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Google launched an application marketplace today comprised of services from third-party providers that integrate with the Google Apps ecosystem.
The news has been anticipated for some time. In particular, it shows how much Google is embracing open-standards and leveraging its search and Google Apps platform to attract third-party developers.
Google made the announcement at its Google Campfire One event tonight. The emphasis Google is putting on the enterprise is apparent in how much attention the company put into the event. Over and over we heard that Google passed the 25 million customer mark over the weekend.
It is that mark that Google is using as its hook for attracting developers to its platform. Developers will be charged $100 to join the program. With that entrance fee, they may add as many apps as they wish to the Google Apps Marketplace.
The marketplace supports OpenID to provide a single sign-on for developers. Authorization is integrated into the platform. The customers get access through OAuth, the open standard for authorizing users.
A “manifest page” is the foundation for the service. The developers provides information when adding the application to the marketplace that identifies it. Developers then provide additional information about the product.
The system is a controlled. Application developers submit the app for approval, which might take a few days.
Intuit provided an example of how the system works by showing how payroll could be managed. The customer accesses the account. With Google Apps integration, the customer accesses an account where they have the employee information. It’s that collected contact network that is then integrated with the payroll application.
Atlassian showed how Studio, its project management application, would integrate with GMail and Google Apps. Again, if the company is standardized on Google Apps, the information is available through the network.
Manymoon is another project mangement application that was demonstrated. It uses Google Apps to develop features such as a calendar, showing how a startup can leverage Google Apps to add features to its service.
Other companies that were a part of the initial launch include Socialwok and Appirio.
At its core, the marketplace is built upon Google’s search capabilities. Google Apps can be extended with applications. In turn, developers have access to the built-in capabilities of Google Apps.
Perhaps the greatest value to customers will be if they are centralized on Google Apps. If so, they can get some pretty powerful capabilities of the marketplace.
Two significant and closely related trends in enterprise computing this year are the growth of Software-as-a-service (SaaS) and social computing. By most accounts, both are gaining ground quite rapidly while still not being used for core business functions or mission critical applications in most large firms, at least not yet.
The reality is that broader social and cloud computing trends continue to evolve faster than most enterprises are able to absorb. It may be years before many organizations are comfortable with and ready to adopt either of these technologies strategically despite apparent benefits.
However, that doesn’t mean that it’s not important for organizations to closely track both of these leading computing trends (both have solid double digit industry growth) and understand the emerging technologies that are likely to shape their use in key business functions in the near future. In fact, quite the contrary, particularly when it comes to Enterprise 2.0.
- In: Cloud Computing| Collaboration| SaaS
- Tags: analytics, apparent benefits, business productivity solutions, collaboration product, core business functions, critical applications, customer relationship management, early adopters, emerging technologies, key business, management marketing, social business, social computing, social technology
Encoding.com, 
a startup that provides online video encoding services, has raised $1.25 million in Series A funding. The funding was led by Metamorphic Ventures and included angel investors Patrick Condon, Fred Hamilton, Zelkova Ventures, Dave Morgan, and Allen Morgan. The funds will be used to further sales, marketing, and partnership programs.
Launched in September 2008, Encoding.com provides a cloud-based, video encoding SaaS offering to let users host and encode user-generated and premium video. The company encodes an average of 30,000 videos per day for a variety of well-known media and technology companies including MTV Networks, WebMD, Nokia, and MySpace. To date, Encoding.com has encoded more than four million videos since its launch.
- In: Cloud Computing| Companies| Company of the Day| News| Press Releases| SaaS
- Tags: allen morgan, angel investors, dave morgan, fred hamilton, launch, mtv, mtv networks, myspace, nokia, partnership programs, patrick condon, saas service, sales marketing, technology companies, video encoding services, zelkova
The growing popularity of applications such as Software as a Service (SaaS) will support greater growth in the financial technology industry during 2010, a new report has claimed.
A study by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) revealed that vendors working within the financial technology sector can expect to benefit from greater levels of compliance, regulation and increased demand for risk management solutions.
Organisations will expand their IT systems during the year as part of a wider plan to improve efficiency across their businesses, the report forecast.
Andy Morgan, PwC partner, said: “Carve-outs from financial institutions and smaller infill deals are expected to prevail within the FinTech sector over the next 12 months but Merger & Acquisition (M&A) activity will require creativity in terms of deal structures to achieve results.
“The real hotspot in the world of applications is software-as-a-service (SaaS) as organisations see the benefits of moving large-scale software expenses from their capital budget to their operating budget, which will certainly drive increased M&A activity.”
Further findings from the report suggested that heads of businesses now view the “digital transformation” of their organisation to be a priority.
Previous research from PwC showed that the number of deals in the global financial technology marketplace fell by more 60 per cent during 2009 when compared with figures from last year.
Fujitsu Limited and Fujitsu System Solutions Limited today announced the launch of software as a service (SaaS)-based solution to support the operation of clinical drug trials conducted by pharmaceutical companies. The new service, called tsClinical, is now available in Japan.
tsClinical is an on-demand SaaS-based solution that provides a data management system for results from medical cases necessary for clinical trials of new drugs, according to trial length and scale, through a network.
The new service eliminates the need for users to deploy an individual case data management system for each clinical trial, thus speeding up the trial process, eliminating system deployment and maintenance costs, and minimizing the workload associated with clinical trials.
tsClinical has already been deployed by Bellsystem24, Inc., a Japan-based organization which provides support services for clinical trials. In addition to existing support services, Bellsystem24 aims to deliver enhanced CRO(1) services by providing new services, connecting its pharmaceutical customers with a data management environment through SaaS.
Pharmaceutical companies, healthcare institutions, and CROs have been conducting a variety of clinical trials to test new drugs for lifestyle-related diseases, infectious diseases, and healthcare maintenance, as well as to determine the side effects of drugs already on the market. However, during these clinical trials, it is important for companies to collect and manage data containing information on the effectiveness or side effects of a drug, both quickly and accurately. Companies must also employ a case data management system that complies with related regulations for each respective clinical trial. As a result, it has become a challenge for pharmaceutical companies to quickly deploy case data management systems to conduct fast clinical trials while curtailing system development costs.
To optimize clinical trial operations during new drug development, Fujitsu is offering an on-demand SaaS-based data management system, which previously was only available as a software package.