With the proliferation of SaaS business productivity platforms last year, there came many debates about the security issues cloud computing may raise. Or rather, there were many tech pundits stating that the growing popularity of cloud computing led to sophisticated and safe applications, and therefore cloud security issues were a moot point. Earlier this week, the Federal Trade Commission announced they wanted to examine the issue for themselves, and will be holding a roundtable at the end of this month to discuss potential privacy problems; roundtable participants will include industry stakeholders.

In terms of business productivity software providers, vendors big and small—from Salesforce.com to Zoho to Microsoft—could be affected by the FTC’s findings. What the FTC is intending to find, however, is another question. Alex Williams at ReadWriteWeb is right to point out that the Commission’s inquiry might be poorly met, given that there are still debates about defining “cloud computing.”

The roundtable will be the second the FTC has held to discuss online privacy, and the inquiry stems from a letter written by FTC Director of Bureau Consumer Protection, David Vladeck, to the Federal Communications Commission, requesting a comment on a national broadband plan the FCC is drawing up. Vladeck’s letter asked that the FCC pay attention to cloud computing and identity management in during broadband development. Tech bloggers are right to point out that in the letter (which can be found on The Hill blog), Vladeck acknowledges the cost efficiency of cloud computing; the roundtable stems from concerns about the security issues raised by “storage of data on remote computers.”

The FTC’s obvious aim is to protect consumer privacy, but it’s unclear what exactly the result of this roundtable will be. Remote storage predates the term “cloud computing,” and even though privacy questions have been raised, the number of cloud computing applications is growing rapidly. Groups like the Electronic Privacy Information Center, and the Center for Digital Democracy, are asking the FTC to issue Fair Information Principles for the Internet rather than looking to industry privacy self-regulation, but it seems unlikely at this point that the FTC will desist.

It’s even more uncertain what the implications for business software will be. Most companies who’ve selected SaaS solutions have done so wisely, and after much research—because that is what we do in the internet age—and many companies that are apprehensive about an entirely cloud-based solution have chosen SaaS hybrid models. For those enterprise software buyers concerned, potential cloud security issues are not news, so I’m curious to see what the roundtable will determine for the business software market.

What do you think?

Last week, Dennis Howlett announced some exciting news on both his personal and ZDNet blogs: the ICAEW (Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales) and several UK trade groups will be working together to develop SaaS/cloud standards.

This year, “SaaS” and “cloud computing” business softwares have been discussed nonstop, and those two terms have become largely interchangeable—and at the expense of understanding what each is. As Howlett puts it, “everything getting an _aaS label [is] now conflated into ‘cloud anything’”. The three trade groups are Intellect SaaS Group, the BASDA’s Cloud SIG, and EuroCloud UK, and they will meet with the ICAEW to develop best practices, or some sort of “quality mark” for vendors. The idea is to engage both the buy and sell sides to develop business standards for the erstwhile ambiguous SaaS economy.

In addition to working toward best practices and quality stamps, security (from data to APIs) is another issue to be discussed. But it should be noted that some of the security issues at hand for these groups are EU/UK-specific, and would not necessarily color a similar US debate.  As Howlett sees it, the important objectives are as follows:

1. Clarity for buyers and sellers about issues that are currently causing endless and at times futile debates
2. An opportunity for ICAEW to act as honest broker between buyers and sellers, demonstrating leadership for both members (who may have concerns) and more broadly as a body that has the public interest in mind.
3. A requirement that all trade groups act in concert to help develop business led standards that elevate discussions around technology to a level where business decision makers can readily understand what’s going on and relate it to their business needs and concerns.

He also notes that his extensive experience causes him to be “100%” behind this initiative, but those who don’t share his level of expertise can easily get behind the move as well. The simple fact that this would clarify “SaaS” and “cloud” for buyers and sellers is huge, and seemingly more necessary as the two become muddled. Hopefully we will soon see a similar venture stateside.

Research and Markets announced this week that they added a “PaaS Remains on Edge” report to their offerings, based on studies by Tech Strategy Partners, an analyst firm. A large portion of the report centers on the edge that developers have by developing on Force.com, but there was also a look at how Workday, NetSuite, and Intuit are making space in the enterprise application space.

During Dreamforce 09, Salesforce gave some impressive figures regarding Force.com. They claimed that 135,000 custom applications, and 10,000 sites have been built using the platform, and that 55% of the HTTPS transactions processed come through the API (while only 45% come from Salesforce’s own apps). We did not purchase the report, but it does evidently show how Force.com compares to similar offerings from NetSuite, Intuit, and Workday. Based on the Force-heavy content in the summary, it can be assumed that that PaaS is the favored subject.

Potential Force.com favoritism aside, there are some interesting notes from a study by Tech Strategy Partners. They note that PaaS is beneficial for both corporate and ISV developers, but corporate developers are more likely to leverage a PaaS. The reason being that they are less concerned that ISVs about long-term technology platform lock-in, and have generally different business models. ISVs tend to build applications similar to a PaaS vendor’s SaaS applications, and this adjacency is considered an “edge” (and the apps are “edge applications”).

Another fascinating prediction is that within the next five years or so, there will be less development (among both corporate and ISV programmers) on SaaS-provided PaaS, and that that the favored PaaS deployment will be a hybrid one. We’ve talked about the rise of the SaaS hybrid model before, and it’s interesting to see other services going that way as well. Tech Strategy Partners’ research also points to the fact that the PaaS hybrid model will offer developers the current benefits they reap from the service, as well as greater control over their development processes.

This week, LoopFuse’s VP of Field Operations, Matt Quinlan, sat down with Helpstream’s Bill Odell to discuss utilizing Social CRM to create customer success. Quinlan oversees sales, marketing, and “customer success” at the on-demand marketing automation vendor, and gave some insight into how LoopFuse has been using a Helpstream community to optimize his work. Helpstream is a self-proclaimed provider of Social CRM, and offers integrations for Oracle and Salesforce.com users. Their product is built for web-driven customer service and support, ultimately engaging customers through the creation of a community.

An example of a Helpstream Online Community

One of the interesting points Quinlan made is that Helpstream has been integral to his ensuring customer success as LoopFuse grew. The bigger the company became, the more difficult it was to ensure customers were satisfied throughout the implementation process (in LoopFuse’s fledgling days, assistance was performed on a one-on-one basis). Quinlan states that deploying a Helpstream community allowed LoopFuse to provide better customer service via an interactive, searchable, digital environment.

The suggestion is that having a customer community will soon be as important as having a company website. Now, this isn’t surprising considering the information came from the Helpstream website, but the information’s source doesn’t preclude its validity. Helpstream users are provided with the ability to engage their customers through the community—as opposed to customers passively consuming content—which helps them maintain stronger relationships.

Integrating social media into CRM, creating Social CRM, has been a much-debated topic over the past few years. It’s tough to find a solution that utilizes the technology effectively without creating distractions in office, and perhaps greater adoption and monitoring of the customer community is a step in the right direction. Only time will tell how many other large companies employ similar communities, and with what amount of success, but for now it seems a good way for large companies to reach out to customers with social media—something that’s eluded them for a while now.

Amidst a climate of economic insecurity, businesses are wondering how they can trust that their potential or existing CRM software vendor has “staying power”.  Moreover, customers want to be assured that –- in addition to having the fortitude to overcome the national economic downturn — their software provider will maintain quality standards for their products and services. 

How can your company get this reassurance?  With the advice of a few top CRM vendors – including Hoyt Mann of PhaseWare and Kathy Sacks of iLinc – we’ve compiled a list of the “Top 5 Questions to Ask Your CRM Provider”.  For the sake of your company’s well-being – and for your own peace of mind – we encourage you to call your representative and ask the “tough questions” are essential in evaluating the solidity of your vendor and the viability of that vendor’s offering.

1. How many and what types of companies are in your user base? (Fortune 500’s?) 
2. What kind of service guarantee do you provide?
3. How do I protect myself from losing my data due to system failures?
4. What is the company’s long term plan for the financial downturn? 
5. In an SaaS model, ask to see the public Disaster Recovery Action Plan.

When it comes to CRM software, you want to have confidence in your provider’s ability to weather an economic storm.  Won’t you feel better knowing just how secure that software provider is?  Posing the critical questions is not just reassuring, it’s downright critical to ensuring the safety and security of your business’ data.  And remember: you won’t know unless you ask.

Contributors: Hoyt Mann, CEO, PhaseWare; Kathy Sacks, iLinc

Roundtable Topic: CRM and Web 2.0: Leveraging New Technologies to Engage Customers

We asked the top CRM vendors to offer tips to our readers on how they might best leverage new “Web 2.0” CRM technologies to Engage Customers.  Responding to this topic, Hoyt Mann, President of PhaseWare, Inc., emphasizes the use of social media to build customer interaction. 

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Roundtable Topic: CRM and Web 2.0: Leveraging New Technologies to Engage Customers

We asked the top CRM vendors to offer tips to our readers on how they might best leverage new “Web 2.0” CRM technologies to engage customers.  Nitin Badjatia, an Enterprise Solutions Architect at Consona CRM, advises readers on the importance of transparency in the construction of a collaborative CRM environment. 

Customer Participation and CRM 2.0
Contributed by: Nitin Badjatia, Enterprise Solutions Architect, Consona CRM
Forward thinking companies realize that engaging in this new ‘web 2.0′ world requires more than just enabling the new channels of communication, it requires a set of powerful tools to coordinate and manage these interactions, and provide intelligent feedback to all participants.  Architected to enable this new paradigm, the best knowledge management suites can serve as core technologies that drive better interactions with your customer ecosystem by building a collaborative environment that leads to greater satisfaction and loyalty. Read more »

Round Table Topic: Expert Advice on Leveraging Your CRM System to Survive This Economic Crunch

Jason Kort, Director of Marketing, SoftVu

Jason Kort addresses this month’s round table topic: Expert Advice on Leveraging Your CRM System to Survive this Economic Crunch”. Jason points out that aged leads have a lot of value that can be tapped in adverse economic situations.

A recent study of 100,000 aged lead survey responses across 38 different lending clients, reveals that 60-70% of aged leads remain viable after the second contact—some beyond even six months after applying online.  The typical practice of not following up with leads after one or two contacts—not nurturing leads effectively—means you’re throwing away 60-70% of your total investment in leads. Read more »

Round Table Topic: Expert Advice on Leveraging Your CRM System to Survive This Economic Crunch

Hoyt Mann, President of Phaseware, responds to our round table topic “Expert Advice on Leveraging Your CRM System to Survive this Economic Crunch.” Hoyt’s recommendation to focus on retaining existing customers in sage advice for any business.

Contributed by: Hoyt Mann, President, Phaseware, Inc.

Much attention has been given to the ways in which CRM can help generate new customers. In an economic downturn, your company must also focus on retaining existing customers. In the course of retaining these customers by keeping them completely satisfied with their interactions with the company, new customers may emerge through referrals. But those existing customers must be taken care of first. Read more »

Round Table Topic: Expert Advice on Leveraging Your CRM System to Survive This Economic Crunch

Contributed by: Tom Millay, General Manager, Consona CRM

The customer retention component of your CRM system will keep companies competitive during this economic crunch.  Who can afford to lose customers as discernment is exercised when money becomes tight?  Never before is providing the right products/services, to the right customer, at the right time been more important.  

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