I got some great messages today from people who enjoyed my tweets “from” SapphireNow in Orlando – although I wasn’t there. That’s a tribute – not to me; we’re only talking tweets, for goodness’ sake – to SAP for pulling off a two-continent, video-streaming, full-on collaborative event I was able to participate in meaningfully fromContinue reading “SapphireNow Day One – Getting Virtual Events Right, And More”
Category Archives: SaaS
Programmers: Pervasive’s Parallelization Provides Punch, Profit
After 27 years of steady growth, Austin, Texas-based Pervasive (PVSW) has become a $47M annual run rate software provider. Its portfolio includes a “zero admin, light footprint database” (the former BTrieve, now PervasiveSQL), data integration software (for SaaS and on premises applications), and data synchronization products for such apps as salesforce.com, Quickbooks and Microsoft Dynamics CRM. In 2009, it began leveragingContinue reading “Programmers: Pervasive’s Parallelization Provides Punch, Profit”
SAP Promises Acceleration on a “Clear Path” – Will it Be Enough?
The economic slowdown was not kind to SAP in 2009, and as it launched the annual Influencer Summit on December 8th, change was in the air. Messages were shifting. “Sustainability” got a big push, and there was a ringing commitment to substantial, dramatic product change to be delivered in 2010. Different faces were on display: there was no Leo Apotheker or BillContinue reading “SAP Promises Acceleration on a “Clear Path” – Will it Be Enough?”
Xkoto’s Database Virtualization Expands Cloud Opportunities
Xkoto, the database virtualization pioneer, has generated substantial interest since its first deployments in 2006. Still privately held and in investment mode, Xkoto sees profitability on the horizon, but offers no target date, and appears in no hurry. Its progress has been steady: in early 2008, a B round of financing led by GrandBanks Capital allowed a step up toContinue reading “Xkoto’s Database Virtualization Expands Cloud Opportunities”
Pentaho Goes “Open Core” With Lucidera OLAP Viewer
Open-source BI vendor Pentaho has purchased technology rights from failed BI SaaS vendor LucidEra, and plans to combine LucidEra’s Clearview, a reporting and analysis OLAP front end for non-technical users, with the Mondrian open source OLAP engine used by Pentaho Analysis, in a new offering called Pentaho Analyzer Enterprise Edition, available both on-premise and on-demand. Clearview willContinue reading “Pentaho Goes “Open Core” With Lucidera OLAP Viewer”
PivotLink, Boomi Join to Break Down Barriers From SaaS BI To Enterprise Apps
Most people have heard the term NIMBY – “not in my backyard” – associated with a new factory, rehab facility or Walmart coming to their neighborhood. “Keep them away from here – let them stay over there.” The same phenomenon often applies to organizations that have adopted their first SaaS application when it comes time toContinue reading “PivotLink, Boomi Join to Break Down Barriers From SaaS BI To Enterprise Apps”
Workday and Vertica: Cracking the 100 Customer Mark
Workday announced today that it has passed the 100-customer mark, and the milestone struck me as another important rite of passage. Such milestones are especially important in emerging markets that have not yet achieved mainstream recognition. In Workday’s case, this arguably represents a substantial step forward in the enterprise-class SaaS-based application market. Following in theContinue reading “Workday and Vertica: Cracking the 100 Customer Mark”
YouCalc Launches into Bubbling SaaS Analytics Space
The land rush into the SaaS analytics space continues; Danish startup Youcalc is seeing solid results from its December 2008 commercial launch. Its value proposition: create custom analytics applications on live data from SaaS systems. Rasmus Madsen and Henrik Kjaer co-founded Youcalc with the idea that a community-based approach to creating analytics applications and sharing them in theContinue reading “YouCalc Launches into Bubbling SaaS Analytics Space”
Informatica, Strong Through Tough Times, Looks Ahead
Not everyone in the software industry is suffering. Informatica Q2 revenues were $117.3 million, up 3% year over year, and license revenues for the second quarter were $48.7 million, relatively flat. That makes 19 quarters in a row – very impressive. Informatica added 65 customers in the quarter and now claims nearly 3800, with wins inContinue reading “Informatica, Strong Through Tough Times, Looks Ahead”
QlikView: Bet Big, Time Right And Become A Disruptive BI Leader
The near-decapitation (by acquisition) of the BI space in 2007-8 was perfectly timed for QlikTech, whose QlikView is rapidly becoming one of the leading independent products. This is hardly new; since its founding in Sweden in 1993, the company’s timing has been unerring. Years of slow growth – “From 1993 to ‘99 we had aContinue reading “QlikView: Bet Big, Time Right And Become A Disruptive BI Leader”