increasing importance of intellectual property (IP) caused transactions targeting patents to grow in 1Q12.
Social networking transactions also seemed to change in character, as post-IPO companies appeared to focus on acquiring strategic mobile technologies instead of talent acquisitions or geographic expansion, as they previously did.
Ongoing rise of PE changes M&A landscape
Despite a typical fourth-to-first-quarter dip, the report shows that the YOY value of disclosed PE deals soared 171% to US$5.8b, mostly in three big-ticket deals.
This continues a three-year PE growth trend. The 1Q12 report describes how the increasing reliance on technology of companies throughout the economy, combined with the developing maturity of technology companies themselves, is attracting more PE companies to technology transactions.
Increasing PE activity is changing the global technology M&A landscape by increasing the competition for deals and by providing better exit opportunities for corporate divestiture of non-core assets, according to
the report.
Tags: Big data analytics, cloud computing, convergence, Ernst & Young's Global technology M&A update: January–March 2012 report., Joe Steger, megatrends, online video, patents, SaaS, smart mobility, social networking
Posted in Acquisitions, Analytics, Cloud, Internet/New Media, IT, Mobile, social media, Studies, surveys, reports, Telecommunications | No Comments »
Tuesday, February 7th, 2012
 Armistead Whitney, CEO, Preparis, one of 60 firms presenting at the upcoming Southeast Venture Conference. By Allan Maurer
When jets plowed into the World Trade Center towers on Sept. 11, 2001, Armistead Whitney, now CEO and founder of Preparis, was president of a New York City-based media firm.
Along with many other company executives based in the city on that fateful day, Whitney was faced with questions about how he and his 200 employees should react to the terrorist attacks.
“I was immediately faced with some critical issues,” he says. “What should I do to ensure my employees will be safe? How will my operations, revenue, shareholder value, and brand reputation make it through? I simply had no clue.”
He and his staff made it out of the city safely, but Whitney writes that he made it his mission to find out what he would do differently if faced with such a situation again. He met with leaders form emergency preparedness and response organizations, then with CEOs of companies of various sizes. Whitney wrote about how it all on the Preparis website.
Guidance on what to do
After considerable research, he started the Atlanta-based company Preparis Inc., a startup selling an SaaS-based platform that delivers expert information, response protocols, communications and training to help businesses meet unpredictable threats from terrorism, pandemics, and natural disasters.
Preparis is one of 60 innovative showcase firms that will present business plans to venture capitalists and angel investors representing billions in capital at the 6th Annual Southeast Venture Conference in Tysons Corner, VA, Feb. 29-March 1.
Companies face 21st century threats
In today’s world, terrorist attacks are only one threat among many that can disrupt global businesses, Whitney tells us. “Threats of the 21st century have become more complex, especially as companies outsource more. They have operations globally, in third world countries, and clients in places impacted by local troubles.”
Nowadays, then, a business has to face pandemics, cyber terrorism, nuclear meltdowns, natural disasters from hurricanes and floods to earthquakes and wild fires. Floods in Asia can hamper production of electronics parts made there from hard drives to tablets.
Yet, Whitney points out, the only preparations for meeting such disasterous business interruptions is “A plan that sits on s shelf. It can be challenging for that to be effective.”
While most larger Fortune 1000 firms do have plans in place – policies, procedures and teams, they want tech to automate it all, Whitney notes.
They need a way to automate plans
“They need a way for tech to automate it, bring it all together so that it can be accessed from any place on any device, how to protect the workforce from threats, response instructions if you receive a bomb threat, an anthrax letter.”
Technology can take those stale plans on a shelf and make living breathing programs, he says.
Downstream at smaller organizations such as a law firm, “We become their entire ecosystem with everything they need, even an emergency notification system (such as Virginia Tech installed following deadly shootings on its campus).
The Preparis system knows who do what with the product at each level and everyone from the CEO to employees can use it.
“We’ve sold to about every industry, Fortune 1000 companies, banks, attorneys. Every industry at every size has an appetite for it,” says Whitney.
In the past, most such disaster preparedness was done through consultants Preparis does it through its SaaS product that a company can download from the web and being using immediately. “We’re creating a new category,” Whitney says.
Dealing with cyber threats
Looking ahead, the company is getting into how to deal with cyber threat issues. “As new threats evolve – the pandemic fears of a few years ago for instance – we quickly add guidance for our clients.”
In the recent “Trifecta” of an earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear meltdown in Japan, for instance, the Japanese government was telling its citizens it was ok to eat the food grown in Japan. But the Preparis product told its clients, “No, it is not ok to eat the food from Japan at this time.” Later tests showed that much food was contaminated with radioactivity.
“We also had a lot of our clients use the emergency messaging system when trying to find their employees.”
It must be doing something right. It has a 100 percent client renewal rate. How many software firms can say that?
The 20 employee company has raised $5 million in Series A funding. Whitney says the company is looking at a B round for growth.
“We signed a strategic alliance with Wells Fargo, which is bundling it with their products for their insurance customers. It’s a huge opportunity. Its the fourth largest insurance broker. We don’t need money for the product, but we need to hire more people to facilitate meeting increased demand for the product. That’s the main reason we would raise a B round.”
The company’s growth plan also includes mobile and social integration. Already clients can log in to the product with Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn names and passwords.
Tags: 11/11/2001, Armistead Whitney, Atlanta, business continuity, disaster preparation, emergency response software, Preparis, SaaS, SEVC, Southeast Venture Conference, threat preparation, Tysons Corner, VA
Posted in Cloud, entrepreneurship, Events, Internet/New Media, IT, LinkedIn, Mobile, smartphones, social media, TechLife, Telecommunications, Twitter, Virginia | 1 Comment »
Friday, March 25th, 2011
 ATLANTA - Toomah, rebranding as HireIQ Solutions, which sells software-as-a-service that helps large call centers and other clients slash hiring costs with automated candidate interviewing, has closed a new funding round from investors including Atlanta-based Tech Operators. Atlanta Technology Angels participated in the round.
Tech Operators partner Dave Gould, who sold his last software company for $1 billion, will become chairman of the HireIQ Solutions board. Gould told the Atlanta Business Chronicle he sees HireIQ as another potential billion dollar company.
The firm’s Interview Plus product automates and streamlines job candidate interviews and brings analytics to bear on the recorded results, ranking them for language proficiency, length of responses, ability to handle irate customers, and numerous other metrics. Among it’s selling points: candidates can do the automated phone interviews during non-business hours, and about 30 percent do.
The company is a member of the Georgia Tech Advanced Technology Development Center, which President and CEO Joe Gruca tells us, “Was a great friend, especially early stage. We wouldn’t be where we are without ATDC.”
Founded in January last year by veteran entrepreneur Jay Forman, Toomah won the 2010 TAG/GRA Business Launch Competition, taking home $50,000 cash and over $200,000 in donated services from the Atlanta business community.
The company raised seed funding from the Atlanta Technology Angels and the Georgia State Fund.
Gruca says the eight-employee firm has raised about $1.5 million and plans to do some hiring when the funding closes.
The company recently closed a deal with JetBlue Airways and Gruca says another large airline with roots in Atlanta has signed on to use its product to interview flight attendants, It also has a number of large call center clients such as Stream International, one of the top 25 business process outsourcing firms.
Gruca points out that the company’s product not only helps streamline hiring of better candidates, it also improves customer satisfaction. It tests for how fluently the candidate uses English, for instance. Now that’s a pain point. We recently had a call from a well known large U.S. bank and the caller, checking on some of our credit card charges, had to say the name of a firm three times before understood her because she spoke too rapidly.
“It has an impact on customer satisfaction,” Gruca says.
Coming up from IQHire/Toomah is a Web-based self-service app aimed at smaller firms or call centers with fewer than 4,000 seats. It will allow users to buy units or blocks of interviews instead of signing up for a subscription.
While Gruca says the company gets calls all the time asking about other services such as interpreters or legal depositions, “We’re staying focused on high volume clients. It will, however, add skills and behavior assessment modules later this year, he notes.
Behavior assessments look at whether a candidate can do things such as sitting in a cubicle doing repetitive tasks all day. Skills assessed would include such things as typing.
“Almost every enhancement is a result of feedback from clients,” says Gruca.
Concurrent with closing of this round of funding, the company is changing its name to “HireIQ Solutions” to more closely align itself with its vision of helping companies improve their recruiting, hiring and talent performance. “Rebranding the company as HireIQ Solutions will help customers, prospects and partners more closely associate the company with its place in the talent performance optimization market,” added Gruca. “We will continue to expand our solution set under the HireIQ brand to further improve the recruiting and retention of employees in the markets we serve.”
Tags: hiring, SaaS
Posted in Georgia, Internet/New Media, IT, Money, TechJobs | No Comments »
Friday, February 25th, 2011
By Allan Maurer
 Glenn McGonnigle Atlanta-based Tech Operators, which invests in early stage tech companies, founded in 2008, came out of the recent recession investing on the upward curve. “We were fortunate,” says General Partner Glenn McGonnigle, “We didn’t have a legacy set of portfolio companies to support, and that benefited us.”
McGonnigle, prior to launching Tech Operators, was most recently chairman and CEO of Atlanta-based VistaScape Security Systems, a provider of enterprise intelligent video surveillance software where he was recruited by the company’s board to raise capital and grow the business.
He subsequently oversaw the successful sale of the company to Siemens Building Technologies. An authority on IT and physical security convergence and a frequent contributor and expert speaker for numerous industry publications and events, he helped shape President Bush’s 2005 National Strategy for Maritime Security.
Previously, Glenn was a co-founder and top executive of Atlanta-based Internet Security Systems (ISS) where he helped raise initial venture capital and launch the business.
Participating in the Southeast Venture Conference March 2-3
McGonnigle is a participant in the upcoming fifth annual Southeast Venture Conference at the Buckhead Ritz Carlton in Atlanta March 2-3.
McGonnigle says he sees some improvement in the early stage funding environment in Atlanta.
“We’re seeing two interesting things happening,” he says. “For Internet enabled businesses—a large part of what we look at—it takes less money to launch a business these days. That’s the good news.
“Second, the movement from launching on a shoestring to the revenue stage can happen very quickly these days. So you have to get involved and watch entrepreneurs early on.”
He notes that he also sees a movement toward more angel investing in Atlanta and the Southeast, with the reconstitution of the Atlanta Angels group an example, as well as a plethora of startup focused events such as the recently held Startup Riot. “Venture Atlanta will be adding an early stage day next year,” he says.
Tech Operators has already seen one of its portfolio companies, California-based Immunet, achieve a successful exit. “So we’re not only putting money to work, we’re getting it back,” he says.
So far, Tech Operators has invested in five firms. “We tend to work with entrepreneurs who value the fact that the Tech Operator partners and I are all former CEOs and can help them grow their businesses. It’s a new approach in the Southeast venture community, where the entrepreneur sees us as a peer, partner and operator, hence the name.”
Size up the business on a global scale
One thing entrepreneurs can learn from VCs, he says, “Is to size up a business on a global scale, not just their own backyard. It’s not enough to be the only company of your kind in Atlanta, you have to think of yourself on global stage. That’s the market.”
Tech Operators looks for deals that leverage the cloud infrastructure and delivery via the Internet in a Software-as-a-Service model that produces recurring revenue. “All five of our portfolio companies are in that area,” he says.
To be interesting to most venture capitalists, a company should be in the top three in its category. “That’s where VCs like to invest and where the majority of the value is. Not every company is going to be in the top three. If you’re in the top 10, you may still have a nice business and you don’t necessarily have to fold up your tent. But if you’re the 10th or 20th social media play in a crowded space and not differentiating yourself, you’re not likely to attract venture funding.”
McGonnigle says he thinks there are opportunities for startups in handling “big data” problems. “It’s now becoming economical to deal with it in the public or private cloud.”
He offers some advice to entrepreneurs attending events such as the Southeast Venture Conference.
“I assume they’re going to meet sources of capital and need to raise money. Do your homework,” he suggests. “Know what you need in terms of capital and find out who is coming and reach out in advance so you can have productive meetings. That’s what investors do.”
TechJournal South is a TechMedia company. TechMedia presents the annual conferences:
SoutheastVentureConference: www.seventure.org
Internet Summit: www.internetsummit.com
Digital East: www.digitaleast.com
Digital Summit: www.digitalsummit.com
Tags: advice to entrepreneurs, Atlanta Angels, cloud infrastructure, early stage investing, Glenn McGonnigle, investing criteria, SaaS, Southeast Venture Conference, Tech Operators, Venture Atlanta
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
Wednesday, January 12th, 2011
 BOCA RATON – Aplicor, a company selling customer relationship management (CRM) and enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, has closed on a $1.25 million equity round, according to a regulatory filing.
The company’s Software as a Service CRM application includes Sales Force Automation, Marketing Automation and Customer Support modules. The CRM application, says Aplicor, automates customer facing processes to improve marketing effectiveness, increase sales win rates, enhance customer service levels, grow customer share and decrease customer churn.
Founded in 1999 before providing software online acquired the “cloud” cachet it has today, the company has has been recognized with nineteen (19) industry awards including four Users Choice Awards, two CRM Excellence Awards, two Technology Business of the Year awards, Hosted CRM Winner, CRM WizKids Winner, Internet Technology Showcase Winner and the Best of the Best Award.
The company disclosed the raise in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
Tags: Aplicor, Boca Raton, cloud based software, CRM, ERP, financing, FL, SaaS, software
Posted in Florida, Internet/New Media, IT | 1 Comment »
Monday, January 3rd, 2011
 By Allan Maurer
MIAMI – Online selling has natural advantages: stores open 24/7 365 days a year. Breaks on sales taxes (sometimes). The convenience of never leaving home or dealing with crowds in stores during holidays or sales. But for many retailers, it also presents a raft of marketing challenges. Miami-based Merchant Advantage sells software as a service to help online merchants, agencies and service providers deal with those business problems.
MerchantAdvantage provides the large online merchants and marketing/advertising agencies business tools to manage their marketing campaigns, product catalog feeds, and customer feedback “at a price they can afford,” the company says.
Chief Financial Officer Tom Smith tells us the company, founded in 2005, has been privately funded, but expects to look for third party acceleration funding this year or in 2012.
“Our solution helps e-commerce companies manage and distribute their products to online shopping sites and gives them the ability to manage their ad words at the product level,” he says.
The problem is that certain web sites are only really good for moving certain brands or price points. “A merchant can get slaughtered if it lists every product. You need to know what sells well at each type of site. It’s like shopping malls. Some are good at the high end, some at the low end.”
Smith says sophisticated merchants list profitably on up to 60 shopping sites – but only by putting a narrow selection of products on each one because they know what products produce results there.
For a large electronics retailer with hundreds of thousands of products with changing price points and individual models, that’s a business problem of epic proportions.
Can’t ship, goodbye Amazon
Another problem is that if a company cannot ship a product, “You get kicked off of Amazon,” says Smith. Since “You can’t predict how many people are going to click buy on an aggregator such as Shopzilla, you need a safety margin on what you can actually deliver.” That means if your inventory falls to fewer than three to five products, you might not want to list it on Amazon that day.
Trying to handle those problems via an Excel spreadsheet or Microsoft Access databases “Requires a team of people,” Smith notes. “Instead of having two or three people deal with it, one person can do it with out tool, which is a data management tool, not just a feed tool.”
The company’s Channel Management with Channel Analytics tool enables ecommerce merchants, agencies, and companies seeking data centric solutions to customize, optimize, submit, adjust, monitor, and analyze data feeds to third-party partners and any online marketing channel.
Among its features, it will help merchants and marketers manage their entire search engine marketing efforts. “It makes sure you don’t bid on products without inventory, will bid on some with higher price points for a better margin, and generate and manage Google key words. We can build all these sophisticated automatic bidding rules.”
Often, it pays to buy key words for a specific product, a specific camera model, say, than for a brand or type of camera, because then, Smith says, you catch the buyer after he’s done research and is ready to purchase.
Going Mobile
The company is also in a position to take advantage of the mobile revolution underway.
“What does mobile e-commerce want? All your product data,” or exactly what Merchant Advantage collects from its clients.
It partners with MShopper to put regular e-commerce sites into mobile format. “It finds out what phone a user has and formats the data correctly for each type. Usability is so important to getting a conversation going on mobile,” says Smith.
The company helped an online furniture store grabbing 25 percent of their online sales from their mobile site in a month. “They’re pretty happy,” says Smith.
The company has competitors such as RTP-based ChannelAdvisor, among others.
Smith says a difference between Merchant Advantage and many of the others is “our pricing. We don’t take a percentage of sales. Our pricing is based on data load. It’s analogous to cell phone minutes. The more you use, the more you pay, but if you don’t make more money, we don’t take your money.”
He notes, it also differs because “We don’t offer a fully managed type of service. We have both a retail and a wholesale busienss. We offer a fully configured tool with all of your feeds optimized and working, but we don’t make marketing decisions for our clients. We let our agency partners help them make decisions and recommendations for clients.”
The company, which has fewer than 20 employees, sells its product fully configured starting at $695 a month and it goes up according to data use. “More than half our clients pay less than $1,000 a month,” Smith says.
Tags: ecommerce, FL, Merchant Advantage, Miami, SaaS, Tom Smith
Posted in Company Profile, Florida, Internet/New Media, IT, Marketing | No Comments »
Wednesday, October 13th, 2010
 Jeff Spalding By Allan Maurer
RALEIGH, NC – Many Chief Information Officers have faced pressures to keep delivering value to their businesses from an IT standpoint despite the availability of fewer resources in an recessionary environment. “As always,” says Jeff Spalding Peak 10 executive vice president of market operations, “IT organizations are under pressure to deliver results to the business in a timely manner and within budget.”
How they are doing that is a question Spalding will ask them at the CIO Roundtable at the upcoming Internet Summit in Raleigh, NC, Nov. 17-18. Spalding is one of more than 100 Internet and digital media thought leaders, executives, entrepreneurs and venture capitalists participating.
Spalding says he plans to discuss “If their business has been impacted positively or negatively as they come out of this recessionary period and what does it mean from an IT standpoint? How has it changed their priorities? How are you delivering value?”
Cut costs but get better value?
Some have turned to technology such as cloud computing or Software as a Service or, says Spalding, “Variations that give them the ability to speed deployment to market or integrate with a merged company. Some businesses reduced staff, so they need a more efficient level of technology.”
It is, says Spalding, “That infamous question: how do I reduce my spend and get better dollar value?”
Many capital constrained smaller businesses turn to the cloud or SaaS solutions to do that he says.
Larger businesses often have to take a somewhat different approach that allows them to integrate any new technology with legacy applications and maintain their security and privacy. “Most large businesses have a substantial investment in their current technology,” Spalding notes. So, they take a hybrid approach, integrating their server environments with cloud and SaaS deployments.
During the recession and its aftermath, a good many firms have looked at outsourcing non core business processes.
Some turn to managed services
That means many turn to managed services such as those Peak 10 and other data center providers offer. They’re moving their server operations out of closets or fairly large separate areas into data centers.
We once worked for an NC firm that had its servers in a corner of the supply room. We had to call in our IT guy if anything went wrong, needed updating or something had to be changed. It tended to be disruptive and distracted us from getting our jobs done.
Spalding did not mention this, but that’s one reason data center companies, including Peak 10 and others, have been expanding steadily in the last several years. Outsourcing a server environment to them removes a lot of IT problems from security and patch management to disaster recovery and data backup over to a firm where that is the core competency.
Spalding brings considerable business savvy to the CIO Roundtable at the Internet Summit. He has 25 years of sales, operations and leadership experience. He spent much of his career at IBM and rapidly moved up the sales management ranks to assume the position as North America’s Business Unit Executive. Prior to joining Peak 10, he was the head of sales for Osprey Systems, a SAP, e-commerce consulting and software firm.
He is responsible for sales, marketing, managed services, product management, strategic partnerships, market operations and the P&L for Peak 10.
Tags: CIOs, cloud computing, Internet Summit, Jeff Spalding, NC, Peak 10, Raleigh, SaaS
Posted in Carolinas, Events, Internet/New Media, IT, North Carolina | No Comments »
Wednesday, October 6th, 2010
 DURHAM, NC – Zift Solutions, a ca SaaS company that increases channel sales by enabling channel partners to create and execute measurably better marketing campaigns, has extended its A round to $1.5 million. The company added Kinetic Ventures as an investor in addition to Southern Capitol Ventures, which invested $500,000 in June.
Jake Tarr, Kinetic Ventures managing director, joins the Zift board.
The company has also moved its headquarters from Raleigh to Durham, NC.
Founded in 2006, Zift provides a SaaS solution that allows clients to cost effectively deliver branded multi-channel marketing that includes online advertising, content syndication, SEO optimization, event management and e-mail marketing to channel partners.
The content can be created once and used by all channel partners on demand. The channel partners are provided easy access to the marketing programs, which are customized to reflect their unique branding. All partners can view their dashboard which measures each marketing campaign’s effectiveness and provide other key metrics.
“Companies like Red Hat use them to allow their partners to log in and customize Red Hat content, add their own contact information and logo and send it out,” explains Caplain.
“We look forward to working with the seasoned management team at Zift Solutions,” said Caplain. “As a repeat team, their technology and operational expertise has helped them scale the company quickly and surge ahead of their competitors.”
The Zift team has experience in delivering web-based enterprise marketing solutions to American Express, Target, National Geographic, AOL, Novartis, and to top agencies like Leo Burnett and Carmichael Lynch.
At the time of the initial funding, Jason Caplain, general partner of Southern Capitol Ventures told us, “Companies like Red Hat use them to allow their partners to log in and customize Red Hat content, add their own contact information and logo and send it out.”
He also said he thinks the firm has “One of the best management teams in the Triangle.”
We profiled Zift shortly after its initial funding. See:
Zift Solutions: take the money and run to stay ahead of the pack
Tags: Durham, financing, Jason Caplain, Kinetic Ventures, NC, Raleigh, Red Hat, SaaS, Southern Capitol Solutions, Zift Solutions
Posted in Carolinas, Internet/New Media, IT, Marketing, North Carolina | No Comments »
Friday, September 24th, 2010
 CARY, NC – SciQuest (Nasdaq:SQI), a company selling online procurement software and services, sold 6 million shares at $9.50 each, the bottom of its range and lower than expectations, to raise $57 million.
The company’s stock soared on opening, however, selling for $11.50 and rising to $12.40 in midday trading.
According to documents filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, the company had hoped to price the shares at $11.50, which would have raised $77 million.
It is nevertheless a successful return to the public markets for Software-as-a-Service firm.
It previously went public in 1999, but after the dot com bust went private again with backing from Trinity Ventures and Intersouth Partners. River Cities Capital is also an investor in the firm. Trinity acquired the firm in 2004.
Under the leadership of CEO Stephen Wiehe, who was named a 2010 Entrepreneur of the Year by Ernst & Young and came on board in 2001, the company engineered a turnaround, refocusing to become a software-as-a-service provider. Now profitable, it reported earning $2.63 million on revenues of $36.2 million in 2009.
Wiehe was a speaker at Tech Media’s first Internet Summit (the second is set for Nov. 17-18 in Raleigh, NC (see Internet Summit 2010 for more information).
The company has more than 165 customers, including the state of Georgia and Yale University.
While the current volatile public markets do not always reward even successful companies such as SciQuest with above average IPO results, we remain impressed with the way the company emerged from the dot com bust, reinvigorated its business plan and went public a second time.
Some investors must agree, since they have kicked the SciQuest share price up more than 20 percent since it opened.
For the history of the company, see these previous stories on TechJournal South:
SciQuest: A turnaround story
Going private: SciQuest’s turnaround, part 2
Switching to software as a service saved SciQuest
Tags: Internet Summit, IPO, procurement software, SaaS, SciQuest, Stephen Wiehe, turnarounds
Posted in Carolinas, Internet/New Media, IPOs, IT, Money, North Carolina | No Comments »
Thursday, September 23rd, 2010
CARY, NC – SciQuest, a company selling online procurement software and services, is scheduled to become public again Friday when it launches an initial public offering of stock. The company plans to sell 6.9 million shares priced between $9.50 and $11.50.
This will be a return to the public markets for the company, which expects to trade on Nasdaq under the symbol SQI.
It previously went public in 1999, but after the dot com bust went private again with backing from Trinity Ventures and Intersouth Partners.
Under the leadership of CEO Stephen Wiehe, came on board in 2001, the company engineered a turnaround, refocusing to become a software-as-a-service provider. Now profitable, it reported earning $2.63 million on revenues of $36.2 million in 2009.
Tags: IPO, SaaS, SciQuest, Stephen Wiehe
Posted in Carolinas, Internet/New Media, IPOs, IT, North Carolina | No Comments »
Friday, September 3rd, 2010
 SUNRISE, FL – Clean energy, cloud computing and social media may be getting most of the attention, but IT companies focused on education or training are hot. Now, California-based Taleo Corp. (Nasdaq:TLEO) has agreed to acquire Sunrise, FL-based Learn.com, which sells learning management software as a service, for $125 million.
Bersin & Associates estimates that the market for learning management software will hit $1 billion by 2011.
Learn.com’s software enables businesses to more seamlessly develop, deliver and manage education and training to help employees, customers and partners reach their full potential.
Learn.com’s social learning and web conferencing features also enable companies to build collaborative learning and knowledge sharing solutions, which are among the fastest growing applications in employee development today.
The company’s solutions are in use today with more than 500 global companies of all sizes, and support up to 200,000 users per customer, with about two million end users worldwide. It employs 200 people.
Taleo and Learn.com have been strategic partners since September 2009, bringing to market a social and formal learning offering that helps companies to better leverage their internal social networks to share institutional expertise.
Tags: corporate training and education, Dublin CA, FL, Learn.com, SaaS, Sunrise, Taleo Corp.
Posted in Acquisitions, Florida, Internet/New Media, IT, Money | No Comments »
Friday, June 18th, 2010
 CARY, NC – Stephen Wiehe, president and CEO of SciQuest Inc., which sells on-demand strategic procurement and supplier enablement solutions has been awarded the title of Ernst & Young Carolinas Entrepreneur of the Year.
“Steve is truly deserving of this honor. Since joining the SciQuest team in 2001, Steve has improved not only the business model but the culture,” said Jaime Duke, Chief Operating Officer for SciQuest who has worked with Steve for over 10 years.
“He took a struggling dot-com venture and subsequently turned it into a leading provider of on-demand purchasing solutions for education, healthcare, government and life sciences organizations. Moreover, he’s created a culture where ideas and input are encouraged and are able to thrive.”
Wiehe’s success can also be attributed to his passion for bringing out the best in others and creating a culture of excellence. His leadership style has garnered other honors including the Triangle Business Journal’s “Best Places To Work,” American Business Awards’ “Turnaround of the Year” and NCTA’s “Software Company of the Year.”
Wiehe’s spirit of entrepreneurialism began early in life when he founded Greek Games while in college, a company that placed pinball machines in fraternity houses. Though he’s come a long way since then, garnering over 20 years of experience as a technology entrepreneur and building a strong background in finance, Wiehe still keeps his eye on the future and lives by the fundamental motto “Let’s build a great company, and the opportunities will come.”
We’ve followed Wiehe’s successful turnaround efforts at SciQuest for some time. The company recently refiled to launch and IPO after going private several years ago.
Other NC winners include:
• Thomas P. Baliker, President, Spartan Foods of America Inc., Spartanburg, S.C.
• Jud Bowman, President and CEO, PocketGear, Durham, N.C.
• Leah Brown, President and CEO, A10 Clinical Solutions, Cary, N.C.
• Craig A. Collard, President and CEO, Cornerstone Therapeutics Inc., Cary, N.C.
• Randy Kibler, CEO, Bojangles’ Restaurants, Inc., Charlotte, N.C.
• Lawrence D. Stern, Chairman and CEO, Talecris Biotherapeutics, RTP, N.C.
• Charles M. Swoboda, CEO, CREE, Durham, N.C.
• Stephen P. Zelnak Jr., Chairman (retired), Martin Marietta Materials, Raleigh, N.C.
• Jane Zhang, Founder and CEO, JH Global Services, Inc., Greenville, S.C.
Previously on TechJournal South:
SciQuest files for $75M IPO, capping turnaround story
Switching to SaaS saved SciQuest
Tags: Entrepreneur of the Year, Ernst & Young, Internet, NC, SaaS, SciQuest, Stephen Wiehe
Posted in Carolinas, Events, Internet/New Media, North Carolina, People, Uncategorized | No Comments »
Tuesday, June 8th, 2010
 BOCA RATON, FL – Watermark Medical Inc., a medical products and services company currently servicing the sleep-disordered breathing market, has closed a $15 million equity round from CA Technologies (Nasdaq:CA).
Watermark Medical’s current technology enables medical practitioners to manage, aggregate and access critical diagnostic and historical patient information.
Sean Heyniger, CEO of Watermark Medical, said, “CA Technologies is an expert in managing data in virtual and cloud environments, and this investment will further the development of our advanced, web-based technology platform.”
As part of the investment, CA Technologies will hold a minority stake in Watermark Medical and two seats on Watermark’s board. It is CA’s first investment in the SaaS-based healthcare cloud market.
We noticed that SaaS/cloud companies of all sorts continue to pull funding on an almost daily basis. Investors and the tech community generally see the ability to offer clients a subscription model that requires minimal up front costs, does not disrupt operations for long installation periods and provides sellers with recurring income as attractive.
In Watermark’s case, it is also playing in two other areas investors like, medical devices and the burgeoning medical records space, which benefits from a federal push to move health care records from paper to digital.
John Sculley, co-chairman of Watermark’s board said, As an emerging leader in the medical cloud computing arena, Watermark is on track to expand the technological capabilities of traditional primary care physician (PCP) offices with our comprehensive cloud platform services. With Electronic Medical Records, the growing tele-health industry and a new focus on preventative healthcare, there is more opportunity than ever for technology organizations such as CA Technologies to help drive innovation in the area of data management, aggregation and delivery.”
Watermark Medical already has seen success with its premiere product offering, the Watermark ARES device. The Watermark ARES (Apnea Risk Evaluation System) is the first FDA-cleared, CMS approved, in-home, wire-free, ambulatory sleep test device that provides medical practitioners with a highly accurate, lower-cost tool to diagnose patients who may be suffering from Obstructive Sleep Apnea.
Tags: CA Technologies, cloud comuting, financing, Florida, Healthcare, SaaS, sleep diagnostic, Watermark Medical
Posted in Florida, IT | No Comments »
Thursday, June 3rd, 2010
 RALEIGH, NC - Zift Solutions, a SaaS company that increases channel sales by enabling channel partners to create and execute measurably better marketing campaigns, has secured a $500,000 investment from Southern Capitol Ventures (SCV).
The funding will enable Zift to significantly expand its development and sales efforts. As part of the investment, Jason Caplain, general partner at SCV joins the Zift Solutions board.
The company had eight employees last week, ten this week and has four open positions. It is looking for people in sales and developers.
Founded in 2006, Zift provides a SaaS solution that allows clients to cost effectively deliver branded multi-channel marketing that includes online advertising, content syndication, SEO optimization, event management and e-mail marketing to channel partners.
The content can be created once and used by all channel partners on demand. The channel partners are provided easy access to the marketing programs, which are customized to reflect their unique branding. All partners can view their dashboard which measures each marketing campaign’s effectiveness and provide other key metrics.
“Companies like Red Hat use them to allow their partners to log in and customize Red Hat content, add their own contact information and logo and send it out,” explains Caplain.
“We look forward to working with the seasoned management team at Zift Solutions,” said Caplain. “As a repeat team, their technology and operational expertise has helped them scale the company quickly and surge ahead of their competitors.”
The Zift team has experience in delivering web-based enterprise marketing solutions to American Express, Target, National Geographic, AOL, Novartis, and to top agencies like Leo Burnett and Carmichael Lynch.
“We think it’s one of the best management teams in the Triangle,” says Caplain. “They’ve built some of the leading software marketing companies previously.”
They include President and CEO Ken Romley, who was previously president of SmartPath Inc., and joined Doubleclick when it acquired SmartPath. COO Bryan Ferren was formerly VP of Corporate Accounts at Aprimo.
Caplain tells us that the company’s clients include those with hubs, such as HP and Red Hat, hundreds of resellers.
This is Southern Capitol Ventures’ sixth SaaS investment.
–Allan Maurer
Tags: financing, marketing technology, NC, Raleigh, SaaS, Southern Capitol Ventures, Zift Solutions
Posted in Carolinas, IT, Marketing, Money, North Carolina | No Comments »
Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010
 ATLANTA – CDC Software Corp. (Nasdaq:CDCS), a hybrid enterprise software provider of on-premise and cloud deployments, has acquired Chicago-based Information Development Consultants, Inc. (iDC), a cloud-based software as a service enterprise resource planning (ERP) software solution provider for the state and local government and not-for-profit markets.
Financial details were not disclosed.
This marks the latest acquisition in CDC Software’s SaaS roll-up strategy to significantly expand the market footprint of its CDC gomembers cloud-based enterprise software solution.
The iDC solution will be integrated into the CDC gomembers enterprise product line and will help expand its solution into the state and local government markets.
Tags: Acquisitions, Atlanta, cloud computing, IT, SaaS
Posted in Acquisitions, Georgia, Internet/New Media, IT | No Comments »
Wednesday, May 19th, 2010
 SEATTLE – Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MFST) is suing Salesforce.com, (NYSE: CRM), alleging that the customer relationship management company and software-as-a-service (SaaS) pioneer infringed on nine of its patents.
SEC filings suggest this has been an ongoing battle.
Microsoft says Salesforce.com used its technology in its menu, toolbars, graphic interface and the way it grabs software from remote computers.
Whenever we write about a cloud computing company or one with an SaaS product, they inevitably mention Salesforce.com as a model.
Microsoft actually sells a competing CRM product called Dynamics.
Microsoft filed the suit in federal court in Seattle.
For more details see: Microsoft Corp v Salesforce.com Inc; case number 2:10-cv-00825, in the United States District Court, Western District of Washington at Seattle.
Tags: cloud computing, customer relationship management software, Microsoft, Microsoft sues Salesforce.com, SaaS, Salesforce.com
Posted in Internet/New Media, IT, Legal | No Comments »
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