Microsoft Corp. expects customers to adopt the new version of Office at the fastest pace in the software’s 20-year history, helping reverse a sales slump and fend off competition from Google Inc.’s Web-based programs.

The software has been tested by 7.5 million users, three times as many as any previous version, signaling that adoption will be quick, said Chris Capossela, a senior vice president in the Office group. Users are also likely to upgrade to the new package of business software at the same time they install Windows 7, released last year, he said.

Great article written by VelocIT:

Does SaaS make sense for small business BI solutions?

Dell Corporation (Thailand) grasps the opportunity of virtualisation and cloud computing trend to pioneer launch its broad portfolio of Software as a Service (SaaS) applications through cloud-based services.

According to Anothai Wettayakorn, Dell Thailand managing director, technology has transformed from mainframe to mini computer, PC and client server, Internet to today's era of virtualisation and cloud computing where it's no longer an option, but is a must.

Citing Merrill Lynch, Anothai said cloud computing will triple by 2012, with current worldwide spending of around $42 billion, or 25 percent of overall IT spending, increasing to $95 billion in 2015. The growth of cloud computing in Thailand will coincide with the global trend.

Workbooks.com, the leading provider of CRM and Business applications delivered via Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) to the small and mid-size enterprises (SMEs), and InvisibleCRM, a technology provider of tools engineered to bridge the gap between enterprise and personal productivity applications, announced today that they have signed a partnership agreement. The two firms will jointly create a new Outlook integration offering for Workbooks.com based on InvisibleCRM’s InvisibleSync Bridge and OutlookBridge technology platform.
The new offering will allow users of Workbooks application suite to integrate contacts, appointments and emails with Microsoft Outlook increasing usability and productivity even when they are offline.

Additional enhancements will more fully integrate Workbooks CRM and Outlook, allowing Workbooks users to manage their core CRM data from within the Outlook client.
“By providing our users instant access to the CRM data and components of Workbooks from within the Microsoft Office suite, we can dramatically increase their productivity, data quality and adoption rate,” said John Cheney, Workbooks.com CEO. “By partnering with InvisibleCRM, we can deliver World class Outlook integration to our customers quickly and effectively.”
“We are proud to partner with Workbooks.com. They have a remarkable SaaS business suite that provides incredible value to the SME marketplace,” said Vlad Voskresensky, CEO of InvisibleCRM. “Our partnership focus is to extend that value by providing a single place to manage ALL of a client’s CRM data within Outlook and an elegant approach to melding customer information found in email into the Workbooks.com environment. Access offline means taking Workbooks.com with you anywhere and anytime.”

Cloud Computing - What Is It?

At OfficeDrop, we realize that a lot of small business owners have heard of cloud computing but don't realize how it can help your business. For people that don’t know, cloud computing is a great way for small businesses to utilize IT resources without costs and responsibilities of physical infrastructure. Since we 've built our business in the cloud, and since our business is helping your business, we want you to understand what, exactly, this means.

Cloud Computing as a Metaphor

To explain the metaphor, the cloud is the internet – no big secret and computing is…computing. Essentially, cloud computing is a platform for accessing and utilizing your businesses IT via the internet. This means nearly all of your IT resources – your servers, data storage, software/ programs – are hosted on the internet. NOT sitting in your office. It used to be that all of your computing would have to be done by your own servers, hardwired to your business. Now that the internet is around, your servers don’t have to be hardwired, and you don’t even need to have your own. Instead, you can rent server space from anywhere in the country from people like Amazon, who have already paid the overhead. Utilizing this system with SaaS, which does the same thing with software, one could theoretically run an entire business from various cyber cafés (if those still exist) without purchasing any of their own personal hardware or software at all.

Why the Cloud is Great for Small Businesses

Cloud computing helps small businesses in a number of ways. In general, cloud computing offers a more versatile model both technically and economically. With cloud computing, you don’t have your own servers/hardware. On the economic end of things, operating in the cloud lets you pay as you go, and you only pay for what you use. So on one hand you have lower startup costs because you don't have to purchase expensive equipment when you are getting started. On the other hand, cloud computing allows for great scalability, since you don't have to keep buying servers every time you add an employee or a new software system. It’s the scalability of cloud computing that makes it especially effective with quickly growing small businesses. In addition, cloud computing removes the need for an IT expert on payroll. Unless your company is actually developing software, you don’t need the techies that would normally be running around putting out sever fires. Now, most small businesses are probably not going out and directly purchasing cloud computing units from Amazon. But where a small business can take advantage of cloud computing is in purchasing basic software like CRM, help desk, document management, email and more. Instead of purchasing hardware, buying software on a disk and hiring an IT professional to setup the hardware install that software a small business can purchase software over the internet - typically with no installation required - from a Software-as-a-Service provider. Usually this means that you've got a monthly contract instead of a big up front purchase. And, as we've already mentioned, you don't need to buy a server to host the software!

OfficeDrop Brings the Power of the Cloud to Your  Business' Paper and Digital Files

OfficeDrop works similarly to cloud computing but with scanning and document management software. On the scanning side, buying high quality scanners and formatting scans to a computer is a very expensive process, but you don’t have to pay all that – we already have. Instead, you pay one low monthly fee to use the system we’ve already implemented. Once we scan your paper documents, we put them in the cloud too, as digital documents so you can search and access them from any internet connection. Again, you don't need to own your own server and remote backup if you use our online document management system. Plus, you won't have to set up things like VPNs if you want to access your documents remotely - you can just use the browser on your laptop or iPhone. We’re happy to be a part of the cloud computing trend here at OfficeDrop, and hope you take advantage of the benefits it can offer your small business.

PlanMill PSA Cloud now serves a leading service business in Romania 

ICS Romania based in Bucharest is a regional geospatial solution provider for Romania’s public administration and large companies. It now answers the demands of burgeoning customer needs using PlanMill PSA (Professional Services Automation) on the Cloud.  

PlanMill's web-based PSA is handpicked by Marcel Foca, General Manager of ICS Romania to support its growing service business. After a thorough needs analysis conducted online with experienced PlanMill consultants followed by PlanMill Quick Deployment Model, PlanMill PSA Cloud was up and running in no time. 

According to Marcel, selecting  PlanMill's PSA solution is a straighforward solution. Being a regional market leader in information, circumstance analysis, and data usage, the company understands the benfits of a turnkey solution. Although PlanMill PSA was customized to some extent to fit local requirements, enhancing customer relationships and implementing project management systems was ready from day one.  

Small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) are becoming more sophisticated in their technology purchases and are embracing solutions such as software-as-a-service (SaaS) and managed services, new research from CompTIA reveals.

The survey of more than 400 SMBs across the United States finds that nearly 30% of them plan to implement SaaS solutions in 2010 to lower costs and maintain their competitive edge. That's up from 22% and 14% respectively in the two prior years.

Thirty percent of SMBs say they intend to implement managed services solutions in 2010. Since 42% of SMBs do not have a formal IT department, relying instead on workers handling IT needs on a part-time basis, the managed services model is ideally suited to fill this skills gap.

The CompTIA study also indicates SMBs are placing increasing importance on technology solutions that drive revenues, produce immediate results to the bottom line and have a direct, positive impact on the customer’s experience. This is reflected in their growing adoption of enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer relationship management (CRM) and other such solutions in 2009.

Appian, the global innovator in enterprise and on-demand business process management (BPM) technology, today announced that Appian Anywhere leads the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) BPM market both is features/functionality and in enterprise -- and SMB-level adoption.

As demand continued to rise through 2009 for the cost reduction and agility benefits of the Appian BPM Suite, more and more companies opted for the Appian Anywhere low-cost, low-risk “BPM in the Cloud” subscription delivery model.

According to the September 2009 “SaaS BPM: Silencing the Skeptics” report from Ovum/Datamonitor, “The ongoing recession has helped the cause of both SaaS and BPM. The SaaS model has endeared itself to customers that are wary of upfront capital investments, while BPM has helped businesses adapt quickly to the massive changes in the external environment... Datamonitor believes that this is the right time for BPM to take its SaaS strategy mainstream.”

Jigsaw, a leader in data as a service (DaaS) today was honored with one of salesforce.com's AppExchange Best of '09 Awards. In receiving this customer choice award for sales intelligence, Jigsaw joined all the winners in receiving recognition for their ability to take customer success to new levels in satisfaction and application excellence.

Jigsaw received the Best of AppExchange award for Jigsaw Prospector, its unique sales intelligence solution that provides salespeople with the tools they need for effective and efficient sales prospecting and marketing efforts. With Jigsaw Prospector, customers have access to more than 19 million accurate and up-to-date business contacts within minutes.

"We are honored to be recognized by salesforce.com customers as the best sales intelligence application," said Jim Fowler, CEO, Jigsaw. "At Jigsaw, we are committed to providing sales and marketing teams with the most cutting edge tools for facilitating business transactions and generating high-quality leads."