On Demand. Straight Up. The Demand Solutions Group Newsletter

< Back to DSG Library, Newsletters	2010 Q4

Mid-Term Course Correction? Not Necessary for SaaS!

The recent mid-term elections may have prompted President Obama to consider the need for a mid-term course correction, but there’s no need for this in the SaaS or Cloud market. As we approach this year’s Salesforce.com Dreamforce – always a watershed event in the evolution of the SaaS market – all the indicators show that adoption of SaaS-based solutions is gaining pace.

Let’s take a quick look at what the analysts are saying. In a report sub-titled ‘Software Will Never Be The Same’ IDC reported “The SaaS Market reached $13.1 billion in revenue in 2009, and IDC expects it will grow to $40.5 billion by 2014 at a compound annual growth rate of 25.3%”*. AMI echoed this growth rate, forecasting 25% CAGR for SaaS business applications and elaborating on the underlying driver. “SaaS is now a mainstream business alternative to on-premise applications” says AMI analyst, Helen Rosen “The multi-tenancy model offers SMBs comparable performance on a lower-cost basis and the flexibility to scale usage in-line with the shifting needs of their businesses… The intense focus on cost management precipitated by an uncertain economy has also been an important catalyst of demand”.

Gartner Market Trends ‘Software as a Service, Worldwide, 2008-2013’ adds yet more detail to the top-line growth figures, noting that the growth of SaaS-based CRM is outstripping on-premise CRM by a factor of 4:1, while SaaS ERP is outpacing on-premise ERP by 3:1.

This year’s Dreamforce promises to be bigger and better than ever before with President Bill Clinton delivering the keynote. We hope that President Clinton asks Al Gore for some technical hints before he steps up on the podium – after all, Al invented the Internet, right? Despite his charisma it’s unlikely that even President Clinton will eclipse Salesforce.com’s iconic founder, Marc Benioff, and we wonder what he has up his sleeve to announce at the event.

By the way, not to be left out of the user conference stakes, NetSuite has recently announced that it will hold its first user conference in May 2011. NetSuite has a way to go to catch up with Salesforce.com’s marketing machine but it’s encouraging to see the company acknowledge the importance of such events.

As the economic uncertainty lingers into 2011and the mid-term blues haunt the White House, it’s reassuring to know that voting for a SaaS-based business solution was one decision you got right in 2010!

*Worldwide Software as a Service 2010-2014 Forecast, IDC, June 2010

Todd Fitzwater, Principal and Co-founder


		Tell Us about Your Non-Profit DSG and NetSuite have partnered on a program for Non-Profits that have outgrown their on-premise systems and are looking for a SaaS option that gives them the flexibility, scalability and cost-benefits of a Cloud-based architecture. As you may be aware, both the Salesforce Foundation and NetSuite.org have donation programs. Backed by the DSG Giving program, we can structure a very attractive program to get your Non-Profit going with SaaS-based solutions. If you are involved with a Non-Profit that needs help with its donor and financial management solutions, give us a call at (866) 486-4064.

This quarter we are profiling a DSG customer that has recently gone live with NetSuite based solutions. It is a high-profile New York based Non-Profit, Charity:Water.

DSG Customer Success Update — Charity:Water

Founded by New York based event entrepreneur, Scott Harrison, Charity:Water is focused on addressing the problem of providing clean, safe water to third world communities - a problem that claims millions of lives every year. Using their mycharitywater.com website, Charity:Water has garnered donations from over a hundred thousand individuals through their social media based outreach programs. DSG has helped Charity:Water migrate four years of QuickBooks data to NetSuite and used the accessibility of the SaaS-based environment to empower Charity:Water’s Development team who drive their fund raising efforts. In addition to architecting the system to provide the Development team with direct access to donor and program information, DSG has developed reporting that addresses the complex issue of reconciling matching contributions from employers to donations given by their employees.

NetSuite 2010.2 Upgrade
Over the Halloween weekend, DSG’s NetSuite customers were upgraded to the latest 2010.2 version of NetSuite. We previewed this in our best-attended webinar to date in mid-October and then supported our customers through this process. We encountered a few problems with Saved Searches (hint, remove filters and then add them back in) but overall the upgrade process went remarkably well and was transparent to almost all of our customers. Once again, SaaS has lived up to its claims of easy upgrades.

One thing of note is that NetSuite took the opportunity to upgrade the Revenue Recognition capability in version 2010.2. Contact us at (866) 486-4064 if you would like help navigating through the changes in the NetSuite RevRec bundle.

Headed to Dreamforce?
Although DSG is not exhibiting at this year’s Dreamforce event, several of the team will be at the Moscone Center for what is always one of the key SaaS milestones of the year. For those of you who will be attending, maybe for the first time, here is our top three list of sessions not to miss:

Tuesday 9-11 am – Marc Benioff’s keynote is always a mind-expanding event that will challenge your thinking not only about SaaS and the Cloud but also about the role of technology in society and, in particular, in philanthropic and social enterprises. Benioff’s tousled hair, crumple-suited, off-the-cuff style is the perfect antidote to all those corporate keynotes you’ve endured at other conferences. Hint: get there by 8 am if you want a decent seat as Benioff’s talks have cult status in the Salesforce community.

Wednesday 12:15 pm onwards – catch the UCSF track and catch up on some of latest breathroughs in healthcare and science. Packaged in 30 minutes sessions that include a 20 minute talk and 10 minutes of Q&A, speakers from UCSF will address issues such as Sugar: The Bitter Truth and How to Outsmart Stress. After two days running around at Dreamforce, that last session may come in handy.

Wednesday 5:00 pm – where else can you hear former President Bill Clinton speak for free these days? Clinton is a brilliant public speaker and you can expect to learn a lot about the humanitarian ventures that he has initiated through the William J. Clinton Foundation. No doubt there’ll be some political stories and humor thrown into his speech and it will be interesting to see if he and Benioff have a new initiative that they announce at this event. As with Benioff’s keynote, get there early for what is bound to be a standing room only event.

We look forward to seeing you there!


		About DSG - there is a perfect storm driving Cloud-based solutions as organizations focus on their core competencies and on ways to manage their operations more efficiently and at lower cost. Recognizing the frustration that many companies feel with overly complicated software and delivery methods, DSG has partnered with leading Cloud vendors like NetSuite, Salesforce.com, and Shiftboard to implement and support their solutions. Using our proven Launch and Optimize methodologies, DSG has enabled hundreds of organizations, ranging from start-ups through Fortune 1000 companies to leading Non-Profits, get the best possible return on their Cloud investment. To find out how we can help you, please visit www.demandsolutionsgroup.com.