A number of our existing ISV partners are thinking about SaaS. We recorded a ~25 session on technology readiness for SaaS. Let us know your thoughts.

http://oukc.oracle.com/static09/opn/login/?t=checkusercookies|r=-1|c=824461208

A ~20 mins recording introducing the Oracle platform is available here
http://oukc.oracle.com/static09/opn/login/?t=checkusercookies|r=-1|c=782809603

 The SaaS Report

We have had interesting discussions with several partners around Business Intelligence in the Cloud. Thought I would capture the use cases, so that you can take these into consideration while formulating your BI Strategy.

Lots of companies are leaping onto SaaS in the manner of a drowning man grabbing onto a tiger shark in the vain hope that all will be fine. The problem is that they haven't really thought about what they want and what it takes to properly adopt SaaS so what they do is take the same old approach to package adoption

OpenWorld 2009 will have several opportunities for you to discuss SaaS & Cloud Computing

1) SaaS & Cloud Pavilion - Get to know exciting offerings from Oracle partners in the area of SaaS & Cloud Computing. If you want to showcase your solution/service here, please drop us an email at saasprograms_ww@oracle.com. Needless to say, this pavilion will be popular this year. You would need a presence here if you want to get the conversations going.

Oracle is now offering ISVs the ability to pay by the month for its SaaS (software as a service) infrastructure platform, versus shelling out major sums for perpetual licenses.

The vendor's Platform for SaaS combines a variety of its software, including the Oracle database, Fusion Middleware, Oracle VM and Enterprise Manager, into a stack for building and deploying SaaS applications.

Many SaaS vendors are already using the system.

Oracle (NSDQ:ORCL) is offering its Software-as-a-Service ISV partners the option of paying for Oracle's "Platform for SaaS" software on a monthly basis, a move that Oracle says will make it easier for smaller ISVs, managed service providers and other partners to match expenses to service revenue.

Oracle is counting on the new commercial licensing model, called "SaaS for ISVs," to give it a competitive edge against IBM, Microsoft, Salesforce.com and other vendors that provide SaaS platform technologies.

Attended an IDC briefing on Going Hybrid with SaaS and was very pleased with their definition of Hybrid. The point they made was that the customer needs to be provided the choice to buy the same software either on premise or as SaaS. This is Hybrid. Not offering a stripped down version of your rich on premise app as SaaS in hope of alleviating competitors’ threat or offering primarily on premise apps plus some additional services delivered as SaaS (read Software plus service).

If I would to filter out the two most common topics we discuss with partners in our one on one meetings or through our email account saasprograms_ww@oracle.com, it has to be Licensing & Data Architecture.

Oracle CEO Larry Ellison is famous for blurting out potential
product ideas even when they are nothing but a glimmer in his eye. But
maybe in the case of offering hosted financials, CRM, HRM and other similar services, there’s a chance such Oracle-hosted entities could come to market sooner rather than later.

In two positive signs for SaaS this week, Workday got another round
of venture funding for an impressive $75 million, and Oracle is
reportedly planning seven SaaS products. I have a hunch we might hear
something on the latter during President Charles Phillips' keynote at
the Oracle user conference next week.

BOSTON, April 30 - Oracle Corp, the world's No. 2 business software maker, plans to expand its small line of programs that companies access via the Web, said a person familiar with the strategy. The person, who was not authorized to publicly discuss the plan, said that Oracle is developing Internet-based programs to help businesses manage human resources functions including employee recruitment.

Growing interest by customers in SaaS delivery and competition from pure-play vendors has led traditional CRM vendors to respond with their own SaaS offerings, such as the Oracle On Demand and Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online solutions. Also, Sage Software now offers SageCRM as both an on-premise and SaaS solution.

Oracle is now offering its sourcing software as a hosted service. Oracle Sourcing On Demand is based on the company's Oracle Sourcing and Oracle Sourcing Optimization software. As host, Oracle manages all functionality, hardware, databases, servers, firewall settings and pre-configured applications. Organizations need only a browser in order to use Oracle Sourcing On Demand. This helps cuts down on costly investments in information technology resources.

SaaS ISVs do face a choice these days of deploying their software on the cloud - Public or Private. Private Cloud is your infrastructure behind a firewall. The infrastructure can reside in your data center or at a hoster like Savvis. Public Cloud is services like AWS which does not require you to set up your own infrastructure.

In my recent piece on Oracle, I said, Oracle’s entry into SaaS is inevitable, and it will happen probably as early as this year. Let’s look at two companies that are potential acquisitions for Oracle (ORCL) this year.

On the strength of its E-Business Suite, Oracle -- along with Ariba and Emptoris -- has maintained a leadership position among eSourcing vendors, according to a recent study issued by Forrester Research Inc.

All three companies remained at the top of the heap thanks largely to their support for global program management and advanced sourcing techniques, according to the report.

MORRISTOWN, N.J., March 31, 2009 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ ----Core Services Corporation ("Core Services"), an Oracle Certified Partner, recently announced that they have successfully extended their services to include Oracle Hyperion hosted solutions.

After reporting a solid third quarter that beat estimates and declaring its first dividend, on Monday Oracle (ORCL) decided to go on a shopping spree. It started the quarter by acquiring Relsys International, which provides drug safety and risk management software. There are also speculations about Oracle acquiring Red Hat (RHT), but the enterprise software giant continues to avoid acquisitions in the SaaS space. Let’s explore why.

Oracle continues shifting software that has been available in licensed form for years over to new distribution models, furthering its efforts to take advantage of burgeoning interest in the trend of Software as a Service (SaaS).

That's the case with Oracle Sourcing, which helps enterprises manage their vendor selection and purchasing. On Monday, the company announced Oracle Sourcing on Demand, the SaaS version of the software.

Oracle Corp today said it would start to offer its procurement and sourcing management programmes on-demand, with a software service that would cost as little as $5,000 to set up and cost around $850 a month to use.

OracleSourcing On Demand uses software that is already part of the Oracle E-Business Suite Release 12, and comes pre-configured and packaged to tie in with applications such as Oracle Purchasing, to help ensure that procurement professionals have all the right information to hand.

Oracle will host the service for customers.

Oracle announced today that it is now selling SaaS sourcing products.  As the number two company in the Supply Management market, this product is long overdue.  SAP acquired Frictionless Commerce back in 2006, while Ariba - the best of breed SaaS market leader - acquired Procuri in 2007.     

How do we go about this?
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Enterprise ISVs adopting SaaS seem to follow two distinct approaches.

On the last day of 2008, I would like to reflect on developments this year.

Attended a conference few weeks back and noted down some new developments as noticed by the SaaS community.

Had a chance to attend an IDC event in SF in mid Sept. They said that they are updating their forecast for worldwide SaaS Applications spend from ~14B to ~16B by 2012. Another interesting trend is spending by enterprises will grow 14% faster than SMB.

Oracle Open World is around the corner (Sept 21-25). We are excited about several sessions during the open world where you can learn more about Oracle SaaS Platform

Goldman found it surprising that vendors chose Oracle as the number one platform for SaaS deployments. Having worked with several partners on why they chose Oracle, I find it a little less surprising. I will share some stories in this blog if you don't have the time to read the case studies.

There have been numerous discussions around how business groups are using SaaS applications behind the back of IT and one day IT will wake up to find hundreds of different applications, which now need to be integrated in a business process. So, how can you actually make money while allaying your customers concerns?