Softletter's Marketing and Selling SaaS (Software as a Service) Seminar, 2008
Atlanta, GA, January 30th and 31st
SaaS Goes South! (Check back for speakers updates and additions)
Zach Nelson has more than 20 years of leadership experience in the hi-tech industry, where he has held a variety of executive positions spanning marketing, sales, product development and business strategy with leading companies such as Oracle, Sun Microsystems, and McAfee/Network Associates.
Nelson has been CEO of NetSuite since 2002. Under his leadership NetSuite's revenues have grown ten-fold, workforce has quintupled to more than 500 employees, and its customer base has expanded to thousands of companies around the globe. Recently named as CRM Influential Leader of 2006 by CRM Magazine, Nelson has led NetSuite to be one of the hottest software companies in the world. Nelson holds a patent in the field of application integration, and has several others pending approval. He holds B.S. and M.A. degrees from Stanford University.
Keynote Presenter
Peter Coffee Director of Platform Intelligence, salesforce.com
Peter Coffee is director of Platform Intelligence at salesforce.com. He was formerly the Technology Editor at eWEEK, a national multimedia center of expertise in enterprise infrastructure technology and practice. He has 23 years' experience in advancing and evaluating information technologies and practices as a developer, manager, consultant, educator, and internationally published author and industry analyst.
Based near Los Angeles, Coffee has written product reviews, technical analyses and opinion columns concerning disruptive forces in IT tools and practices; he has appeared on CBS, NBC, CNN, Fox, and PBS newscasts addressing Internet security, the Microsoft antitrust case, wireless telecom policies, and other business issues. His two books to date are the Ziff Davis Press tutorial "How to Program Java" in 1996 and "Peter Coffee Teaches PCs."
Coffee holds an engineering degree from MIT and an MBA from Pepperdine University, and has taught in the department of computer science at UCLA and at Pepperdine's Graziadio School of Business and Management and the Chapman College School of Business.
Keynote Presenter Jeff Kaplan Managing Director, THINKstrategies
THINKstrategies was founded by Kaplan -- formerly a leading industry analyst at IDC, Dataquest, and META Group, and successful senior marketing executive at InterOPS Management Solutions and International Network Services (INS) -- as the only independent strategic consulting firm dedicated to helping enterprise IT decision-makers and technology solution providers achieve their business objectives by leveraging the value of IT/telecom services, ranging from professional services to on-demand services, including application, hosting and managed services, as well as IT and business process outsourcing (ITO/BPO). Jeff has over twenty years of experience and recognized expertise in IT management, managed services, utility computing and outsourcing trends.
He is a frequent speaker at industry conferences and contributing columnist for BusinessWeek Online, Mass High Tech Journal, Financial Times of London, NetworkWorld, Business Communications Review, ComputerWorld, InfoWorld, InformationWeek, and Web Host Industry Review on topics including managed services, software-as-a-service (SaaS), utility computing, outsourcing strategies; network and systems operations, service level management (SLM); and IT ROI and TCO calculations.
Frank Bruno
Manager of Intellectual Property, Iron Mountain
Frank Bruno consults with developers, corporations and intellectual property law professionals throughout the United States on IP management best practices for Iron Mountain. He specializes in assisting SaaS companies develop escrow and verification agreements and integrating these into large and enterprise sales cycles. Frank's area of expertise covers IP Protection (Strategy, Process & Management) as it relates to technology development, technology acquisitions, software asset management, and managing Domain Name portfolios to Iron Mountain’s clientele. Prior to joining Iron Mountain Intellectual Property Management, he was a Director of Business Development for The META Group, a leading Information Technology Research Consultancy. Frank has been a featured expert speaker on technology and intellectual property protection at many professional and industry events.
Todd Gardner, CEO, SaaS Capital
Todd has spent his entire professional career in the finance and software industries. As an outgrowth of his venture work with software companies and ASP providers such as US Internetworking, Todd came to recognize the benefits of the SaaS model and its financial and cash-flow implications. Finding no good financing solutions for his SaaS portfolio companies, Todd pulled together a team of software finance and SaaS technology veterans to launch SaaS Capital in 2006.
For the 10 years prior to launching SaaS Capital, Todd was a partner at Blue Chip Venture Company where he focused on investing in early stage software companies. While at Blue Chip Todd directly lead new investments in many different companies including financing rounds ranging from $500,000 to $25 million. During his tenure in the venture capital business, Todd maintained a 100% success rate in software investing even during challenging investment cycles following the technology bubble of 2000.
Mike Hoskins
CTO, Pervasive Software
Mike Hoskins brings more than 20 years of experience in developing and managing software companies. As chief technology officer, Mike champions Pervasive's technology direction, evangelizes the company's industry-leading low- TCO approach to data management and integration worldwide and directs the company’s Innovation Labs. Mike received the AITP Austin chapter’s 2007 Information Technologist of the Year Award for his leadership in the development of Pervasive DataRush.
Mike has an extensive background in programming and systems development. He is a widely respected thought leader in the integration industry, has been published in a variety of publications, and speaks worldwide on innovations in data management and integration. Topics which Mike has explored from an industry perspective include Software as a Service, ROI in the integration space, the last mile of integration, integration out of the box and the multicore revolution.
Mike Jalonen
CEO, OnDemand Solutions
Mike’s broad entrepreneurial experience in the software industry prepared him for his current role in helping companies to make their SaaS implementations more successful. As CEO of OnDemand Solutions, Mike’s industry knowledge and experience in the emerging SaaS market has enabled numerous clients to achieve their SaaS objectives.
Prior to co-founding OnDemand Solutions in 2007, Mike built several thriving software companies and held various key executive roles including CEO, Director of Strategy, and VP of Sales and Marketing. As a serial entrepreneur, Mike uses his strong business, marketing and sales acumen to assemble talented and experienced teams of IT professionals, drive and grow profitable business and increase revenues. Mike is a native of Connecticut and holds a BS in Geology.
Patrick Fetterman
Vice President of Marketing, Plexus
Patrick Fetterman is vice president of marketing of Plexus Systems, Inc, developers of Plexus Online™ on-demand software for the manufacturing enterprise, Plexus Online combines the capabilities of enterprise resource planning (ERP), manufacturing execution systems (MES), supply chain management (SCM), customer relationship management (CRM), shop floor integration, quality management, and much more.
Prior to joining Plexus, Fetterman was with New York City-based Mi8 Corp., where he served as vice president of marketing and products from 2000 to 2005, and as president from 2005 to 2006. During Fetterman’s tenure with Mi8, the company built a reputation as a trailblazer in the software as a service (SaaS) market, and earned a position as the premium quality provider in the highly competitive market for on demand Microsoft solutions.
Chuck DeVita
President, Growth Process Group
Chuck DeVita is Founder & President of Growth Process Group, a strategic sales outsource and consulting practice focused on early to mid-stage technology companies. Growth Process Group helps established companies grow revenues, profits and predictability. It assists emerging companies in securing funding and offers an outsourced reference customer acquisition program. The firm also provides interim “C” level executive services to get its’ clients through transitions.
Chuck has over thirty years experience in Sales and Marketing management of enterprise technology suppliers. He has developed regional and worldwide sales forces. He has extensive international sales management experience. He has built direct and indirect channels as well as major account sales organizations.
Jim Geisman
President, Software Pricing
Jim has helped emerging and established software companies solve some of their thorniest pricing problems including how to transition to the on-demand (SaaS) pricing model. He has written extensively on software pricing and is widely quoted in the trade press. He is a frequent speaker at seminars and trade conferences and has consulted internationally on issues of software pricing and deal structuring. Jim has been a co-founder, director, advisor or mentor to early stage companies. He sits on the Board of the Professional Pricing Society and is an advisor to the Entreprenuerial Leadership Program at Tufts University.
Siamak Farah
CEO, InfoStreet
Siamak Farah is the founder and CEO of InfoStreet, a leading provider of IT & Productivity Software as a Service (SaaS). Active in its day-to-day management, Siamak has assembled and leads a seasoned team of industry professionals at InfoStreet. By employing a business philosophy that focuses first on solving business problems and second on applying appropriate technologies to those solutions, he has enabled flourishing businesses for both InfoStreet and its clients. Siamak is an advocate of developing a strong SaaS reseller channel for InfoStreet and has helped spearhead this effort at InfoStreet.
Prior to founding InfoStreet in 1994, Siamak worked at NeXT Computer side-by-side industry visionaries the likes of Steve Jobs. Having been in the industry for more than 20 years Siamak has striven to include a cutting edge technological vision in his work. A member of the Society of Industry Leaders, Siamak is a frequent speaker at conferences that focus on the Internet and SaaS such as ISPCON, INBOX: The Messaging Industry Event, the Layered Technologies Pact conference and more.
Peter Ganza
Product Manager, Ryma Technology Solutions
Peter has more than 10 years of experience in the technology industry and has developed special expertise in understanding how customers behave and buy in a SaaS environment in contrast to a client/server milieu.
Before joining Ryma, he helped consumers to large enterprises ensure the security and availability of their information with a variety of strategic, product management and technical roles at Symantec Corporation. He was a founding member of Symantec's Competitive Product Management Team, and made contributions to the organization worldwide for over 6 years. At Ryma, he is responsible for the overall direction of the Professional Services Group. Peter is a trained Pragmatic Marketing Product Manager, and studied Computer Foundations from Sheridan College in Toronto, Canada.
Gene Hoffman
CEO, Vindicia
Gene Hoffman, Jr. is co-founder, Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer of Vindicia, Inc., a provider of payment management services to SaaS publishers via a sophisticated recurring billing platform, outsourced chargeback management, and consulting services. Prior to Vindicia, he was co-founder, President, Chief Executive Officer, and a Director of EMusic, a leading Internet-based music subscription service. As head of EMusic, Mr. Hoffman was a highly visible advocate for the distribution of music on the Internet and testified in front of Congress multiple times about the future of the Internet economy and Internet music distribution. Mr. Hoffman led the acquisition of EMusic by Vivendi/Universal in June 2001. Prior to EMusic, Mr. Hoffman was Director of Business Development and Director of Interactive Marketing of Pretty Good Privacy. Mr. Hoffman joined Pretty Good Privacy after it acquired PrivNet, Inc., an Internet privacy software company, where he was co-founder, Director and Executive Vice President. Hoffman holds a patent for his work with HTTP stream interception technology. He attended the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill where he was a staff member of the men's collegiate basketball program under Dean Smith and Bill Guthridge.
Pat O’Day
CTO, BlueLock
Mr. O’Day is responsible for the design, engineering and commercialization of BlueLock’s “infrastructure-as-as-service” (IaaS) business model. He is uniquely qualified to lead a “build vs. buy” discussion because he has experience on both sides of the equation. Before co-founding BlueLock, Mr. O’Day served as Director of Managed Services for nFrame, Inc., a data center, network management and disaster recovery service provider. Prior to moving to the service provider side, Mr. O’Day held positions of increasing responsibility in technology with St. Vincent Hospital and Eli Lilly and Company.
Russell Foy
VP of Marketing, FeaturePlan
Russell Foy is VP of Marketing of FeaturePlan, publisher of FeaturePlan, a requirements management framework designed for use by product and requirements managers. Ryma sells both client/server and SaaS versions of its products and has learned a great deal on how to market to these different user segments. Russell's previous position was Vice President of Sales for Invidex Inc., a provider of enterprise software and services to broadcasters around the world.
Prior to Invidex, he was Vice President of Sales for JCI Entertainment, a provider of video and file transmission services to the Media and Broadcast communities where he put in place, trained and managed a team of inside and outside sales representatives throughout Canada and the US. Russell holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Information Systems degree from the DeVry Institute of Technology in Columbus, Ohio.
Bob Conlin
VP of Marketing, Centive
As VP of Marketing, Bob led the transformation of Centive from their roots as a traditional enterprise software vendor to a model that is focused 100% on delivering on-demand, Software-as-a-Service solutions for optimizing sales performance. Because Centive provides sales and executive compensation systems for a wide variety of firms, including many software and SaaS-based firms, Bob is in a unique position to discuss best practices when discussing sales compensation programs for your company.
Prior to joining Centive, Bob held senior level sales and marketing positions at Infinium Software. Bob is a frequent speaker at industry events and has been published in numerous business journals including: Benefits and Compensation Solutions, Workspan, CRM Magazine, HR.com, Compensation and Benefits Review and Technology for Finance.
Bob received a bachelor's degree in resource management from Oregon State University. He is accredited as a Professional in Human Resources by the Society for Human Resource Management.
Tom Appleton
Vice President of Customer Success, DreamFactory
Tom Tom brings over 14 years of customer facing software support experience to the DreamFactory team. Tom most recently comes from On-Demand software pioneer WebEx Communications. While at WebEx, Tom served as the Principal Sales Engineer for Enterprise Accounts. Tom's leadership of the Enterprise SE team helped secure many of WebEx's largest Enterprise and Federal accounts. His performance earned him many accolades including the award for SE of the year three times and the award for SE of the QTR thirteen times. Prior to WebEx, Tom managed the Customer Support organization for another On-Demand software pioneer Digital Discoveries. Tom also previously served as the Technical Support Manager for CyberFlix, Inc., a company which pioneered CD-ROM Entertainment Software for the consumer market.
Erik Seifert
CEO, Atlantic Crossing
Erik Seifert consults independent software vendors for proven sales success. In software marketing for over 20 years, Seifert’s unique academic background combined with extensive sales and management experience render him one of the leading international software marketing consultants on the topic of SaaS.
After product management at IBM, as an entrepreneur Seifert brought Navision Financials (now known as Microsoft Dynamics/NAV) into the US market. Later as Chairman & CEO Seifert created the product’s identity and marketing strategy, and engineered its VAR-only international distribution channel. Microsoft acquired Navision for $1.3 billion in 2002. Seifert also created trademarks such as C/SIDE® and SIFT, still used by Microsoft today.
Most recently, Seifert engineered a financial turnaround at a web CMS vendor as it emerged from bankruptcy. Seifert’s solution simplified the product’s structure from complex licensing terms into a low-end SaaS offering and a high-end mixed licensing/SaaS product. The company went from a negative cash flow of $200,000 annually to a positive $400,000 on revenues of $1.6 million in just 9 months.
Pete Stewart
President, TraceSecurity
Pete Stewart is the CEO, president and co-founder of TraceSecurity, establishing the company as the leading provider of on-demand security compliance platform for global corporations. Stewart brings more than 19 years of extensive security technology experience.
Prior to TraceSecurity, he served as President and CEO of Blaze Technologies, a security vulnerability management company that was merged with Patchportal Inc. to form TraceSecurity. As Executive Vice-President and General Manager of McAfee (NYSE: MFE), one of the largest security software companies in the world, Pete played a vital role in growing the company from $39 million to over $900 million in revenue and market capitalization from $200 million to over $6 billion. Previously, Pete held management positions at Micrografx (NASDAQ: MGXI) and Fifth Generation Systems (NASDAQ: SYMC).
Under Pete’s continued leadership, TraceSecurity has grown its customer base to over 600 clients representing over $300 billion in assets. He has also led the closure of Series A, B and C investments with marquee security investors who collectively maintain more than $3 billion in assets.
Ray Solnik
President, OpSource
Ray will discuss an emerging concept with the SaaS ecosystem – that successful SaaS companies think of themselves as Web companies and not software companies. This is a significant paradigm shift for most software companies, because the traditional thinking is that on-demand applications are a replacement for traditional business software. While SaaS is a service, payable per transaction (monthly, number of users, etc.), many software companies incorrectly believe that the software is developed, sold and delivered in the same manner as traditional licensed software. That couldn’t be further from the truth, or, the realities of success.
SaaS applications that emulate consumer Web sites in the way they are developed and sold tend to achieve much more success than those that emulate traditional enterprise software. Successful SaaS companies, for example, conduct iterative development and focus on multi-tenancy and agility. Marketing concentrates on attracting and growing the user base instead of trying to make big, one-time sales. In addition, the applications take full advantage of Web 2.0 technologies to help differentiate the product from traditional offerings. Ray will explore each of these three phenomena in greater detail.
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