SaaS

For my next podcast, I connected with a pioneering company using a SaaS approach to make the spreadsheet concept a more useful tool for project management and collaboration. Smartsheet, based in Bellevue, Washington, has built an online application that, though hard to exactly define, is potentially incredibly useful and worth checking out if you manage or work on any sort of team (I mean, honestly, who doesn't?).

For my 104th podcast, I was lucky enough to chat with Ken Rudin. Ken is the CEO of LucidEra, an innovative start-up that is combining the magic of SaaS with the mission-critical function of business intelligence.

Ken was nice enough to share his thoughts on combining SaaS and business intelligence, the challenges his company faces, why they think they've got the best solution to this business pain-point, and more.

Check it out!

I recently hit the major milestone of my 100th podcast on my project to record 1,000 interviews with innovative marketers, entrepreneurs and other interesting people.

Timothy Chou, the former head of Oracle On Demand, was nice enough to chat with me about the SaaS movement, Tanooma, the startups that are exciting him and more.

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For my 96th podcast, I was lucky enough to chat with Colin Earl of Enterprise Wizard. Enterprise Wizard is a succesful CRM company with an interesting hybrid business model combining the best of SaaS and traditional software. It's been around since the early 90s and has a long list of satisfied customers.

Colin was nice enough to share his viewpoint on SaaS, Enterprise Wizard's business model and more.

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There is a classic entrepreneurial adage about how gold rush prospectors don't get rich but instead the people selling the shovels and picks do. OpSource, the focus of my 86th interview, is one of the leading sellers of the "equipment" for the SaaS revolution - connectivity, infrastructure and support.

Nick and I talked about OpSource, the major hurdles for enterprise software companies in changing to SaaS, how SaaS affects business models and marketing/sales strategy, what to look for when buying a SaaS package and more.

Enjoy!

I admit that I've been on a bit of a SaaS kick lately. First Axel and then Jim. But good things come in threes (and sevens and twelves and seventy-fours) so I connected with Ken Boasso of Keychain Logic to talk about sales and marketing in a SaaS world.

SaaS is huge trend that, if you're like me, you probably want to know more about. So, for my 70th interview, I tracked down Jim Howard of Crownpeak. Crownpeak is a leading SaaS company by any measure you'd like to use. It's profitable, growing by leaps and bounds and its customers love its website management services.

Jim and I chatted about the SaaS trend, the challenges that Crownpeak faces, why SaaS is a superior business model, "marketing mashups" and more.

Here you go,

Software as a Service (SaaS) is a huge trend. From email to accounting to windows to CRM, everyone is jumping on board.