News

SaaS Report: How To Partner on SaaS

• By Kurt Mackie
• April 11, 2007

SaaS companies have to maintain customer satisfaction over the long term. Consequently, partnership models for SaaS need to be different from those seen with traditional enterprise software providers. Reliance on individual software sales -- the old model of traditional enterprise software providers -- isn't how SaaS partnerships should be structured, the white paper asserts.

"SaaS partners are not 'resellers' delivering software, but rather catalysts for this new industry, making it work long term," stated Axel Schultze, founder and CEO of Xeequa and author of the white paper. "They help customers become quickly productive and ensure the service is fully embedded into organizational processes."

The white paper explains further details and is available here, but it's for SIIA members only.

For those looking to enhance SaaS applications, a number of vendors announced new tools and upgrades over the past week, including Pervasive and SeaTab, among others.

SaaS Integration Tools
Pervasive Software unveiled two SaaS integration tools that allow users to share information between multiple databases, applications or hosted business systems. The solutions include the Pervasive SaaS Data Integrator and the Pervasive SaaS Business Integrator.

The tools connect with customer relationship management (CRM) systems, including salesforce.com's Spring '07, Oracle Siebel CRM OnDemand 12 and NetSuite. It integrates these SaaS applications with other on-premises applications. The tools also feature Map Designer enhancements that allow non-technical users to perform data source and target mapping.

Pervasive's entry-level subscription pricing starts at $300 per month.

Enhanced SaaS Reporting Capability
SeaTab Software has rolled out the latest version of its SaaS business intelligence application. The enterprise-grade Pivotlink OnDemand V3.5 solution lets the average user create reports in a visually appealing format without requiring IT assistance.

This new version of Pivotlink OnDemand features rich graphical dashboards and scorecards. It loads data 50 percent faster, according to SeaTab, and features no lockout times, even when new data are being uploaded.

Datacenter Support for SaaS Operations
Layered Technologies and 3Tera have teamed up to offer a Virtual Private Datacenter that lets companies scale their SaaS operations. The service "eliminates the need for collocation, private racks and managed services," according to an announcement issued by the companies.

Pricing for the Virtual Private Datacenter starts at $999.00 per month for a four-node system, which can be scaled up to 48 nodes and more on demand.