Businesses’ appetite for on-demand software applications shows no signs of dissipating in the near future, and service-oriented computing will continue to become an even larger percentage of the overall worldwide software market, according to the latest report from IT researcher Gartner.

Buoyed by lower startup and maintenance costs compared to on-premises application deployments, as well as the ability to distribute and share applications and documents through the cloud, software as a service (SaaS) is is poised for rapid growth for at least the next four years.

“After a decade of use, adoption of SaaS continues to grow and evolve within the enterprise application markets,” Gartner analyst Sharon Mertz said in the report. “As tighter capital budgets demand leaner alternatives, familiarity with the model increases, and interest in platform as a service and cloud computing grows.”

This year, Gartner predicts worldwide SaaS sales will eclipse $8.5 billion, up 14.1 percent from 2009 sales of $7.5 billion. More telling, this rapid increase in both customers and SaaS vendors means that on-demand applications will make up a larger percentage of total enterprise software sales this year and for the foreseeable future.

SaaS apps, which accounted for a little more than 10 percent of the total enterprise software market last year, are expected to represent at least 16 percent of worldwide software sales by 2014.

For the report, Gartner defined SaaS as software that is owned, delivered and managed remotely by one or more providers.

“Adoption varies between and within markets, and although use is expanding to a wider range of applications and solutions, the most widespread use is still characterized by horizontal applications with common processes, among distributed virtual workforce teams and within Web 2.0 initiatives,” Mertz added.

Gartner estimates that 75 percent of the current SaaS delivery revenue could be considered a cloud service, and that could exceed 90 percent by 2014 as the SaaS model matures and converges with cloud services models.

Continue at: ITManagement

WESTON, Fla., Jul 07, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) — Ultimate Software , the leading provider of unified, end-to-end human capital management (HCM) SaaS solutions in North America, will be hosting a conference call on Tuesday, July 27 at 5:00 p.m. Eastern time to discuss its financial results for the second quarter of 2010.

Forward-looking information about future company performance may be discussed during the teleconference call. This call is open to the public and will be hosted by Scott Scherr, CEO, president, and founder, and Mitchell Dauerman, CFO, executive vice president, and treasurer. The call will be audiocast live via Vcall at http://www.investorcalendar.com/IC/CEPage.asp?ID=159791.

We recommend that you access this site 10 minutes before the start of the call. Windows Media Player or Real Player software is required to listen to the call and can be downloaded from the site. The call will be available for replay at the same Web address at 9:00 p.m. Eastern time on July 27, 2010.

Ultimate’s press release for second-quarter financial results will be available after 4:00 p.m. Eastern time on July 27 on the company’s Web site at www.ultimatesoftware.com.

About Ultimate

The leading provider of unified, end-to-end human capital management (HCM) SaaS solutions in North America, Ultimate markets its award-winning UltiPro solution as an on-demand service through Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). Based in Weston, FL, Ultimate employs approximately 1,000 professionals who are focused on developing the highest quality products and services. In 2009, Ultimate was awarded first place in the People’s Choice Stevie(R) competition for Favorite New SaaS Product and was ranked the #1 best medium-sized company to work for in America by the Great Place to Work(R) Institute for the second consecutive year. In 2008, Ultimate was the first HR/payroll SaaS provider to be audited and awarded the ISO/IEC 27001:2005 Certification for security management and was recognized for having the #1 “Best Product Development Team” in the nation by the American Business Awards. Ultimate has more than 1,900 customers representing diverse industries, including such organizations as Adobe Systems Incorporated, The Container Store, Culligan International, Elizabeth Arden, Major League Baseball, The New York Yankees Baseball Team, and Ruth’s Chris Steak House. More information on Ultimate’s products and services can be found at www.ultimatesoftware.com.

UltiPro is a registered trademark of The Ultimate Software Group, Inc. All other trademarks referenced are the property of their respective owners.

SOURCE: Ultimate Software

I think that, at this point, it’s pretty safe to say that cloud computing has gained mainstream acceptability. However, there are still some myths that remain.  Many of these revolve around the idea of privacy, compliance and control when storing data with a third party.

A few IT decision makers have been reluctant to adopt SaaS solutions from fear that it may cause compliance-related problems for their businesses. For example, many Canadian companies are forced to comply with Canadian privacy laws such as PIPEDA.

In this case… moving data to the cloud might push their information outside of the country.  In this case, it would only cause more headaches… because they now have to comply with privacy laws of two different countries.

If a Canadian company were storing their data to the U.S., they might have to worry about balancing their PIPEDA obligations with their obligations to American laws such as the Patriot Act or other laws relating to disclosures and courtroom procedures.

What would happen if the data was stored in the U.S., and an electronic discovery request was made… based on U.S. law….  in such a way that it violated the Canadian company’s obligations under PIPEDA?

This is a very valid concern, and many cloud providers have already thought of this and have taken proactive measures to protect their users. What people need to realize, is that many providers already offer facilities in different countries.

If you specifically ask for it, your SaaS provider can give you the option of storing your data in a specific country. This way, Canadian companies can keep their data in Canada… stored on Canadian servers.

And as an added layer of security, this data can sometimes also be encrypted using that key that is only known to the client.  This means that the data is never disclosed (in an unencrypted form) to a third party.

The benefits of SaaS are already well known.  There’s simply no better way for organizations to expand IT Services without capital investment, improve resiliency and disaster recovery capability, and eliminate costs associated with maintenance & upgrades.

Now, SaaS providers are focusing on giving IT administrators more control, security, transparency and flexibility… in terms of how their critical business data is managed.  In many cases, you can easily & confidently move your systems to the cloud without violating your privacy or compliance obligations

All you need to do is ask the right questions when selecting your provider.

About The Author: http://storagepipe.com provides data backup to the cloud that can align with your privacy best-practices.

PLEASANTON, Calif., Jun 08, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) — QLT Ophthalmics, Inc. (QOI), a wholly-owned U.S. subsidiary of QLT Inc. /quotes/comstock/15*!qlti/quotes/nls/qlti (QLTI 6.07, -0.18, -2.88%) /quotes/comstock/11t!qlt (CA:QLT 6.44, 0.00, 0.00%) , selected Veeva System’s multi-tenant SaaS CRM system built on the cloud computing model. QOI was formed by QLT Inc. in Q4 2009 to take over the sales and marketing of Visudyne(R) in the U.S. from Novartis Pharma AG (“Novartis”). Veeva CRM(TM) proved the only system flexible and scalable enough to meet QOI’s rapidly growing needs, according to QOI’s Director of Commercial Operations, Scott Jones.

“Veeva CRM is easily scalable, which was very important to us as we hope to scale-up our commercial operations as we bring new therapeutics to the market,” said Jones. “Plus, the Veeva CRM system is as flexible in its pricing model as it is technologically. We didn’t have to make a huge investment in Veeva up-front but when we are ready for more ‘system’ with additional functionality and seat licenses, we can pay incrementally to build on and not have wasted any money with our initial outlay.”

The ophthalmic pharmaceutical company went live with the complete Veeva CRM suite in February. A multi-tenant SaaS application built on the cloud computing model, Veeva CRM requires no hardware or software to purchase, scale, or maintain. Plus, customers benefit from free, automatic upgrades every 90 days so users will always be working on the latest version of the software with the very latest compliance changes and system enhancements– all very appealing to small companies like QOI.

“We looked at most of the Pharma CRM vendors, but knew fairly quickly that Veeva was the best fit for us. The fact that they were able to implement the system in less than 6 weeks was the final feather in their cap,” concluded Jones.

About Veeva CRM

The Veeva CRM suite of applications, comprised of VBioPharma(TM), VMobile(TM), and VInsights(TM), is the life sciences industry’s top multi-tenant SaaS-based CRM solution. As the foundation, VBioPharma offers multiple editions in one CRM product to accommodate the unique needs of various life sciences commercial teams. It is also the only Pharma CRM application to come pre-validated for PDMA and 21 CFR Part 11 compliance. The complete Veeva CRM suite gives customers the mobility and reporting solutions needed to drive user adoption and sales effectiveness.

About Veeva Systems

Veeva Systems is the leader in multi-tenant SaaS-based solutions for the global life sciences industry. Veeva has dozens of customers ranging from the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies with thousands of users to emerging biotechs commercializing their first products. Veeva customers achieve the fastest time to value through the deployment of fully functional applications that are flexible, simple to deploy, inexpensive to operate, and provide a superior user experience. Veeva is a privately-held company headquartered in Pleasanton, CA. For more information, visit www.veevasystems.com.

About QLT Ophthalmics, Inc. (QOI)

QOI is a wholly-owned U.S. subsidiary of QLT Inc. QOI was formed to commercialize QLT pharmaceutical and device products for the ophthalmic community. QOI’s current mission is to support and market Visudyne across the United States.

Here are the top SaaS products used for the construction industry:

1. Pivotal CRM

Pivotal CRM for Home Building and Real Estate is an industry-tailored customer relationship management system designed to help building and real estate firms better manage relationships throughout the customer lifecycle. Home Builders use Pivotal CRM for Home Building and Real Estate to help them cost effectively deliver a superior customer experience.

2. Microsoft Dynamics CRM
Microsoft Dynamics CRM with the Construction Industry Solution enables you to manage all your business development, sales and marketing activity by client, contact, influencer and project. Specifically designed for all sectors of the Construction Industry, specialist versions are available for; Contractors, consultants & architects Building products and plant hire suppliers.

3. Aconex
Aconex is a SAAS product for document management in the construction industry. It has become so successful that is now the defacto standard in the construction industry for collaboration around construction projects.

4. Jonas
The Jonas solution is a fully integrated, highly flexible, industry specific software package designed for mid-sized construction and service management companies. They specialize in providing complete construction software products to run every facet of your operation, from construction accounting and job cost to service management and mobile field solutions.

5. ProjectMates
Projectmates Construction Management Software uses online Project Management Tools to aide in the complete life cycle development of your construction projects. While traditional tools for construction management lack critical work-flow and accountability features central to the project management process, our online collaborative software improves communication and accountability.

Here are new tools for online services to bill the customers that will help SaaS customers with various invoicing requirements.

1. Aria Systems, Inc.
Aria Systems provide private-label ISP solutions to consumer and business brands. It provides configuration of separate billing logic for SaaS supplier. Aria charges its customers based either a small percent of the revenue invoiced or per invoice.

2. Zuora Inc.
Zuora is the leader in subscription billing and recurring payments. Zuora offers the first and only products created specifically to help companies build, manage, and grow their subscription business. Its Z-Billing and Z-Payments products make it fast and easy to launch new products, scale operations, and automate recurring billing and subscription payments in one solution.

3. Enporion
Enporion provides a complete end-to-end e-Procurement solution (Procure-to-Pay, requisition to invoice). Enporion offers supply chain solutions to every part of the e-Procurement process. The application modules are delivered in a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) environment,for quick implementation and benefits.

4. Comarch
Comarch Billing SaaS is a telecom-grade billing system, available in the Software as a Service model (SaaS). The service supports key business processes, including customer management, product management, rating, invoicing, dispatching, partner management and customer self-care. Comarch’s solution provides the service of billing processes outsourcing dedicated to small/medium sized service and network operators.

5. Accountis
Accountis develops sophisticated and compliant e-invoicing solutions for large corporates, banks and financial institutions. They specialize in automation and and simplifying complex finance processes to improve efficiency, increase control, and reduce costs. Accountis is an easy to use, compatible service that all your suppliers and buyers will quickly adopt.

Web-based CRM provides a simpler, faster and cost-effective Customer Relationship Management services for businesses. It is easier and much affordable solution for customer relationship for businesses with IT and budget constraints. CRM applications can run on a standard web browser. In this,  I present the Top 5 SaaS web-based CRM Services for your convenience.

1. NETSUITE
Netsuite offers a comprehensive CRM solution set with customization tools. What makes it as a comprehensive package is because Netsuite is an on demand service with all in one front and back office solution. One of its unique features is the real time analytics dashboard that provides easy to view role specific business information which is always up-to-date.

2. SALESFORCE.COM
Salesforce.com is known to be a market leader in CRM. It combines the best of business processes and technology that provides powerful CRM services. Salesforce.com offers an array of CRM and business application services that allowa customers and subscribers to systematically record and store business data.

3. APLICOR
Aplicor delivers web-based CRM, ERP and accounting software to global midmarket and enterprise organizations. Its online CRM software and financial accounting solutions provide unique advantages in the areas of ease of use, business process automation, information analysis, software customization, and the complete delivery of enterprise-wide business systems.

4. SAGE
SageCRM.com offers CRM solution to enhance the power and convenience of web for marketing, sales, and customer care tools needed for marketing and selling industry leading service. Its software also provides tools for managing and analyzing all the current and historical data and activities.

5. MICROSOFT DYNAMICS CRM
Microsoft Dynamics CRM Services is Microsoft’s online CRM that offers different plans for professional, advanced and enterprise level businesses. The web-based service gives more enhancement in customer service capabilities. It can automate workflow and provide analytics that helps to fillip the productivity of business.

Software-as-a-service (SaaS) has been seen as a potential solution for piracy, but an expert says it is no silver bullet.

Victor DeMarines, product vice president at V.i. Labs which sells anti-piracy tools to software vendors, said SaaS’ reach against piracy only goes as far as the delivery mechanism’s ability to replace on-premise software.

SaaS may be suitable for some packaged applications, but more computing and graphics-intensive applications such as design software or product lifecycle management (PLM) applications still need to reside within office premises, said DeMarines via e-mail.

Furthermore, SaaS is not immune from identity management and password-sharing occurrences, he added.

He pointed to a recent report quoting Microsoft’s associate general counsel for anti-piracy, David Finn, as saying that cloud computing is making the software giant raise its game against piracy, rather than aid in suppressing it.

DeMarines said the cloud provides a delivery method for providers to distribute illegal software across many users. Companies hosting illegal software via SaaS are also more likely to escape traceability and vendors’ knowledge, he said.

Some mobile app makers look to in-app purchases to make revenue, in order to thwart illegal copies of their software. ReQall, for example, makes an iPhone productivity app and has said it looks to users buying additional functions within the app, rather than making money off each download from Apple’s App Store.

DeMarines said smaller software houses would reap the benefit of a SaaS model more quickly than large companies, because the former has a smaller scale of deployment, allowing IT projects to be rolled out faster.

Bigger vendors are more likely to derive results from the use of digital rights management (DRM) technologies and government enforcement, he said.

“Government actions and punishment can be effective to create an environment which educates end users that software intellectual property (IP) will be protected and laws enforced,” he said.

According to a BSA report released this month, the global average piracy rate stood at 43 percent last year.

IDC analyst Victor Lim commented on the report, saying that SaaS has had a “muted” impact on piracy rates in the region. He attributed this to weak SaaS adoption rates in enterprises in the region.

DRM, government intervention more effective
Two Southeast Asian software houses are calling for additional steps to be taken by the governments in their countries.

Nguyen Minh Duc, director of Vietnam security software provider BKIS Security, said in an e-mail interview with ZDNet Asia that the lack of user education on respecting IP has resulted in the company investing in DRM. “This is a drain on our resources, which could otherwise have been redirected to R&D efforts.

“Additional investment in DRM means our customers, in turn, end up paying more for our products,” he pointed out.

Nguyen said the government should move to protect the software ecosystem, noting that the state would benefit from additional revenues brought in by the country’s independent software vendors (ISVs).

“At the moment, users do not recognize the significance of supporting the development of local software in Vietnam,” Nguyen lamented.

Muhamad Ismail, director of Indonesian accounting software company PT Zahir Internasional, said via e-mail that the government has made steps toward educating the public and taken legal action against companies caught using illegal software.

The government’s job is far from done, however, said Ismail.

More needs to be done, he said, adding that the company recently joined the Business Software Alliance in hopes of participating in IP education efforts conducted by the trade association.

“It’s not an easy job…more has to be done. The intervention of the government is very essential,” said Ismail.

www.zdnetasia.com

Software as a Service (SaaS) and other cloud computing services appeal to enterprises in part because they eliminate the need to buy, maintain and power IT infrastructure. But SaaS vendors deliver their applications via the Internet, which means that no single service provider controls the entire pipe between that SaaS provider and the enterprise. This leaves wide area network (WAN) managers with almost no control over SaaS performance.

“You can’t write an SLA [service-level agreement] for the Internet,” said Tom Nolle, president of CIMI Corp, an independent consultancy firm for service provider and enterprise networking products and services. “It’s a best-effort service, and that’s all it’s ever going to be.”

On a private enterprise WAN that delivers apps to branch offices via an MPLS service, it’s like a “direct flight,” Nolle said. Packets take a predictable path and have fairly static latency and packet loss.

But assessing SaaS performance by those benchmarks over the Internet is nearly impossible since the parameters constantly fluctuate, he added. Packet transport becomes more like a flight with multiple connections — slowed down every time the packets have to change carriers or hop to get to the vendor’s data center or back to the user.

Although service providers have agreements to provide peering points with each other’s Internet backbones, these relationships vary, Nolle said. Operators also often have little financial incentive to optimize their competitors’ traffic flow at those connections.

“You’re not going to find any operator who’s going to sign a contract and guarantee you’re going to get this number of hops,” he said. “The only thing you can do is play the odds a little bit. Your best bet is to watch for signs of access congestion and fatten your pipe a little bit.”

Cloud providers will probably have multiple data centers to alleviate WAN/cloud latency problems, but SaaS performance is still a gamble, according to John E. Burke, principal analyst at Nemertes Research.

“You have no control over performance characteristics if you access them over the Internet,” Burke said. “There’s not a lot you can do to improve performance [of your link] to a SaaS vendor unless they specifically allow some kind of private network connection to them.”

Bandwidth unlikely to improve WAN, cloud and SaaS performance

Because the manner in which packets traverse the Internet is inherently fluid, leasing more T1 lines is going to have limited benefits, according to both experts. Unless enterprises are maxing out their existing links, a faster on-ramp to the Internet won’t affect how packets travel between SaaS vendor and enterprise data centers, Nolle said.

“Buying more bandwidth is only going to help you if access bandwidth is your problem. You can’t buy Internet bandwidth,” he said. “The only thing you can do is buy the on-ramp.”

There are still a few steps that enterprises can take to get at least a rough idea of SaaS performance at various locations across the WAN before committing to the cloud, according to Nolle and Burke.

Basic WAN/cloud performance testing, such as pings at various times and locations, may help determine average latency and packet loss, Burke said. Running traceroute commands a few times may also help determine which paths packets might take but offers no promises, Nolle said.

“Knowing that all of [those results are] impermanent and that, on the Internet, [performance] gets wildly different on a different day … you’ve at least got a shot at analyzing performance expectations,” Burke said. “But it’s in no way a guarantee.

If enterprises’ Internet links are performing well today, both experts agreed, most SaaS apps on the market now shouldn’t pose a significant problem. Basic client-server transactions common to SaaS aren’t going to look much different from casual Internet traffic, but cloud-based storage services will be the least tolerant of latency and jitter, they said.

Public cloud-based SaaS performance may be akin to how remote users experience on-premise applications via an Internet virtual private network (VPN) client, Nolle said.

“These [cloud-based] applications are not high-volume enough to have any overall impact on traffic,” he said. “They don’t create a QoS [quality of service] problem, but they make a QoS problem that had already existed — and existed all along — a problem and not just an annoyance.”

Can WAN optimization solve SaaS performance over WAN and cloud?

Caching and compression features in WAN optimization controllers might sound like a promising solution to improve SaaS performance, but there’s one big problem — an enterprise can’t force a cloud provider to use the box at its end as well.

Even if enterprises could deploy symmetric WAN optimization with cloud providers, compression “nearly always introduces delay … and it may or may not help with latency and packet loss,” Nolle added. “The value of [caching] is also incredibly difficult to determine.”

WAN optimization controllers that inspect packets to prioritize certain kinds of traffic may also fall short because SaaS traffic is usually encrypted, according to Mark Urban, senior director of product marketing at Blue Coat Systems, which promotes the ability to decrypt, accelerate and re-encrypt packets with its PackerShaper product line.

All of these SaaS performance problems are compounded when enterprises backhaul Internet traffic over the WAN from branch offices to headquarters, Urban said. The additional trip makes SaaS performance more vulnerable to lags.

More than half (54%) of IT pros said they use two or more SaaS applications or other cloud-based services, according to an informal survey from Blue Coat, which polled about 150 IT and networking professionals at Interop 2010 in Las Vegas. Nearly a third (32%) use five or more SaaS apps or cloud services. Meanwhile, 68% of enterprises polled said that they backhaul Internet traffic from their branches through their data centers.

Targeting this WAN/cloud delivery dilemma, Cisco Systems claims its Wide Area Application Services (WAAS) controller can overcome backhaul latencies that affect SaaS performance by recognizing popular cloud-based services, reducing duplicate data streams and delivering 5:1 compression.

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