Business Strategy for Software Executives

February 25 , 2008

Bessemer’s Top 10 Laws for Being “SaaS-y"

Running an on-demand company means abandoning many of the long-held tenets of software management and adhering to these new principles.

By Byron Deeter , Bessemer Venture Partners

In the emerging sector of Software as a Service, one of the biggest challenges for many of the top CEO's is the lack of successful examples for them to follow. There are still only a handful of public pure-play SaaS businesses, and thus the body of "best practices" is very limited. Ironically, on top of this, one of the hardest things veteran software CEOs have to do when they start to run a SaaS company is to forget much of what they know about running a software company.

As we worked with our Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) portfolio companies, it became apparent that savvy SaaS companies were following a new set of rules - most of which didn't apply in the traditional software world, and many of which they were making up in real-time. We then set out to capture the new "best practices" of the on-demand model.

Does Your Company Have a Fresh Approach to Security?
Apply Today for the Software 2008 Innovation Showcase

The Innovation Showcase is seeking companies that have new approaches to securing the enterprise to speak at Software 2008. The program selects only the most promising vendors to present at the conference: in the 18 months since Software 2006, 12 of 20 Innovation Showcase companies have experienced a major financial event – including two IPOs from 2007’s class.

Innovation Showcase companies will receive a variety of PR and marketing opportunities at Software 2008 - the most influential gathering of enterprise software executives and investors of the year. Apply for the Innovation Showcase today at: http://www.software2008.com/showcase/. The deadline for applications is this Friday, Feb. 29.

A Cloud is Forming

The news that EMC is prepping a utility computing service for enterprise-scale applications came from an SAP exec earlier this month. And why not SAP on an EMC cloud? Billy Marshall of rPath looks closer at the latest developments in the enterprise utility space and predicts an application architecture for cloud computing is not too far off. Read more in this post to the SandHill.com Blog on virtualization.

Software M&A and VC Trends

Software finance witnessed another exciting year in 2007. From LBOs to IPOs, M&A and VC, Maryann Jones Thompson of SandHill.com takes a closer look at all the year-end data in this week's post to the software finance blog on SandHill.com.

A Visit to the Heart of India

If you’re fortunate enough to visit India, don’t spend all your time in an office building. M.R. Rangaswami of Sand Hill Group shares the personal impact of a quick side trip during his last journey to India in this post to the SandHill.com Blog, First Person.

Publish Your Perspective!

SandHill.com wants your opinions. Send your thoughts on the enterprise software industry to SandHill.com editor, Maryann Jones Thompson (maryann@sandhill.com) and have your opinions published on our site.

7 Trends in Enterprise Software for 2008

Technical issues kept last week’s lead story by Forrester’s R. “Ray" Wang off of the SandHill.com site on Friday morning. We apologize for the inconvenience. If you had trouble accessing the oped, be sure to read this insightful recap of buyer perspectives on what the coming year will hold for the software industry.

DON’T MISS: McKinsey’s Interview with Mozilla’s New Chairman

Mitchell Baker, the company's chairman and former CEO, explains the power of the participatory, open-source model of collaboration. Read how this company is approaching open source inovation in this article from The McKinsey Quarterly.

News Update: Heightened Tensions

Microsoft maneuvers for dominance; plus, Dave’s really back, big money aims at India, Intuit stumbles and a black tie and tuxedo event. Read these stories and more software news of the week in the latest SandHill.com Software News Summary.

Poll: SaaS Failures?

With so many software companies – both new and established – rushing to adopt the SaaS model, what portion will fail?
Take our Pulse Poll >>

Last week, readers speculated on how enterprise software spending would be this year.
Give us your opinion and see the results >>

More at SandHill.com:

Adobe releases the first version of rich internet application, Air.
Read the most important enterprise software industry news of the week >>

SaaS vendor RazorSight received $4 million.
Monitor the latest software venture capital deals >>

EMC acquired cloud computing firm, Pi, and hired founder and ex-Microsoft exec, Paul Maritz.
Size up last week's software M&A deals >>

Ravenflow named Susan Boers as president and CEO.
See who's made it to the top in our list of recent software executive appointments.

Send us your feedback on this newsletter and the SandHill.com site.

Parting Thought

“Skill without imagination is craftsmanship and gives us many useful objects such as wickerwork picnic baskets. Imagination without skill gives us modern art."
–Tom Stoppard

Courtesy of Malcolm Kusher, The Kushner Group

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SandHill.com is published by Sand Hill Group, which provides investment and management advice to emerging leaders in the $600 billion enterprise software, services and solutions market. Sand Hill Group produces the Software and the Enterprise series of conferences for industry executives, and authors research reports on cutting-edge technology topics.