(The growing) Influence of Web2.0 in crisis situation

David Stephenson a leading e-government, Web 2.0, and crisis management strategist and theorist had an interesting post today, just around when I made my post, on how Web2.0 data may aid anti-terrorist forces combating acts of terror.

David's post suggests US law enforcement agencies learn from the Mumbai case about the effective monitoring and use of micro-blogging services.

By the way, I came across David's post via a tweet from TimO'Reilly. David's full post is here.

Terrorist activity in Mumbai & Micro-blogging

Twitter has been buzzing with tweets about the terrorist acts in Mumbai before it became news on traditional channels. See the screen shot of TwitterScoop and MyTweetDeck.

I have been meaning to write about micro-blogging and it's growing influence on digital media and online marketing for the last few days. I guess this is the time to condemn this heinous act of human aggression and showcase the influence of micro-messaging in spreading messages and memes.

I am concerned about my friends in Mumbai. I hope they are safe.

SaaSGrid a new entrant in the PaaS market

Jesse from Apprenda gave me a tour of Apprenda's new solution - the SaaSGrid, a new platform reaching out to ISVs who want to move to the SaaS model. According to Jesse, SaaS grid is distinct from Force.com and Quickbase because they offer a constraint free PaaS to ISVs.

I found their SaaS billing function the most interesting feature. Their billing function allows users of SaaSGrid to charge for individual functionality and features. In my view SaaS Grid's platform will allow .net ISVs to move from on-premise to a multi-tenancy, hosted, subscription based provisioning of software in a breeze.

I think they are up against tough competition with established players like Quickbase, Force.com, and startups like Coghead and WyaWorks, so I wish them the very best.

Want to be the next Virgin? Visit www.QLogitek.com.

I like compliments just as much as the next guy in the line! But when complements come from clients who have superior standards, they are sweeter. Any way, I just wanted to touch upon what Virgin Mobile Canada had to say about QLogitek’s outsourced EDI solution which integrates all their trading partners to their ERP system.

Edin Mesic, Director, Supply Chain at Virgin Mobile Canada. said:

QLogitek has been Virgin Mobile Canada’s partner in EDI integration almost from day one. The expertise that QLogitek brought to table and their knowledge in all aspects of EDI automation has been extremely helpful. In this ever-changing and fast paced wireless industry, quick turnaround of customer related data (such as sales orders, invoices etc) is absolutely crucial and this project has helped us keep our customer service levels up to very high “Virgin” standards. We are extremely pleased with results and looking forward to other possible future projects with QLogitek.

As a marketer I am an admirer of Sir Richard Branson and his Virgin brand, so I am elated to hear that QLogitek can deliver beyond “Virgin” standards! Here is a shout out to other high standard Canadian retailers, ask your self, how can QLogitek help me outsource EDI and be the next Virgin?

To the curious one I suggest you check out this case study on a very successful EDI outsourcing here and the full press release on Virgin’s and QLogitek’s EDI Outsourcing partnership.

Guess who else is getting SaaSy?

I just found out that CA Inc, a large traditional IT player, has created a new business unit devoted to Software as a Service (SaaS) and has released three On Demand solutions in the business continuity and disaster recovery service.

Jules Ehrlich, senior vice-president of On Demand business unit, said

"CA was being counted-out in many deals because it did not have a formalized SaaS offering."

I wounder what Lawson's CEO, Harry Debes has to say about that?

Join QLogitek Cost Savings Club and use our SaaS solutions to reduce cost

This is a continuation of my discussion "Will SaaS save IT ?"

Microsoft the poster child of traditional software product market is realigning to the SaaS model. Today they announced that customers will be able to sign up at Microsoft.com/online and buy Exchange Online and SharePoint Online separately or as part of a suite with Office Live Meeting for conferencing, Exchange Hosted Services for added e-mail services like spam filtering and Office Communications Online (once it is released).

Microsoft expects customers will save 10% to 50% on infrastructure and staffing costs by moving to the SaaS services.

At QLogitek we have been pushing and pioneering SaaS solutions for retailers and CPG companies. Our data on operational cost savings concurs with information published by Microsoft. The Canadian retail community like retailers across the globe are hurting; and is now reaching out to us via QLogitek Cost Savings Club to reduce their supply chain cost and enhance their capability.

A cool SaaS company with a brilliant Aussie attitude !

Atlassian is a software company with a cool Aussie attitude. They offer few of their solutions on the SaaS model. I found their video showing showcasing the company absolutely brilliant, way to go guys.

Atlassian is self described as a "customer-driven software company, combining brilliantly simple tools with legendary service." I think they have the potential to be another 37Signal !

Will SaaS save IT ? - Part 1

After the launch of Force.com platform, Salesforce.com's CEO, Marc Benioff told Tim O'Reilly that traditional enterprise models supported by SAP and Oracle are mature and dying. He was reacting to Oracle's Larry Ellison remark bashing SaaS.

In my opinion the recent launch and announcement by Microsoft of Azure Web applications is one strong signal suggesting the enterprise software terrain is definitely changing in favour of the SaaS model.

The SaaS model of software solution delivery enjoys prominent advantages compared to the traditional model; especially in these tough economic times. In my opinion, this economic meltdown is going to help accentuate the benefits of SaaS model more than ever before.

In the next few posts I plan on collating some relevant data to make my point that the SaaS model is better than traditional software model during these tough times.

Here is a 4+ minute long video introducing Force.com.

Email campaigns and their consequence

Email campaigns are inexpensive compared to other marketing campaigns, so most organizations continue email campaigns without measuring their effectiveness or thinking about their consequences. Continuing (ineffective) email campaigns can result in two negative outcomes - (1) brand erosion and (2) loss of customer good will even among die-hard fans.

Today our marketing team sat down to take a hard look at our email marketing campaign. We are going to pull relevant data from last few campaigns to assess our performance.

I am a data-geek so I am looking forward to seeing the data on our past email campaigns. I am especially keen to look at the following dimensions (1)number of emails sent, (2) bounce rates, (3) open rates, and (4) click through rate.

Good references:
1- Chittenden and Rettie (2003), An evaluation of e-mail marketing and factors affecting response, Journal of Target Measurement and Analysis for Marketing
2- Mullins (2007), How to ensure that your marketing emails are effective rather than annoying, Journal of Marketing.