Odysen Notes

Web 2.0, Coming Soon to a Government Near You

2009-07-05T09:21:00.000-07:00

It's interesting that in today's economy and with all the budget cuts in governments worldwide, that one area that is seeing active promotion & budgeting for, are the new communication tools generically branded as web 2.0. This brings a bunch of positives for both solution providers and users. For users, it means not only more information and potential accountability from their governments, but

New Odysen Beta Surveys, Short & Sweet

2009-07-05T08:56:00.000-07:00

In taking a cue from Twitter, have reduced the beta product surveys from one larger survey to several smaller ones, one for each application in development. Each survey has one page with just a few questions about how you use the application and a second page to sign up for beta release trial when available.Here are the new surveys available:Calendar & EventsContacts, Social NetworkingDocuments,

Start Pages are Everywhere

2009-07-05T03:50:00.000-07:00

Over the last couple years, Start Pages have gone from a new niche that everyone was trying out, to now more of a standard expected offering, with various widget formatting options. For example, here are a few recent postings for start pages:CircLabs Launches Circulate for Start Pages & Email AlertsNetvibes moves closer to Hyper PersonalizationHow to Set Multiple Anime Start PagesMint

Asia Ramping SaaS to $300M in 2009, Profits Questionable

2009-07-04T08:55:00.000-07:00

In another sign of continued SaaS customer acceptance, ZDNet Asia provided a summary of a new IDC report, countries included were Australia, China, India, Korea, and Singapore (note this excludes Japan). Overall, this SaaS market is expected to hit $300M in 2009, with Australia at $134M and China at $86M.Surprisingly China wasn't higher, at least more than Australia, but another report from

Another IPO for SaaS Industry

2009-07-01T01:14:00.000-07:00

Given all the doom and gloom in the financial industry this year, it's good to see another SaaS based company announce an IPO. This time it's for remote access/desktop provider LogMeIn, LOGM. This is good news as it shows additional credibility for SaaS based web applications, the value they're bringing to the markets and their end customers.Why would a company put themselves through the

Web Commuting on the Rise

2009-06-29T23:13:00.000-07:00

Whether you call it web commuting, remote working, telecommuting, or working from home, trends are pushing this to be increasingly attractive alternative for both employers and employees.Jun 16, Master the Art of Working RemotelyJun 18, New research shows working remotely causes more problemsJun 19, Are Remote Workers Good or Bad for BusinessMay 23, My 9 hour commute, the joy of remote workingMay

Social Networking vs Email Application Update

2009-06-22T20:22:00.000-07:00

With all the news in social networking these days, I thought it would be interesting to take a look at some social networking vs email trends. Below is a comparison of some leading social networking and email services, monthly data is from Compete. Email includes Yahoo Mail, Google Mail, and Hotmail. Social networking includes Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter.A year ago they were virtually tied,

Japan SaaS Ramping to $3.2B by 2013

2009-06-17T00:24:00.000-07:00

Just a quick note on a new report from the MIC Research Institute for SaaS & PaaS in Japan through 2013.Among the key findings include:Japan SaaS & PaaS ForecastsUSD, (M)20082009CAGRSaaS$1,500$3,20015%PaaS$50$32043%Great to see the continued strong adoption forecasts, especially in today's economy.

The Ubiquitous Widgets

2009-06-09T05:58:00.000-07:00

Widgets are everywhere these days. What started out from RSS feeds and start pages to later become part of the mainstream in social networking, blogs, & portals, and has recently been thriving in mobile phone applications.Recent News Updates:Jun 9, Nokia translates Web apps to mobile widgetsJun 8, 10 Billion Widgets Served... And CountingJun 8, I've Seen the Future, and it's Full of WidgetsJun

Security and Identity as a Service, IdaaS

2009-06-08T23:33:00.000-07:00

The Identity as a Service or IdaaS is one of the new emerging areas in this ever growing world of web 2.0 and SaaS applications. The idea being that as people start using more of these applications, pretty soon it'll be commonplace to be running 5, 10, 20 or more different applications, all integrated together in one way or another.Having all this information spread out remotely, both internal

The Netbook Feedback Loop

2009-06-01T23:06:00.000-07:00

Netbooks have certainly seen their unfair share of hype lately:The Trifecta of Netbooks, Wifi, and SaaSToshiba Introduces a Netbook'Android' Eee PC: The un-Intel NetbookNVIDIA Tegra Powers Sexy New Netbooks, Provides Days of Battery LifeNetbooks Appear To Be Driving Up Optical Disc Drive SalesBye-bye Kindle, E-reader Screens Coming for NetbooksNetbooks, the New SpeciesAnd this is just in the last

Q109 MoneyTree Report

2009-05-31T09:04:00.000-07:00

Ughhh... talk about a free-fall, check out the Q109 VC funding report by PWC MoneyTree.No wonder there's been so much discussion of restructuring how the venture capital industry does investments. "We have to get back to funding smaller, more lean, more capital-efficient companies and fewer of them in each market space," said Paul Maeder from Highland Capital Partners (seems their funding is

2009 Top Ten Small Business Trends & Artisan Economy

2009-05-31T03:54:00.000-07:00

Saw an interesting new presentation on SlideShare from Emergent Research for 2009 top 10 small business trends:2009 Top 10 Small Business TrendsView more OpenOffice presentations from Steve King.Here's a snapshot of the top ten trends slide:Many of the trends point to increased small businesses & going to what's described as a modern day technology based Artisan economy. Intuit & Institute for

SaaS vs On-Premise Market Update

2009-05-31T02:32:00.000-07:00

Not surprisingly, a new report from Saugatuck Research of Q109 Actuals and FY 2009 Forecasts is showing SaaS growth continues to outpace On-Premise solutions.SaaS Market Basket:On-Premise Market Basket:Of course, since the On-Premise market is so much larger than SaaS, it's expected that growth rates would be smaller, (the SaaS market is measured in millions vs On-Premise in billions).Some of the

CRM Leaders Expanding in China

2009-05-31T01:52:00.000-07:00

Netsuite and Salesforce are expanding their local China presence, as explained by a new IT Market Report for Hong Kong."The focus on smaller manufacturing companies has led to the rise of Software as a Service (SaaS) in the Greater China region. NetSuite recently set up an office in Hong Kong to target the Pearl River Delta region, and it launched its Hong Kong service in September 2008. NetSuite

Notes from Gartner Cloud Computing and SaaS Webinar

2009-05-29T10:05:00.000-07:00

Brett Young from Collaboration Tech just posted some notes from a recent Gartner Webinar on SaaS and Cloud Computing.Discussion topics include:Cloud ComputingCloud Computing ModelsRisks of Cloud ComputingCommon Cloud Computing Use CasesSoftware as a ServiceUpsides to SaaSDownsides to SaaSFour Things to Do TodayGartner RecommendationYou can check out the details for each topic in the article.

Nepal Medical Embraces Wikis

2009-05-29T09:09:00.000-07:00

You don't have to look too far these days to find examples of how new web applications are changing the lives for people. As reported by the Republica, a Nepali medial group Nyaya Health, is taking advantage using wikis to improve their health service.For Internal Communications:"By posting all of our data and protocols online in a rapidly editable format, the wiki gives all members of the Nyaya

User Tips on Implenting a New SaaS Solution

2009-05-29T02:59:00.000-07:00

Here's an article from a Salesforce user from Singapore on what the process was like in setting up the system and tips for others considering adopting one. Some of the key tips include:"We underestimated the number we needed, because more and more people started wanting access""..also advised companies looking to implement a SaaS project, to have a deeper ongoing involvement with the project,

Social Networking Gets Additional $200M Investment

2009-05-28T09:50:00.000-07:00

The recent $200M investment in Facebook by Russian Internet holding company Digital Sky Technologies (DST), puts its' valuation at $10B, a $5B decrease since the Microsoft $240M investment at $15B back in October 2007.As 3,139 other blogs are already covering the story, I won't go into it any further than to point out that even though it can be seen a negative a few ways (decreased valuation,

SaaS for a Greener IT

2009-05-28T09:04:00.000-07:00

Reuters reviewed a new report from Symantec that covers Green initiatives in IT. Regarding SaaS impacts:"Iglesias said that the high numbers about SaaS -- 57 percent considered cloud computing a green practice -- were surprising to some extent, depending on the motivations for cloud computing. "Are they looking at it as a way to offload their power consumption from me to you, or do they see it

New SaaS White Paper from HyperOffice

2009-05-26T19:20:00.000-07:00

HyperOffice just released a new white paper to help small to medium businesses better understand what they're getting into when considering a potential SaaS solution. Some of the key areas covered include common applications, security, customization, compatibility, backup, mobile, SLA's, many other areas in the white paper.Some of the report comes from a poll/survey that they've been running on

IT Bombarded for Web 2.0

2009-05-26T00:38:00.000-07:00

Internet security solutions provider Websense has just released a new survey of IT professionals and their Web 2.0 experiences. Some of the findings include:95% of respondents currently allow employee access to some Web 2.0 sites and applicationsThe most common applications are webmail, mashups and wikis62% percent of IT managers believe that Web 2.0 is necessary to their business 86%

Host Analytics Scores More Funding

2009-05-24T22:46:00.000-07:00

SaaS CPM vendor Host Analytics for business financial forecasting addressing middle business to enterprise, just raised a B round netting an undisclosed "multiple millions".From the Press Release:"Despite difficult economic conditions, Host Analytics is growing rapidly. The company has more than 8,000 active paying users and is consistently winning business over larger vendors like SAP and Oracle

ZenDesk Ramping Users in Help Desk Market

2009-05-24T19:38:00.001-07:00

SaaS solutions for customer support, bug tracking, live chat, and other help desk applications have seen a new player emerge and seems to be getting all the momentum.With all the activity, ZenDesk also picked up a new round of funding. Other recent updates from the industry include SmarterTools with new release of SmartTrack 4.x, and ServiceNow CEO Fred Luddy discussing using their SaaS

Home-Grown CRM Preferred for ASEAN Med Biz

2009-05-24T11:02:00.000-07:00

According to a new AMI-Partners study covering the software market for ASEAN medium businesses (100-999 employees), home-grown solutions are the preferred solution for over half of the deployed CRM solutions."Vendors should also be aware that more than half of the currently deployed CRM solutions are home-grown solutions. These home-grown solutions differ from solution to solution and do not