Zoho, the upstart provider of online Web applications, seems to be continually integrating and upgrading its products in the cloud, says China Martens, an analyst with The 451 Group. Martens jokes that it’s as if all of the Zoho developers sit in separate rooms for several months, each one pounding away at his respective application (Zoho Mail, for example, or Zoho CRM), only to have the walls come tumbling down just as the developers are ready to join their applications. Raju Vegesna, Zoho’s key evangelist, says that taking down those application walls is the company’s primary goal. “We are focusing more on integration within native applications,” he says. To date, Zoho offers 10 productivity applications, such as Zoho Mail and Zoho Chat, and nine business applications, such as Zoho CRM and Zoho Invoice. 

http://www.destinationcrm.com/Articles/CRM-News/Daily-News/Are-You-Ready-to-Zwitch-to-Zoho-55413.aspx

The productivity suite provider integrates email and CRM, beefs up its Projects application, and entices Salesforce.com users to switch over.

51% of Internet users, who have done a cloud computing activity, say the major reasons are convenience, flexibility, and ease of deployment. 41% of cloud users say the major reason they use these applications in a cloud computing environment is because of the ability to access data from any computer or remote location. 39% cite the ease of sharing information as the top reason to use a SaaS application. 63% of Internet users involved with any kind of application in a cloud expect superior customer service and performance and would quickly switch to another provider if they felt the level of service was not up to par.

http://pr-usa.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=244953&Itemid=28

53% of Internet users involved with any kind of SaaS application find that the expense involved with cloud computing is a fraction of what it would cost a company to buy and operate a similar system on their own.

Quattro, however, was perhaps better placed than most companies to make the leap. As a specialist in IT and “cloud” services, it turned towards a web-based solution for an accounting system that could tie in with its customer relationship management (CRM) system.

http://www.theage.com.au/technology/biz-tech/browse-for-a-software-solution-20090803-e768.html

“Gone are the days where you had to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to integrate systems,” Harper says

Tell us about your service?

William Borghetti: Sendside was founded back at the end of 2005, and early 2006, to address the shortcomings of email. If you look at communications today in your mail stream, such as the bills you receive, healthcare information, and financial information, it’s staggering to see how much remains in your snail mail stream. Sendside was founded to really look at why that’s the case, and not only from the usability and functional standpoint, but to address the structural deficiencies in SMTP, to create a product robust enough to deliver to organizations and individuals. We set out to build a communications network which addresses the shortcomings, in a way which you can send branded, secure communications in a highly functional say, where you can do things people only dream of in email–so you know when a message is read, if it’s been forwarded to others, how much time people have spent with the content, an ability to recall it after it’s been sent, modify it, add attachments after the fact, and more. It’s obviously an infrastructure type of technology, applicable to every vertical — state and local government, healthcare organizations, financial services companies, banks, alternative asset managers–anyone who sells products, services, sends outs information to prospective customers, and wants to reach them in an interactive way.

http://www.techrockies.com/story/0023186.html

Skytap, Inc., the leading provider of cloud-based IT labs, today announced support for application compatibility testing on Windows 7, Microsoft’s highly anticipated follow up to Vista. Using Skytap, customers can quickly and cost-effectively spin up a virtual sandbox in the cloud to ensure applications run correctly on the new operating system. For a limited time, Skytap is offering team access to Skytap’s Virtual Lab SaaS application, Windows 7 virtual machine templates and 1,000 hours of testing time for $250 per month.

http://productivityapps.itbusinessnet.com/articles/viewarticle.jsp?id=812200

The spark for this blog entry occurred during dinner with an MSP software executive a few days ago. The executive shared with me the following list of concerns:

http://www.mspmentor.net/2009/08/03/msps-time-to-collect-unpaid-invoices/

As if that question isn’t complicated enough, cost comparisons among the growing number of cloud-based services are now beginning to emerge, writes Vinnie Mirchandani on his deal architect blog. In light of this, implies Mirchandani, providers such as Salesforce.com may have to make changes in their own internal infrastructures to lower their costs. He says:

Integrify, which is available either on-premise as licensed server software or as a hosted service, offers a 100% Web-based solution to streamline business processes, centrally manage user requests from multiple locations, streamline workflow and operations, automate business processes, and provide increased compliance, visibility and efficiency across organizations.

http://www.emediawire.com/releases/2009/8/prweb2694554.htm

According to Ovum analyst, Claudio Castelli “Ovum research shows that 65 percent of SMEs globally prefer to purchase all their fixed and mobile services from a single provider. Telcos are listening to their demands.”

http://www.itwire.com/content/view/26659/1231/

Microsoft’s biggest problem: They aren’t always the technology leaders. Of course, history shows us that you don’t need the best product to have the best-selling product. Just look at VHS vs Beta. And what Microsoft has done well is to recognize where the computing world is going and better position themselves for that future. {+++}

http://webtrends.about.com/b/2009/07/20/microsofts-answer-to-cloud-computing-if-you-cant-beat-them-join-them.htm

{+++}