NaviSite, Inc. /quotes/comstock/15*!navi/quotes/nls/navi (NAVI 2.65, +0.13, +5.16%) , a leading provider of cloud-enabled enterprise hosting and application management services, announced today that it will host a “Path to SaaS Success” webinar, along with moderator Jeff Kaplan, Founder and Managing Director of strategic consulting firm THINKstrategies, and leading SaaS company and NaviSite customer WorkPlace Systems, on Thursday, June 24th at 1pm Eastern Time.

The webinar will review the state of the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) evolution, the common mistakes independent software vendors (ISVs) make when moving to a SaaS model and how to avoid them. The webinar will also share real world customer experiences in making the transition to an on-demand environment, followed by a question and answer period. To register for the webinar, click here: http://www.navisite.com/landing/webinars/saas-webinar/

Jeff Kaplan is the Founder and Managing Director of THINKstrategies, a strategic consulting firm that helps IT enterprise decision-makers with their sourcing strategies; solution providers with their marketing strategies; and venture firms with their investment strategies. Kaplan is also the founder of the Managed Service Showplace(R) and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) Showplace(R) free, online directories. THINKstrategies’ online directories provide an easy-to-use listing of SaaS solutions by application and MSPs by service category, and extensive information and insight about industry best practices to help organizations fully leverage the growing array of SaaS solutions and managed services.

WorkPlace Systems is a world leader in the development and supply of standard software products and innovative consulting services for Workforce Management. With over 23 years of experience, WorkPlace Systems has more than 200 deployments worldwide in major corporate and medium-sized organizations, managing some of the largest and most challenging work environments, including many in the retail sector.

NaviSite’s SaaS and Cloud Enablement Solutions NaviSite’s Managed Hosting and Managed Cloud Services are optimized for enterprise-class application hosting, and designed to meet the requirements of ISVs that need a scalable, flexible, and responsive SaaS infrastructure that allows them to deliver their SaaS applications with greater agility and speed, while meeting all regulatory requirements and security and data protection needs. NaviSite has assisted dozens of ISVs in the transition to the SaaS model, and is a leading SaaS host to several well known applications, such as the Oracle ERP suite and Microsoft Dynamics applications. NaviSite Managed Hosting solutions for SaaS providers enable a multi-tenant architecture, recurring user-based billing and metering integration, and offer support for the application and its users including 24×7 monitoring and management, troubleshooting and maintenance. All of NaviSite’s on-demand hosting solutions are built on a foundation of consistent and rapid deployments, reduced costs, multiple data protection systems and world-class data centers.

About NaviSite NaviSite, Inc. /quotes/comstock/15*!navi/quotes/nls/navi (NAVI 2.65, +0.13, +5.16%) is a leading worldwide provider of enterprise-class, cloud-enabled hosting, managed applications and services. With over 20 years of experience, the Company provides a full suite of reliable and scalable managed services, including Applications Services, industry-leading Enterprise Hosting, and Managed Cloud Services for enterprises looking to outsource IT infrastructures and lower their capital and operational costs. Nearly 1,400 customers depend on NaviSite for customized solutions, delivered through a global footprint of over a dozen state-of-the-art data centers supported by approximately 600 professionals. For more information about NaviSite’s services, please visit www.navisite.com .

Their questions were actually quite enlightening particular for those vendors who sell software as a service (SaaS) solutions to large enterprise CIOs. In brief, the questions they asked showed me that these companies will be taking on more cloud-based applications but that cloud vendors still have additional education in risk mitigation ahead of them if they wish to finish winning over the hearts of large enterprise CIOs.

So what did they ask me?

- Cloud to on premise integration of applications must be better than what many CIOs must live with the current integration services tools sold to CIOs and their on premise applications today. These CIOs are not happy with the current on-premise to on-premise integration options available to them and want assurances that newer cloud apps will behave better, integrate better and stay integrated

- How am I expected to roll out a cloud-based application suite globally when cloud adoption rates are greatest in North America, less so in Western Europe and even less are still in some other parts of the world? CIOs want help selling the concept of the cloud and SaaS to others in their far-flung empires.

- Do cloud vendors and the software application vendors building cloud applications understand and have solutions to deal with local information regulations? Specifically how will a cloud vendor assure CIOs that personal employee data in Germany stays on cloud servers in Germany and is not virtually moved around to other cloud computing centers?

- Why are older on premise vendors still fixated on their SOA technology stack ease and so late in developing full blown cloud applications?

- When will larger application suites appear on the cloud?

- Are the product extensibility and platform developmental capabilities that cloud-based application vendors speak of really as powerful as the vendors claim them to be?

- What do I tell my IT staff, particularly those that maintain older on premise applications, that the days of them needing to upgrade old applications to newer releases may be coming to an end? Who is going to help us with this change management, skills and training problem?

- Will user and business analysts now be able to not just extend cloud applications but maybe even build additional applications without IT involvement? How can IT control that?

- How does IT ensure that business analysts don’t unnecessarily expose corporate data to authorized cloud application users?

And those were just the questions from the first half hour of one of these briefings. While I dealt with these questions reasonably well, I do believe cloud-based application software vendors may need to create more thought leadership and educational pieces for the senior IT technology buyers in the market today. These executives are hungry for answers and will need to have risk mitigated for many projects before any SaaS projects can be green-lighted.

On-premise vendors will see the sorts of questions above as an opportunity to sow fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD) into the mindset of IT executives. Unfortunately for them, CIOs see through many of these tactics as a poor salesmanship tactic. In fact, that sort of fear mongering has been going on for some time. It’s not working well.

On-demand software vendors have a duty to their own firms as well as to the space in general to dispel or rebut these concerns.

Source: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/sommer/9-questions-every-saas-vendor-needs-to-be-able-to-answer/844

‘SaaS (News – Alert) User Group Spring 2010 Roadshow’, the top destination in the Southeast for individuals to learn about SaaS, cloud-based services and service-oriented architectures is scheduled  to be held in Charlotte on June 2, 2010 and in Raleigh on June 3, 2010. As part of that event, the SaaS user group will be hosting two upcoming events..

The events will provide a platform for the attendees and provide them with an opportunity to connect with business leaders on the forefront of the SaaS market and learn about the full range security, cost, risk and integration issues related to SaaS, cloud computing and SOA.

Internationally recognized industry expert, David Linthicum, will be a keynote speaker. Linthicum is the author and co-author of 13 books on computing, including the best selling ‘Enterprise Application Integration,’ and his latest book ‘Cloud Computing and SOA Convergence (News – Alert).

Josh Wolff, regional director for hosted solutions and founder of the SaaS User Group, was very pleased to have a strong line-up of speakers and sponsors on the board for the event, with Linthicum at the top of the roster.

Wolff was also excited at the prospect of having one of the co-founders of Jigsaw, which was recently acquired by cloud computing giant Salesforce.com (News – Alert), on the board as speaker. This was an enormous opportunity for both, developers and independent software vendors to delver entirely new applications that leverage the business contact data found in Jigsaw.

Jigsaw is incredibly progressive with their data cloud platform, said Wolff and that created an enormous opportunity for developers and independent software vendors to share ideas, and exchange information that is mutually beneficial.

Hosted Solutions, the East Coast’s premier provider of IT infrastructure as a service is the presenting sponsor of the events.

Platinum sponsors of the event are Jigsaw, Ping Identity and Akamai, while Alert Logic is the gold sponsor. Silver sponsors include Brooksource, Cisco (News – Alert), Clayton Parsons, CNP Technologies, Frontier Capital, Kognitio, Time Warner Cable, XO Communications.

WRAL’s Local Tech Wire is the media sponsor for the event, and  The American Diabetes Association is the charity partner.

Prospective customers of SaaS solutions, technical and non-technical personnel, application services providers, infrastructure providers, technology providers, and associated support providers will form the audience.

The event will be a great networking opportunity and an excellent opportunity to showcase the different offerings within the SaaS community. Registration for either event is available at this Web site.

Founded in 2007,. The SaaS user group was created as an educational endeavor to provide a forum for business leaders involved in the design, development, manufacturing, distribution, and integration of software as a service products, as well as related services that are sold through on-demand channels.

Source: http://www.tmcnet.com/news/2010/05/19/4798462.htm

Outsourcing isn’t anything new though. In reality, the concept is as old as civilization itself. When it is cheaper and more effective, people rely on others to provide services. Often times items that were once considered “products” become “services” as soon as they are provided by others who prepare them in some way (think fast food). Software is no different in this respect. Although traditionally delivered to consumers as a boxed product, there is no reason why it cannot be delivered as a service. Most people don’t buy software for software’s sake. As intellectual property, it’s not something that can be eaten, driven, or hung on the wall. People buy it because they want it to do something for them. That being said, the very nature of software lends itself towards deployment as a service.

In the 1990s, it may have been cheaper to buy software products and piece them together to build custom, in-house solutions. Since then technologies such as the Internet and virtualization have made SaaS much more appealing. The recent downturn in the global economy has also made SaaS more appealing, as it can be much more cost-effective to run if deployed properly. Software-as-a-service removes the costs associated with hardware, software, and hosting fees. It provides a fast, flexible, low-risk model that is great for users with limited resources. SaaS provides automatic upgrades, relieving end-users of the headaches involved with software migration. SaaS is resource efficient, too. Employing a pay-as-you-go model makes it easy to determine what your costs will be ahead of time, as you only pay for what you consume. There are no additional costs involved other than what you pay when you receive your desired results. Support staff and hardware leases are eliminated. There is no guesswork involved with repair, maintenance, and electric bills.

It would be well worth any companies time to investigate whether or not making the switch to Software-as-a-service models work for them.

Source: Google News

The research firm lately unveiled results of a survey where respondents cited significant integration requirements and a change in sourcing strategy as the top two reasons for adoption followed by high cost of total ownership (TCO).

The survey, said Gartner, was conducted in December 2009 andJanuary 2010 and involved 270 IT and business management professionals from a variety of industried in North America, Asia Pacific who were personally involved in implementation support, implementation, planning, and/or budget decisions releated to the puchase of  enterprise application software.

However, most companies still don’t have policies governing the evaluation and use of SaaS with only 39 percent of respondents indicating that such a policy or process exists, up just 1 percent from 38 percent in 2008, said Gartner.

“SaaS applications are clearly no longer seen as a new deployment model by our survey base, with almost half of those surveyed affirming use of SaaS applications in their business for more than three years,” said Sharon Mertz, research director at Gartner. “The varying levels of maturity within the user base suggest growing opportunities for service providers along the adoption curve as organizations seek assitance with inititaives ranging from process redesign to implementation to integration services.”

Popular SaaS Apps

The scope of functionality of SaaS applications has broadened significanlty in recent years, Mertz noted. In terms of popularity for SaaS usage, the survey showed that email, financial management (accounting), sales force automation and customer service, and expense  management are the most poular in terms of use, with more than 30 percent of the survey base using these types of curent applications.

In terms of expected investment levels in SaaS offering over the next two years, survey respondents gave genarlly encouraging responses for software and service providers with on average 53 percent of organizations expecting to increase investment levels slightly and 19 percent significantly, said Gartner. However, not all buyers intend to increase usage, with almost one-quarter of all respondents expecting investment levels to remain about the same, and 4 percent looking at a slight decrease in investment levels, the analyst house added.

In comparing current with new 

investments in future on-premises and SaaS investments within their organizations, 72 percent of respondents believe

SaaS investments will increase, while 45 percent hold the same notion about on-premises budgets, according to the report.

Regionally, North America and Asia Pacific respondents indicated a stronger interest in procuring tools via a SaaS model, and, compared with those in Europe, show greater confidence that their organizations will increase investments in products offered as SaaS or through a subscription model through year-end 2010, Gartner noted.

Frowning customers

The survey also found that some organizations have found SaaS offerings to be less than optimal for some buyers, and 16 percent of respondents said that they are transitioning from SaaS to on-premises solutions.

Although there was no single outstanding reason that caused respondents to shift to on-premises in general, the majority of organizations in this position was facing significant integration requirements and became unsatisfied with a TCO that became too high, said Gartner.

Despite the continuous adoption of SaaS across regions, more than one-third of the respondents have noted concerns on their recent SaaS deployments.

Most respondents with these issues are located outside North America, specifically in Asia Pacific where high-speed high-availability networks, are not as readily available as in North America, said Gartner, adding that issues with integration and customization were some of the primary issues cited by respondents overall.

Source: Google News

According to the company’s second annual Microsoft SMB/Partner Insight Report, 12 per cent of SMBs now use SaaS solutions, compared to ten per cent a year ago.

It is also predicted by the firm’s partners that, by the end of this year, 19 per cent of these businesses will have at least some sort of solution, such as SharePoint, in place.

Meanwhile, the survey also found that 74 per cent of the partners expect their customers to increase the levels of remote working, meaning there may be more businesses going for a unified communications solution.

Birger Steen, vice president of small and medium business at Microsoft, said: “The most competitive SMBs are investing in IT that will not only help protect and strengthen their business, but prepare them for success when economic conditions improve.”

Forrester Research recently reported that the global IT market will grow by 7.7 per cent this year, partly driven by SaaS.

Source: Google News

While this may be often focused on when SaaS is discussed, James Urquhart, writing for Cnet, believes other factors should also be remembered.

He says that up-front payment for infrastructure is replaced with a pay-as-you-go model with SaaS and cloud computing, meaning cash flow problems are reduced for businesses.

This also means that the business does not have to worry about any issues with software as the investment is in the service, not the hardware and software.

Mr Urquhart concludes by saying: “Cloud is less about squeezing out total cost of ownership and much more about increasing the agility of IT, both technically and financially.

“I’ve even met chief information officers who would be willing to pay more over time for cloud if they get an order of magnitude or better agility – which several are actually seeing.”

The scalability of SaaS is another benefit that has recently been highlighted as organisations can adapt their services as they grow.

Source: Google News

The basic concept behind cloud computing is similar. Many companies are creating cloud services in a “pay as you go” scenario. These include sharing networks, computers, storage and even software applications.

Software as a Service, or SaaS, is the moniker for software applications delivered via the Internet from companies such as: Amazon, IBM, Salesforce.com, Microsoft, Google and others. SaaS is contrasted with the traditional “shrink wrapped” model for application delivery where the user installs and configures the software on a machine they own and maintain.

Growth trends for SaaS are strong: Gartner Inc. predicts the SaaS market will continue to grow more than 22 percent per year and that by 2011, 25 percent or more of new software systems will be delivered as SaaS applications.

So why is SaaS emerging as the dominant computing model today? The answer is the way in which the technology addresses the key needs and concerns of consumers, or what we call “the 5 C’s:” Change, compliance, cost, continuity and coverage.

SaaS providers create multi-tenant software hosted in the cloud with the following basic attributes: All applications, databases and servers are hosted on the service provider’s own infrastructure, typically at sophisticated outsourced data centers;

The public Internet is used as the communication path from the SaaS provider to users, with appropriate security measures in place;

Local users require no dedicated PCs or software applications, but gain access to the resources they need from a range of Internet-connected devices.

In the physical security world, the client/server model for delivery of applications has dominated most complex applications while an early precursor for SaaS, namely central station alarm monitoring, has dominated the less complex applications. Alarm monitoring is essentially a model for efficiently delivering pooled central resources to a group of users. The infrastructure, computers and personnel in today’s central stations are shared among a group of clients. Each client pays a small fraction of the cost they would bear if they had their own dedicated central station.

Security as a Service takes the central station model to a new level, providing unprecedented end-user control over system functions while preserving complete segregation of data. Leveraging multi-tenant software and efficient hosting environments, SaaS for security drives costs down and service levels up. Physical and logical security are among the top priorities for most organizations today. Having a sound risk management plan for security is as basic as having a sales and financial strategy. To understand the potential impact of Security as a Service, we will explore in depth the 5 C’s, or the five areas of strategic importance for all organizations.

1. Change Organizations face a constantly changing array of pressures-competitive threats, new regulations, financial uncertainty, technological shifts and business risk all force managers to maintain a state of perpetual vigilance. Savvy managers are building lithe organizations with systems and infrastructure capable of responding to threats and capitalizing on opportunities with amazing speed. Today’s CEOs look to their CIOs and CSOs for answers on how to be more competitive, not simply to deliver a service. The SaaS delivery model supports these objectives by providing capabilities that can be rapidly deployed and retracted based on fast-changing needs. In the context of physical security, SaaS applications allow CSOs to provision new security capabilities without investing in the technology and human resources required to support the service. Also, since the SaaS model is built around ever-improving technology supported by monthly fees, CSOs can ensure access to the latest features without worrying about upgrade patches and hardware limitations.

2. Compliance

Corporate governance, risk management and compliance with policies and regulations are in sharp focus for most organizations. It’s not enough to express intent to follow regulations and policies, organizations must measure and transparently report on how completely they are complying. In the context of physical security, compliance failures can result in data breeches, exposure to financial losses, denial of service attacks, and bodily injury to employees and visitors. The use of traditional physical security client/server architecture exposes company assets and personal information to constant threats. A typical corporate installation may include dozens of PCs, each with access to security controls and sensitive personal information. SaaS architecture greatly simplifies enforcement of compliance polices and audits by providing centralized capabilities to establish standards as well as tools to track and report on compliance. Since a SaaS solution database is centralized, the cost for performing compliance audits is significantly reduced. Many SaaS providers provide evidence of internal controls certified by independent auditors, eliminating the need for a subscriber to incur these costs.

3. Cost

The survival of every organization hinges on its ability to deliver value to its customers. Referring back to the power example, what would it cost each of us to install and maintain a personal power plant? While it seems obvious that a personal power plant doesn’t make sense, most physical security applications are delivered in this way. Software and hardware are purchased with sufficient capacity to handle present and some future needs. The equipment is installed, powered and maintained with internal resources. Often, excess resources exist in the host computers and within each machine that is operating the client software. When you add up the total cost of ownership, you will likely be very surprised. The SaaS-based Security as a Service model provides an excellent alternative to the traditional options, thus allowing organizations to focus on their core business. SaaS delivers outstanding economic value for the following reasons: – All users share and benefit from a common computing infrastructure. – The cost model is scalable with users only paying for what they actually consume. – Consumers of an application are free of all “back-end” management and maintenance expenses. – Up-front capital expenditures are replaced with flat, subscription-based operational expenses. Beyond the excessive capital outlays for traditional options, recent studies have established that the largest portion of application and server ownership costs actually exist in ongoing operational expenses, maintenance and support agreements. This is particularly true of computer systems that provide infrastructure services like security, because they must be held to a higher standard of availability and performance than ordinary office equipment. In the case of physical security for a typical branch office or managed property scenario, the SaaS model for security management offers significant operational and financial savings due to both upfront cost reductions and the economies of scale of hosted application services.

4. Continuity

It’s not enough to ask how much back-up protection exists, but also how fast can we resume operations if everything goes wrong? Organizations routinely spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on hotstandby computers, back-up power sources and disaster recovery locations for their physical security platforms. These measures are not only expensive; they often rely on internal computer networks that are likely to be challenged by any form of massive disaster. While security is certainly a high priority, if an organization’s core revenue generating capabilities are down, what will be addressed first? Fortunately, the SaaS model provides numerous answers for these types of challenges. Multi-tenant SaaS services are normally hosted in highly reliable data centers with built-in redundancy. The best providers also employ separate disaster recovery centers to restore full operations if the primary center is disabled. Redundancy in the communication path is built into this model due to the Internet’s capability to send information via numerous routes. Even if broadband service is down, it’s possible to establish the same communication paths via cellular cards and cellular equipped access panels. Since no special computers or software are required to operate a SaaS-based physical security application, any computer connected to the Internet can be placed into service during an emergency.

5. Coverage

Organizations often find the best way to accelerate profitable growth through geographic expansion. Expansion comes with significant challenges, risks and expenses. Security as a Service solutions provide clear benefits for organizations with geographically dispersed sites. The low initial costs and wide scalability of SaaS solutions give organizations access to world-class technologies with an economic model that promotes expansion rather than restricting it. Securely using the public Internet as a communication medium greatly simplifies the deployment of remote sites for IT departments. Even better, the centrally hosted SaaS model provides all the central oversight and management necessary in well-run organizations without requiring costly investments in a dedicated infrastructure.

A SaaS-based security platform gives you the power to drop an access control point anywhere in the world and have it communicating, configured and controlling your facility in a matter of hours, with complete synchronization to your master database and with total audit capability from wherever you happen to be. With the complexity of local software and hardware configurations removed from the equation, installers with even modest training can successfully implement a SaaS-based physical access control solution.

SaaS changes our relationship with software by allowing us to focus on what it does for us rather than the infrastructure required to make it work. It also changes our relationships with software providers by creating a mutually dependent environment in which the service seller is fully committed to the customer’s outcomes. A customer simply will not continue to pay for a solution that does not provide ongoing value to their organization. Organizations best served by rapid access to state-of-the-art technology offering tremendous scalability and predictable costs over time should consider a SaaS-based option for physical security.

Source: http://www.securityinfowatch.com/the-5-cs-saas

Writing for Forbes magazine, Dan Woods, chief technology officer and editor of Evolved Technologist, a research firm investigating the needs of CTOs, explained that new delivery models for SaaS will change the face of the industry over time.

“For businesses, the result will be an increased array of choices delivered with the benefits of SaaS,” he said. SaaS providers originally “saw how the Internet could change how business applications are created and delivered, lifting much of the annoying details of running a data centre from the customer’s shoulders.”

SaaS, as provided by outside contractors, allows enterprises to utilise software – such as email, spreadsheet and database generating applications – without needing to purchase individual programmes. These applications will continue to become more sophisticated and diverse as third party managed hosting and SaaS providers become more commonplace amongst enterprises.

Mr Woods predicted that many applications available as SaaS could benefit from implementing an open source model. Such a model “gives the customer a choice of running the software on the vendor’s cloud, on a third-party cloud, as a managed instance on their own server, or as plain old on-premise software,” he explained.

Employing these types of software could get smaller companies involved with SaaS, Mr Woods added. The industry as a whole will benefit, as this means “lots more software to choose from.”

Source: Google News

NaviSite’s enterprise-class hosting services are designed to meet the requirements of Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) like Visibility that need a scalable, flexible, and responsive SaaS infrastructure that allows them to deliver their SaaS services with greater agility and speed, while meeting all regulatory requirements and security concerns. NaviSite’s managed hosting solutions include 24×7 monitoring and management, troubleshooting and maintenance, consistent and rapid deployments, reduced costs with improved data availability, and the benefits of being deployed in a world-class data center.

Through an unparalleled suite of business applications, VISIBILITY.net is the only Internet-based ERP software developed specifically to meet the unique needs of manufacturers of complex products (To-Order, ETO, CTO, MTO, Project Based, Discrete and Hybrid). Designed to support optimization of operational management strategies, the VISIBILITY.net solution consists of integrated modules that enable optimized effectiveness in managing; customer relationships, quotes, projects, costs, material and resource planning, product engineering and manufacturing, business performance, finance and global issues where supply chain collaboration is key to success.

“NaviSite enables Visibility to rapidly deploy our VISIBILITY.net ERP solution for our customers on a consistent world-class platform,” said Jack Saint, President and COO, of Visibility Corporation. “Visibility customers benefit from NaviSite’s extensive experience in supporting application environments and consistently providing reliability, security and performance.”

“NaviSite’s proven ability to service ISVs in their transition to SaaS is evidenced by Visibility’s selection of our solutions,” said Sumeet Sabharwal, Senior Vice President Strategic Alliances, NaviSite. “NaviSite’s managed hosting solutions are the ideal platform for ISVs that need to leverage hosted environments to expand their marketplace while continuing to ensure that their customer deployments are secure and reliable.”

About Visibility Corporation
Visibility Corporation is a leading developer and supplier of business software solutions designed for the unique needs of project-based, engineer-to-order and to-order manufacturers. Visibility’s Enterprise Application solutions help small and midsize manufacturers of complex products operate their businesses effectively. Visibility has an extensive customer base throughout North America and Europe and has the strongest representation of ERP among complex manufacturers. For more information visit www.visibility.com

About NaviSite
NaviSite, Inc. is the premier provider of complex hosting, application managements and managed cloud services for enterprises. The Company provides a full suite of reliable and scalable managed services, including Applications Services, industry-leading Enterprise Hosting, and Managed Cloud Services for enterprises looking to outsource IT infrastructures and lower their capital and operational costs. Over 1,400 customers depend on NaviSite for customized solutions, delivered through a global footprint of over a dozen state-of-the-art data centers supported by more than 600 professionals. For more information, visit www.navisite.com.