Recent press: Microsoft, Oracle and RightNow coming on strong

IT TOPICS:Software

DM Review has a short article by Richard Roach of SAS OnDemand called 10 Things to Consider when Selecting an On-Demand Solution.” There are a few items here I haven’t seen before, such as “Is there a single point of contact who has the authority to deploy any skill set needed to solve any issue?”
SDA Asia carries a Gartner report predicting robust growth for Microsoft Dynamics CRM. New license sales could grow 140% this year, says Gartner, but that’s on a tiny base. However, the report cautions customers about going with Microsoft’s hosted CRM model. The company is still building out the infrastructure for delivery through partners and a full multi-tenant version of Dynamics CRM isn’t due till mid-2007.
RightNow Technologies will have a new version of its hosted CRM suite in December, says Computerworld. It’s got new tools for handling customer feedback, a graphical workflow engine and a better report designer. RightNow 8 is the result of a two-year, $25 million development effort, the company said.
BEA Systems is service-enabling its entire product line in an initiative it calls SOA 360. The most to a service-oriented architecture is driven in part by the growth of SaaS. The company aims to deliver all its middleware functionality as services, according to an article in it business.ca.
An article in UK-based Line56 suggestions that integration-as-a-service is a natural evolution of SaaS. It’s a lot easier to let someone else handle your supply chain integration than to do it yourself, argues author Andrew Dent who, not surprisingly, happens to offer just such a service.
The Software & Information Industry Association’s (SIIA) new SaaS Executive Council just published a white paper that argues for the cost benefits of SaaS. Organizations typically under-estimate the labor costs of on-premise deployment, among other things, the group argues. The white paper has worksheets you can use to figure your own costs.
Ovum assesses Oracle’s strong earnings report this week, noting that the 49% growth in Oracle’s on-demand business is the hidden star of the story. “it is an area where we think future growth will be driven,” Ovum said.
For a constantly updated list of SaaS press coverage, see my del.icio.us bookmarks.