SaaS

When you're ready to revamp CRM and need to explain "why Salesforce.com" to the CEO, you must be aware of myths and preconceived notions already in place. Watch out for these big 5 items that could trip you up.

The tasks in Laef OlsonÂ’s working hours can be rather varied. Olson, who is the CIO at Software-as-a-Service vendor RightNow Technologies is on the one hand responsible for IT security and the organisationÂ’s information systems, while on the other he spruiks the strategy and vision for the company's on-demand hosting platform. On many occasions Olson gets a direct audience with company CIOs. What makes it easier for Olson to get traction to the upper levels of management is his past. He has been group vice president of global technology operations of Travelport and Orbitz Worldwide. And before that CTO of cars.com. In these roles he was also a consumer of SaaS products. It is that experience that he uses to relate to customers when on the road. Olson briefly stopped over in Australia last month where CIO Magazine asked him about the maturity of SaaS.

Amid the growing popularity of software-as-a-service, IT managers are faced with a sometimes monumental task of developing big-picture strategies and policies to govern service-based applications as well as defining performance metrics and support.

The recession has companies worldwide scrambling to rein in technology costs with desperate vendors responding in turn, offering deep license discounts, providing low-cost financing and proclaiming ever more shrilly that their products in fact save customers money.

Sohail Amjad was just an undergrad student at the Punjab University when he developed the Gmail Notifier for email running on Apps. When Google added Sohail's Gmail Notifier for Google Apps to its Enterprise Gallery, this opened up the door for so many other youngsters who can work in the SaaS space.

Hummer Winblad Venture Partners was established in 1989 as the first venture capital fund to invest exclusively in software companies. These days, 12 of the 30 companies in Hummer Winblad's portfolio are SAAS ventures. We spoke with Ann Winblad, co-founding partner, to better understand the extraordinary momentum of SAAS and her company's relationship with IBM.

Many automation projects measure success on basic ROI metrics: That's not enough. The smartest IT leaders are measuring the business impact of these projects, says CA's Stephen Elliot. Here's his advice on how to do that, bring your team together and lay a foundation for business growth.

Contrary to the general belief that enterprises will leverage software-as-a-service (SaaS) on a pay-per-use model and shy away from managing applications in-house, Microsoft's GM of Marketing and Operations, Tarun Gulati says that both the software and web-hosted services will co-exist. He thinks that CIOs will choose a combinations of both - instead of opting for either one.

Customers always want their software bug-free and free of charge. Anything less is a disappointment, according to Josh Greenbaum, a principle at Enterprise Applications Consulting.