Thursday 29 July 2010
I would never go back to the [traditional] software model. Someone would have to make a very compelling argument for me to even consider it,” said Molly Fuller, president of Hands On Gourmet in San Francisco. Fuller said she struggled for a year with an on-premise software suite designed for catering companies before abandoning her investment in Caterease and switching to Salesforce.com’s hosted customer relationship management (CRM) products. Fuller said hosted services were attractive because they were available everywhere and because they were maintenance-free. She said she uses Salesforce.com to generate menus and logistics for the $1.5 million business, and the online interface allows Hands On Gourmet’s roving squads of chef-instructors, who host cooking classes for corporate events, to get instructions fairly easily. The on-demand pricing made it easy for Hands On Gourmet to switch to Salesforce.com, Fuller said. Although she wouldn’t go back, Fuller said, she didn’t regret her initial use of an in-house product. “I didn’t feel burned by it; I just chalked it up to a lesson.
Corefino’s entire business is in the cloud. CEO Karen Watts said her firm used IBM to host its servers. Corefino’s Web portal serves customers in China and employees in India and elsewhere. Watts said that vendors were as eager as her customers to slough off infrastructure costs to hosters and cloud providers. Market research firm IDC estimated that SaaS spending will jump more than $1.2 billion in 2009 and predicted that it would be close to $20 billion by 2012. Frank Gens, senior vice president and chief analyst at IDC, said that spending on cloud technologies, primarily SaaS, was rising five times faster than any other IT spending by companies.
All hosting is carried out in Orange Business Services ISO 9001 certified data centres. The company has given no indication of whose technology the service is based on. Flexible Computing offers completely customisable virtual server architectures to address the growing demand in terms of performance, availability and of security,” Orange Business says. The service is designed to accommodate “all businesses, from small to large.” Orange Business says the number of virtual machines, the processor speed as well as the amount of RAM and hard disk space are completely configurable. “No investment is entailed and expenses are limited to a monthly service plan and installation costs, meaning that businesses keep their IT budget tight.”
Verizon Business says this enables organisations to employ computing resources in the quantities and duration dictated by their business needs, paying only for the resources used and avoiding having to build out for peak capacity requirements by buying new equipment and adding staff. The Verizon service is being rolled out now in the US and Europe and will be rolled out to the Asia-Pacific region in August. The service seems very similar that launched by Verizon Business in early June. Dubbed Computing as a Service (CaaS) it provides its enterprise customers with IT resources such as servers, network and storage ‘in the cloud’ and accessible on demand via a web portal.
The new three-part accounting service, called Corefino 2go, combines the CODA 2go accounting package, built on the Force.com cloud computing platform, with Corefino’s Triple-C Technology Platform and experienced, outsourced accounting staffs. The cloud-based solution is available immediately via monthly subscription service, can be deployed in a month or less and requires only an internet connection to access data and download reports. By joining forces with CODA, Corefino will maximize the power of its unique Triple-C (Connect, Correct and Comply) framework, which comprises more than 500 airtight, self-contained best practices and key business processes across the finance function. The partnership combines UK-based CODA’s three decades of experience delivering best-of-class financials to organizations around the world with the turnkey People-Place-Platform solution of Silicon Valley-based Corefino, formally launched in May 2009.
This partnership with CODA uses cloud computing, business process outsourcing and Web portal technology to deliver a breakthrough service for companies in the mid-market. There is nothing at all remotely like it available on a monthly subscription basis. “The Corefino People-Place-Platform approach gives mid-market CFOs an unbeatable strategic advantage, extricating them from the daily routine that keeps them from focusing on their key objectives,” said Karen Watts, CEO, Corefino. “That’s why we call it the CFO’s Strategic Accelerator. By partnering with Corefino, we’ll be able to reach new markets in an even more powerful way. We are combining the leading enterprise cloud computing platform in Force.com with CODA’s best-of-breed financials and Corefino’s best practices to deliver an entire family of accounting and financial solutions completely in the cloud - something we believe no one else is offering to the mid-market. It is very exciting to lead the way in what we see as a significant and market-changing development.”
“CODA and Corefino’s partnership will help mid-market companies achieve cost savings and business efficiencies by moving their routine accounting operations into the cloud,” said Steve Lucas, senior vice president, Force.com marketing and alliances, salefsorce.com. “Corefino 2go customers will get the advantage of CODA’s first-class accounting solution, as well as Corefino’s Triple-C business processes framework and experienced staffing. At the same time, they will benefit from running their financials on the trusted, secure Force.com enterprise cloud computing platform. This announcement could not have come at a better time,” said Jeremy Roche, CEO, CODA. “Companies around the world are trying to streamline their operations while keeping up best practices and maintaining access to the highest-quality financial data, which they absolutely need to make good business decisions. We’re seeing the result of that in the strong demand for our cloud-based accounting software, CODA 2go, where we already have customers in six countries and three continents and a healthy pipeline of opportunities.
