Software Business
Executive Report

March 26, 2007

Accelerating BPM Through On-Demand Analytics

By Mike MacDonald, CEO and Founder, Visual Mining

Been There?

So here it is, Friday afternoon and you wistfully look out the window at the trees and sunshine. - An early weekend beckons you, but you’re still stuck in your office.

The executives are waiting for their monthly sales performance data.   You’ve just uploaded the sales data to your laptop from the database and then ran a battery of formatting macros, so you could import it into the spreadsheet.   But, for the past hour, you’ve been struggling with the pivot tables to get the charts to look just right.

It’s still not right.   You look out the window again.   The weekend is trying to get your attention.   You!   Yes, you! Finish up and come on!

The fan on your laptop starts making a weird noise.  Fearful of a disk failure, you copy the spreadsheet to a thumb drive and move to your desktop machine.   You make a mental note to delete the laptop’s copy, so you don’t get them confused.   Oh, man.   The spreadsheet on the desktop won’t open the file.   It’s an ancient version.   You copy it again, but this time in the older format.

45 minutes later you are finally satisfied with the charts.   You e-mail the spreadsheet to your boss, making sure to name the spreadsheet uniquely so it doesn’t get mixed up with the one you sent her this morning.   The weekend smiles and waves.  Etta James starts singing At Last in your ear.

On your way out the door the boss stops you with the spreadsheet printout in her hand.   “This chart is wrong.   I wasn’t looking for the total dollars booked – I need to show the total number of deals this quarter to measure customer growth, and I need you to exclude the sales reps in the Southeast since that division just started,” she says. “And by the way, you need to grab the latest data since we just put in some new deals.   I want to make sure those get included.”

The weekend sits glumly on the curb.

She continues, “These metrics are depressing.   I have to go in front of the board and let them know why we’re not hitting our targets.   It’s like no one but me knows what the priorities are or how bad things have gotten.”

The early weekend is hailing a cab.   It’s given up on you.

“And why is it we can only get metrics once a month?   Aren’t we supposed to get this stuff out of that gold-plated BI system we bought last year?   Does it work yet?   Doesn’t anybody but the consultants know how to use it?”

As she continues to drone on, your imagination wanders.    There’s got to be a better way.

The Better Way: BPM, Meet SaaS.

There is a better way – Business Performance Management (BPM) dashboards distributed using a Software-as-a-Service ( SaaS) platform.

There are a number of solutions beginning to emerge in the business intelligence (BI) market that combine state-of-the-art BPM technology with Software-as-a-Service to push relevant, up-to-date metrics throughout an organization with little or no upfront costs or IT snags.   These applications are fast, inexpensive, easy to access and can serve organizations of any size.   They are an ideal solution to long-suffering metrics developers and consumers everywhere:   No problems with software versions, no problems with dynamic data, and no problems with distribution.

About Business Performance Management

Business Performance Management, sometimes known as Operational Analytics, is a key element of any executive’s management toolbox.   If you can measure performance against expected results, you can validate or adjust your corporate strategic objectives.    If you’re not tracking operational metrics, then you’re probably missing an opportunity to improve your organization.   To drag out the well-worn maxim: You can’t manage what you can’t measure.

However, good metrics are not simply fancy charts with data.    Too often graphics used in corporate presentations make fine artwork but have little organizational value.   Metrics must have an associated statistical context, goal, or objective, or they will fail to justify the time required to create them.   Metrics must be actionable.

Figure 1.   Actionable metric:   Pareto statistic showing that the top two sales people are contributing 73% of the bookings, while the bottom four have less than 6%.

Distributing Metrics to Communicate Organizational Objectives

Even if your organization produces metrics, it only solves part of the problem.   The next challenge is distribution.   In the story above, the boss complains that the employees don’t seem to understand the priorities or appreciate the difficulties the company is experiencing.    That’s probably because the metrics aren’t being shared, and the goals aren’t being reinforced.   When metrics and goals are well-established and regularly published throughout the organization the corporate objectives are clear to everyone.   Once that occurs, employees align their efforts with that of the organization, and management directives can be seen in context.

Contemporary BPM Solutions

Many companies try to solve the metrics problem by either hard-coding data in a spreadsheet or by investing in a BI platform.

Spreadsheets are the most common BPM solution available.   They are included as part of the standard office suite, they are easy to learn and easy to understand.   However, while spreadsheets may be sufficient at first, they quickly become inadequate as the distribution list increases and new metric requirements pile up.    Other problems may be caused by multiple spreadsheet versions that have conflicting data or manual data processes that hide inadvertent errors.

BI platforms are a huge improvement over spreadsheets.   They provide dynamic data access, data cleansing, ad-hoc queries, scorecards, print reporting, and much more.   Unfortunately, BI tools are often quite expensive and may take months or even years to become fully operational.   Worse yet, even after the investment, the complexity of the BI platform often overwhelms the typical business user.   This results in very expensive software that is rarely or never used.

Software-as-a-Service

What’s needed is a metrics system that has the lower cost, easy access, and simplicity of a spreadsheet, but the powerful analytics, dynamic data, and distribution of a BI system.

Software-as-a-Service, sometimes known as “On-Demand” provides the solution.   Here’s why:

On-Demand applications are designed from the ground up to have a vendor-hosted, multi-tenant architecture – that is, multiple individuals, and even unique companies, lease the same application from the vendor much like occupants that rent apartments in an apartment building.   This hosted application sharing has many significant benefits for the user:

• Low-Risk.   With Software-as-a-Service, users can usually get started for a nominal fee, and can start seeing results right away.   No huge upfront license payment.   No need to wait for months and years to see if the system is worth the expense.
• Lower Costs.   A shared application allows the vendor to reduce costs by promoting efficiencies.   For example, the vendor no longer has to develop and support the costly integration code for running on Vista, XP, XP Pro, Solaris, Linux, Mac, or any other platforms.     Reduced expenses can be passed along to the customers.
• A Single Version.   No need to worry about having an outdated version of the software.   You’ve always got the latest and best version that the vendor has to offer.
• No Maintenance.   Your IT staff doesn’t need to support the software, hardware and network infrastructure.   That’s the vendor’s problem, not yours.
• You’re In Charge.  As opposed to “on-premise” software, the on-demand vendor must always ensure that you are 1) using the software, and 2), are satisfied that it is adding value to your organization.   If not, you’ll simply terminate the contract and move on.
• Developed for The User.   SaaS vendors typically sell by the seat, so narrow applications focused on a few power users simply aren’t profitable.   Vendors have incentive to continually add features to make their application more usable and more powerful for the typical business user.
• Vendor-to-Vendor “ Mashup”.  A well-defined, hosted architecture naturally makes it easier to integrate with – this allows SaaS applications to leverage best-of-breed applications without the months of integration time.

Haven’t I Heard This Before?

Unlike the Application Service Provider (ASP) platforms of the past, SaaS is the right idea at the right time.   Advancements in browser-based technology like AJAX, Flash, and Flex, allow application developers to produce rich, highly interactive interfaces that weren’t available just a few years ago.   Applications are much more secure and reliable.

Figure 2.   Interactive Metrics with AJAX Controls

Summary

The convergence of SaaS with metric software gives business leaders a truly unique opportunity to make better use of corporate data to improve decision making and efficiency.   Relevant metrics can be dynamically produced and distributed at a lower cost than ever before.   Corporate objectives and goals can be tailored and shown to individual employees while protecting sensitive information.   IT can focus on internal processes and leave the maintenance to others.

It’s an idea whose time is now.

As CEO and co-founder of Visual Mining, Michael MacDonald draws on more than 15 years experience of software product development and deployment, specializing in quality information graphics and business performance management (BPM) applications.  In 1996, Mr. MacDonald was the catalyst who created NetCharts, the first-ever Java charting engine.  He was also responsible for the industry’s first on-demand business performance management solution, Sales Executive.  Under Mike’s leadership Visual Mining has enjoyed over 24 consecutive quarters of profitability. Contact www.visualmining.com or 301-795-2203

Software Business 2007 will serve an audience of decision makers from software companies located throughout North America who are conducting business domestically and worldwide. This is an opportunity to present to owners, CEOs, presidents, vice presidents and division or department managers of leading and fast-growing software companies interested in exceptional performance and corporate growth.

TYPES OF SPEAKERS

• Presidents and C-Level Executives of Software Companies
• Directors and Vice Presidents of Top 100 Software Companies
• Analysts from Leading Firms
• Consultants who Work With Top Software Companies

There will be pre-conference workshops as part of the event. Please submit proposals for half and full day workshops.

SUBMITTING A PROPOSAL:

Please Note: Proposals and Submissions will be accepted only electronically by email. Send your proposal in the body of your email letter and include supporting material as attachments. Additionally, include speaker bio and full contact details. Submit to John Cargile: johnc@infowebcom.com by April 20, 2007.

Software Business e-Report Special Products Roundup

Uniloc has joined Intraware’s Preferred Rights Management Partner Program and can offer their customers hosted licensing and software delivery services powered by Intraware.

Intraware’s Preferred Rights Management Partner Program provides Uniloc USA with a route to a hosted delivery and management offering for softANCHOR and enables Uniloc to reach a broader market for its solutions. Uniloc’s softANCHOR provides a highly secure and flexible license and access management platform that helps software publishers maintain strong customer relationships and quickly respond to changes in the business environment.

“Intraware’s highly efficient infrastructure provides us with a strategic channel that enables software publishers to immediately leverage softANCHOR to reduce the cost and management burden associated with software licensing and delivery,” said Casey Potenzone, CIO, Uniloc USA. “We look forward to an ongoing partnership with Intraware as we continue to provide flexible, secure, licensing solutions that allow publishers to protect their intellectual property while still encouraging fair use.”

"We are pleased to be partnering with companies like Uniloc that offer licensing technologies that are complementary to SubscribeNet License Manager, and who wish to offer those technologies in Software as a Service environment," said Justin Benson, vice president of sales and marketing, Intraware, Inc. "We've seen a clear demand for an approach such as Uniloc’s that enables publishers to control the operational elements of software licensing management. We look forward to working with Uniloc on joint sales and marketing opportunities."

Contact preferredpartner@intraware.com

Contact www.uniloc.com

Marketing and Sales Effectiveness Suite from Brainshark

Brainshark, Inc. has launched the Marketing and Sales Effectiveness (MSE) Suite, which combines Brainshark’s on-demand solutions to address critical business applications for Marketing Productivity, Sales Productivity, Readiness, and Alignment. Brainshark’s MSE Suite optimizes communications, shortens the sales cycle and increases revenues.

"At the crux of marketing and sales effectiveness is communication. Organizations that can communicate more quickly and consistently throughout their own organizations and through every touch point to their prospects and customers have a distinct advantage over the competition,” said Joe Gustafson, President and CEO, Brainshark Inc. “Brainshark helps businesspeople deliver information quickly and effectively through more compelling and measurable communications."

Whether a company is looking to increase leads, close more deals or better prepare its sales channel; Brainshark’s MSE Suite offers simple, on-demand solutions to help meet those goals. The Brainshark MSE Suite addresses the following critical issues:

Marketing Productivity – Increase qualified leads and better measure the effectiveness of marketing campaigns.

Sales Productivity – Increase the effectiveness of communications throughout the sales process to shorten sales cycles, increase deal size, and improve win rates.

Readiness – Train sales reps and channels with the most up-to-date knowledge and skills to represent the organization and its offerings with proficiency

Alignment – Align sales organizations and channel partners along consistent messages and accelerate the adoption of new initiatives and processes.

Brainshark has empowered more than 500 organizations to enhance their marketing and sales communications to directly impact revenues. According to the company, customers routinely achieve impressive results across marketing and sales processes, such as:

• a five times greater response to marketing campaigns;
• a 30% increase in win rates;
• ramping up new hires 50% faster; and
• gaining 100% participation in new initiatives and processes.

For more information, click on this link to view a Brainshark about the Marketing and Sales Effectiveness Suite: http://www.brainshark.com/brainsharkinc/MSEintro?tx=pr

QlikTech’s QlikView Connector 4.1 has achieved “Powered by SAP NetWeaver” status for its integration as an ABAP Add-on with SAP solutions. QlikView Connector enables users to get easy and fast access to data within multiple SAP solution-based systems, as well as from other external data sources, to analyze information seamlessly – and visually – within QlikView, QlikTech’s market-leading business intelligence solution. As an add-on to companies’ SAP solutions, QlikView brings additional value to SAP applications with dynamic analysis and reporting solutions.

QlikTech is leading in a new class of fast, powerful and visual business analysis solutions that are simple to use – empowering individuals to improve corporate performance and drive innovation. QlikView, QlikTech’s flagship product, can be deployed in days, users can be trained in minutes and end users get results instantly to support their decisions.

The SAP NetWeaver platform powers mySAP Business Suite family of business applications, SAP xApps packaged composite applications and solutions such as QlikView Connector from QlikTech. SAP NetWeaver unifies integration technologies into a single platform and is pre-integrated with business applications, enabling change and reducing the need for custom integration. Third-party ABAP Add-ons like QlikView Connector have passed the syntactic and semantic checks that are part of the SAP ABAP Add-on certification requirements, and receive certification through the SAP Integration and Certification Center.

Contact www.qliktech.com

Rally Software Development Corp. has released a major update to its family of Agile life cycle management tools. New integrations and dashboards enable Rally to deliver on its vision to serve as an Enterprise 2.0 “collaborative hub” for Agile teams by integrating with source code management, customer relationship management, bug tracking systems and integrated development environments ( IDEs).

Rally’s new integration capabilities help software-driven organizations coordinate the entire software development process using Agile methods by seamlessly integrating with existing role-based software development tools. Rally provides integrations, Web Services APIs, connectors and mash-ups with role-based tools to help create a ubiquitous data repository. Its services are priced by individual product module to let customers adopt and scale Agile at their own pace and protect existing investments.

“Our vision since the company’s inception has been to serve as an on-demand hub of information in which development team members can leverage and mash-up their favorite tools to communicate and collaborate in a truly Agile environment,” said Ryan Martens, founder and CTO of Rally.

Specific features of Rally 2007.2 include:

• Third-generation Web Services API that now includes a Ruby REST toolkit to enable information exchange and seamless integration through a number of new lightweight connectors.
• Highly configurable Microsoft Project Exchange file generator for integrations into multi-method organizations.
• Seamless support for developers to access their user stories, defects and tasks within the Eclipse IDE through a partnership with Tasktop Technologies (www.tasktop.com).  
• New dashboards that provide real-time, detailed reports, views and trending for defects to track and promote the ongoing health and status of software releases.
• Enhanced integration between Rally’s Agile Product Manager and Salesforce.com to publish a release to Rally with a single click and view real-time development and release status.

Rally Team starts at $19 per user per month, Rally Program starts at $39 per user per month and Rally Enterprise is $85 per user per month.

Contact www.rallydev.com.

In an expanded partnership with Sybase, Rainmaker will continue to provide integrated, multi-channel sales and marketing services to support Sybase’s software Update Subscription Plan (USP) and new license sales programs in the SMB and Enterprise business segments.

Rainmaker also will continue to support new release launches and product sales for such Sybase application development tools as PowerBuilder, PowerDesigner, DataWindow.NET, Pocket Builder, and EAServer.

Rainmaker utilizes its proprietary Revenue Delivery PlatformSM to leverage strategic lead development with multi-touch outbound marketing activities and inbound response management services to further engage Sybase customers, drive incremental sales and increase customer satisfaction.

Contact www.rmkr.com

DataDirect Technologies has introduced new capabilities within its industry leading DataDirect Shadow RTETM mainframe integration suite for optimizing Web services security, testing and development across a broad range of mainframe databases, business logic and screen-based applications.

Mainframes have a reputation for being very secure, however as enterprises expand the role of the mainframe to more fully participate in Service-Oriented Architectures (SOA), the security protocols that protect mainframe assets need updated technologies to enable them to work efficiently in the stateless environment of loosely-coupled Web services. Originally designed to support individual sign-on, mainframe security protocols, such RACF from IBM, are now required to process thousands of Web services logins per hour, creating an authentication bottleneck that slows performance and consumes expensive mainframe CPU cycles needed to support the security manager.

The DataDirect Shadow® product addresses this problem with Security Optimization and Management (SOM), a unique feature within the mainframe integration suite that manages and optimizes mainframe security authentication for any process requiring authentication, such as a Web service or SQL call. The Shadow SOM feature works in conjunction with the established client and host security protocols to eliminate redundant authentication requests by caching security credentials. Furthermore, the Shadow SOM feature maintains the integrity of the security infrastructure by subscribing to updates in the security manager database.  The Shadow SOM feature supports all the major enterprise security protocols, including RACF and CA’s ACF2 and Top-Secret. In benchmarks performed by DataDirect Technologies’ mainframe development lab, test results indicated an overall reduction of 138 percent in authentication overhead for more than 99.3 percent of the processes requiring security authentication.

The Shadow Studio product is an open, Eclipse-based development tool that simplifies the transformation of mainframe data, business logic or screen logic into industry standard interfaces – SOAP, SQL or XML. With the latest enhancements, the WSDL parsing and generation functions performed during the transformation of the mainframe business logic are now in the platform independent, Eclipse framework of the new Shadow Studio product.  Enhancements have also been included to support both “redefines” and “occurs depending on” (ODO). Migration from previous business logic repositories has been simplified and all mainframe-based Web services can now be stored within the mainframe, making it easier for developers to share Web services.

The Shadow Studio product now includes an industry standard Web services test tool to rapidly check the operational integrity of any mainframe Web service created by the Shadow product. A developer need only to point and click their mouse at the operation or Web service to verify the transformation process has completed. The Web services tester automatically allows the user to run a series of Web services tests from a single command.

“ DataDirect Technologies is committed to helping companies transform the mainframe into an industry-standard server through products that make mainframe Web services easier to develop and deploy,” said John Goodson, vice president of product operations and marketing at DataDirect Technologies. “With the new enhancements to the Shadow product, we continue to provide architects with the means to utilize mainframe technology more effectively for better alignment with their corporate SOA strategy.”

The Shadow RTE mainframe integration suite supports all the major industry-standard paradigms – Web services, direct SQL access, XML events or Web enablement – for integrating mainframe data, business logic and screens with SOA and other distributed application development initiatives.

Contact www.datadirect.com

WebSideStory , Inc. ( Nasdaq: WSSI), a leading provider of real-time customer intelligence solutions, has entered into an agreement with Digital Insight Corp.,a leading on-demand banking provider, to provide HBX Analytics, WebSideStory's on-demand web analytics solution, into Digital Insight's Web Center, a self-service website content management system designed specifically to help financial institutions manage their online presence. The integration will enable Digital Insight Web Center clients to make decisions about the development, deployment, expansion and effectiveness of their web initiatives based on customer intelligence. Since the agreement was finalized in November 2006, more than 150 financial institutions have implemented HBX Analytics.

"Digital Insight is among the most respected providers of third-party financial services applications and services in the industry," said Jim MacIntyre, WebSideStory president and CEO. "Through this relationship, nearly 1,000 financial institutions will have access to web analytics solutions, enabling them to establish and embrace a new culture of measurement and decision-making based on the usage and behavior of their web site's visitors and customers."

Digital Insight is a leading provider of on-demand banking services to mid-market banks and credit unions in the United States.

Contact www.websidestory.com

Purchase the Softletter Financial Handbook before April 1th and Save $50! The Handbook is available at www.softletter.com
*** About The Softletter Financial Handbook ***
The Softletter Financial Handbook is a 360+ page treasure chest of statistical reports and benchmark studies on software finance and operations. Here in one easy-to-navigate book you'll find dozens of separate surveys and reports on all kinds of software companies, public and private, with data that companies usually share only with the most trusted industry analysts.
Some of the new information in The Softletter Financial Handbook includes:

• New executive compensation benchmarks, including CEO, CFO, CTO, product management, requirements management and more.
• New benchmarks on operating benchmarks, including profit, operating income, and revenue per employee.
• New information on how to run effective Google AdWords campaigns (important)!
• New benchmarks on services margins.
• New benchmarks on mergers and acquisitions.

And much, much more!

The Softletter Financial Handbook is published byy Softletter, the leading source of hard data about the business of software.

Find out more and read previews at: http://www.softletter.com/pages/financial_handbook.shtml

April 10 --Translation Technology and Web Globalization Workshops, Vancouver, BC. Contact www.commonsenseadvisory.com

April 12 -- Translation Technology and Web Globalization Workshops, Portland, Ore. Contact www.commonsenseadvisory.com

April 15-17 – SIIA Software Strategy Summit, San Francisco, Calif. Contact www.siia.net Software Business Will Have an Editor At This Show\

April 16-19 – AIIMexpo, Boston, Mass. Contact www.aiimexpo.com

April 17-18 – SaaScon, Santa Clara, Calif. Contact www.saascon.com

April 22-25 – SAPPHIRE 07, Atlanta, Ga. Contact www.sap.com

April 22-26 – Gartner Symposium ITxpo, San Francisco, Calif. Contact www.gartner.com

April 24-26 -- BPM Business Process Management, Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. Contact ww.sharedinsights.com Software Business is a Media Sponsor

Interop Las Vegas
May 20 – 25, 2007
Mandalay Bay Convention Center
Las Vegas , NV

Attend Interop Las Vegas to get the big picture. As the leading global technology event, Interop brings together IT professionals and business leaders to see all of the latest technologies in action. Visit more than 400 exhibitors, attend 200+ sessions, and check out live demos of tomorrow’s business solutions. Learn how different technologies work together to connect your infrastructure, your business, your people and your customers. Come to Interop this May. It's the only place you'll get the big picture. www.interop.com

The third annual conference focuses successful business development models, sales methodologies, licensing technologies, partnering, customer relationship management, growth opportunities, and marketing issues facing software companies. Attendees are vice presidents, directors, product managers and personnel at independent software vendors.

SLAM 2007 will offer visionary keynotes from executives at the software companies shaping the industry and in-depth breakout session will offer insight from the top sales consultants who work for software companies. The program is unmatched in delivering the tools and processes to reach quarterly and annual targets. This year's conference will have added emphasis on New Market Opportunities, Partnership Programs, Software as a Service Evolution, and Future Industry Trends.  

Software Business 2007 will be held October 2-3 at the Hyatt Regency in Santa Clara , Calif.   The annual conference focuses on current strategic business, financial and technology issues and growth opportunities facing top executives of software companies. It is a two-day conference serving owners, chief executives, presidents, vice presidents and division or department directors of leading and fast-growing software companies located throughout North America who are conducting business domestically and worldwide.

The sixth annual conference returns to Silicon Valley for the first time in four years. It will offer speakers from leading software companies and deliver the industry's most informative sessions through four tracks of sessions. Additionally, the conference will offer full- and half-day workshops on Monday, October 1

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