Digital Discourse / Archives for Rhianna Collier

SIIA’s Third Annual Marketing Survey is Open

October 1, 2013 By

SIIA opened its third annual marketing survey to gain insight on marketers’ goals and objectives for 2013.

Asking valuable questions that look into social media use, top marketing focuses, mobile marketing, and marketing communications, marketers will learn the metrics their peers and competitors are watching to determine the ROI of marketing activities and the areas where marketers continue to face challenges.

The previous reports show that technology is playing a significant – and in many cases, growing – role in corporate marketing. While nearly all companies have embraced social media marketing, other platforms, especially mobile, have only limited appeal for digital marketers. Last year, executives had yet to invest significant resources in their digital marketing efforts – though many appear ready to increase their commitment of both time and money. Will this be the year the results shift?

I encourage you to take the survey today and be a part of the ever changing industry. All survey respondents will receive the full comprehensive results and will automatically be entered into a drawing for an Amazon gift card.

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Filed Under: Software Tagged With: , ,

Women In Tech Profile Series: Liz Pearce, LiquidPlanner

September 27, 2013 By

Women In Tech Profile Series

Tech has historically been a male-driven industry. While statistics show women are still underrepresented in tech, emerging trends are paving the path for women to, not only be successful, but even dominate the future of technology. SIIA is proud to have many successful women leaders in our community. In our all new series, “Featured Women in Technology,” we will introduce you to these industry leaders and the lessons they have learned throughout their successful careers.

This week’s SIIA’s Featured Woman in Technology is Liz Pearce, CEO of Liquid Planner. Liquid Planner provides online project management software combining social collaboration with distributed planning. Read my interview with Liz Pearce below.

Name: Liz Pearce
Title: CEO
Company: LiquidPlanner
Home town: Indianapolis, Indiana
First job: Graphic designer

Bio:

Since 2007, Liz has helped more than 1500 project teams overcome scheduling and collaboration challenges through the use of best practices and better tools. Before joining LiquidPlanner, Liz ran her own successful marketing consultancy where she worked with a diverse set of clients. She also held management positions at Amazon.com, Google, and Sony Computer Entertainment America. Liz holds a B.A. in Political Communications and an M.A. in Telecommunications from The George Washington University, where she was awarded the Presidential Administrative Fellowship. Liz is an active member of the startup and technology community and is always looking for opportunities to learn, participate, and give back.

What are you currently reading?

Nate Silver’s The Signal and the Noise. Silver is the now famous statistician who accurately predicted the last two Presidential (and most of the Congressional) races by analyzing the meta trends aggregated across numerous national surveys. Ostensibly it’s about applied statistics but really it’s more about how many of the decisions we make on a daily basis are often based on faulty information and cognitive bias. It’s given me good food for thought when thinking about the decisions we make in our business and how we rationalize them – does it simply sound like a good idea or do we have the right data to support one investment over another? Highly recommended!

What is your next (dream) career?

I honestly can’t think of anything I would rather be doing than what I am right now. However, if I had to choose, I could envision starting a technology school specifically for young women. Women are sorely under-represented in the software industry, which is a shame on a number of fronts. I’m particularly inspired by the work being done by Hadi Partovi who co-founded Code.org with the goal of providing every student with the opportunity to learn computer science. Despite the great work that Hadi and others are doing, there’s so much more to be done in terms of making computer science and technology in general more appealing to young women.

Hobbies:

Who has time for hobbies? Beyond running a growing software company, I have two small children and a major home remodeling project in the works. It’s a good week when I can get to the gym! If I have a few spare cycles, I invite some friends over and cook up a big pot of soup. Chopping vegetables is cathartic.

What do you think is the hot button issue for the software & services industry in 2013?

Enterprise organizations are starting to seriously question their investment in expensive and unwieldy enterprise software. Of course, this is hardly a new trend but I do believe we’re at an  inflection point of sorts in which a new generation of lightweight, cloud-based applications can provide a realistic alternative to bloated legacy-ware. Not only is the price structure more appealing (especially from a Opex perspective) but employees are simply growing tired of having to use bad software to do their jobs.

What drove you to pursue a career in tech?

I worked as a project manager in the marketing department at Google in its early days – I think the company was at around 500 people at the time. I had the opportunity to learn about all of the different products Google was offering, and I definitely got bit by the tech bug. The tremendous growth we were experiencing and the buzz we were getting was infectious. The trend continued in my next role at Amazon, and that sealed the deal for me: I knew tech was where I wanted to be.

Do you feel you faced any particular hurdles being a woman in tech? What were they and how did you overcome them?

I’ve been lucky in my career to have worked for great female leaders at great tech companies all along the way. That said, I have sat in countless meetings and boardrooms where I was the only woman in the room. I wouldn’t say I’ve been blatantly discriminated against, but the phrase “boy’s club” exists for a reason. I’ve made my way this far with old-fashioned hard work, a direct communication style, and a thick skin. Now I work hard to pull more women up along with me through mentoring and coaching.

What advice would you give to young women who want a successful career in tech?

Never stop advocating for yourself! While women are climbing the ranks across industries, technology very much remains a male dominated industry. Whereas men are taught to be aggressive in asking for raises and promotions, too many women remain mired in entrenched societal norms in which they don’t vocalize their self-worth or promote their individual contributions. I always tell the young women that I mentor that no one will be a better or more persuasive advocate for their careers than themselves.

Rhianna Collier is VP for the Software Division at SIIA. Follow the Software team on Twitter at @SIIASoftware.

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SIIA Announces CODiE Award Winners for Software Industry

May 9, 2013 By

SIIA today announced the 27 winners of the 2013 CODiE Awards in software categories during a special awards presentation, held during the SIIA’s annual All About the Cloud conference.

The CODiE Awards, originally called the Excellence in Software Awards, were established in 1986 by the Software Publishers Association (SPA), now SIIA, so pioneers of the then-nascent software industry could evaluate and honor each other’s work. Since being established in 1986, the CODiE Awards program has recognized more than 1,000 companies for achieving greatness in the software and information industries.

All of the business software nominated products and services were first reviewed by third-party judges, whose evaluations determined 100 finalists. SIIA members then reviewed these finalists and voted to select 27 CODiE Awards Winners. SIIA honored 14 companies in new award categories this year, reflecting industry growth in cloud, mobile, video and other areas. The new Best Big Data Solution category had the most nominations overall.

Here are the winners, listed by category, company, and product/service:

Best Big Data Solution
 - Terapeak 9.0, Terapeak

Best Business Intelligence/Analytics Solution
 - Anzo Pharma Competitive Intelligence Solution, Cambridge Semantics

Best Cloud Infrastructure
 - NetSuite SuiteCloud, NetSuite, Inc.

Best Cloud Management Solution
 - PathView Cloud, AppNeta

Best Cloud Platform as a Service
 - Badgeville, Badgeville

Best Cloud Application Service
 - ClassLink LaunchPad iOS & Touch Apps, ClassLink, Inc.

Best Cloud Storage & Back Up Solution
 - Backblaze Online Backup, Backblaze

Best Collaboration Solution
 - Gust, Gust

Best Commerce Solution
 - Virtual Piggy, Virtual Piggy Inc.

Best Enterprise Mobile Service
 - Mobile Lifecycle Management, Amtel

Best Financial Management Solution
 - NetSuite OneWorld, NetSuite, Inc.

Best Human Capital/Talent Management Solution
 - Fieldglass, Fieldglass, Inc.

Best Integration Solution
 - CloudHub, MuleSoft

Best Marketing Automation Solution
 - Eloqua, Eloqua Corporation

Best Mobile Device Application for Consumers
 - CrowdTorch Mobile Apps, Cvent

Best Mobile Device Application for Enterprises
 - MaaS360, Fiberlink Communications

Best Mobile Development Solution
 - IBM Worklight, IBM Corporation

Best Monetization Solution
 - GoodData, GoodData

Best Open Source Innovation
 - Bonita Open Solution, BonitaSoft

Best Project Management Solution
 - Clarizen, Clarizen

Best Relationship Management Solution
 - Nimble 2.5, Nimble

Best Security Solution
 - NetWrix Change Reporter Suite, NetWrix

Best SEO Solution
 - Conductor Searchlight, Conductor

Best Social Business Solution
 - Marketo Social Marketing, Marketo

Best Supply Chain Management Solution
 - Shipwire, Shipwire

Best Systems Management Solution
 - NetWrix Change Reporter Suite, NetWrix

Best Video Tool
 - Adobe Presenter 8, Adobe Systems, Inc.

For more information about the CODiE Awards, visit http://www.siia.net/codies/2013/

Rhianna Collier is VP for the Software Division at SIIA. Follow the Software team on Twitter at @SIIASoftware.

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Filed Under: All About the Cloud, CODiEs, Software, Software Events Tagged With: , , ,

Three-Quarters of Software Publishers Will Head to the Cloud in Search of New Revenue

May 8, 2013 By

Software monetization market leader SafeNet, Inc. and SIIAtoday released additional results of a joint survey of more than 600 software developers and 200 enterprise software end users, revealing current trends, adoption rates, and drivers of cloud-based software delivery.

Key Findings:

  • Three-quarters of software publishers plan to be in the cloud by the end of 2013; Hybrid models expected to dominate through 2017
  • More than half of software publishers expect operating costs to decline once in the cloud ; 25 percent still cite cost and complexity as biggest barrier to entry
  • 35 percent of enterprise end users cite inflexible licensing as #1 software consumption headache; Close to half of software publishers expect to improve end-user experience with cloud

Cloud Adoption Trends

Today, 65 percent of software publishers report offering all or a portion of their portfolios as a cloud service, and, on average, cloud services comprise 24 percent of a typical company’s software portfolio. Though approximately one-third of software publishers have yet to offer cloud-based services, 75 percent of the respondents have plans to offer at least some of their product portfolios as a service in the next year. Of those with mixed portfolios (i.e., both cloud and non-cloud offerings), the percentage of cloud offerings is expected to remain steady at 25 percent. During the next five years, the survey indicates that the cloud will continue to grow as a percentage of overall portfolios for publishers, even though the number of publishers with no cloud presence will remain steady at 25 percent.

Michelle Nerlinger, Vice President at SafeNet, explains it this way:

Cloud-based software delivery is attractive to software publishers and end users alike, most often because of the promise of increased transparency, more flexible business models, and perceived operational simplicity. The ability to reap these benefits is strongly dependent on a software publisher’s ability to effectively track, control, and manage their applications in an automated and operationally effective manner. This means that the implementation of effective licensing and entitlement management techniques will be key to achieving software monetization success in the cloud. For transitioning or hybrid software publishers, a platform capable of managing on-premise and cloud applications in tandem will be absolutely critical.

Understanding Publisher and End-User Adoption Drivers

The most common driver for software publishers to offer cloud-based services is to reduce the operational costs associated with product delivery, activation, and support (cited by 62 percent of respondents). Additional motives include improving customer experience by “reducing end-user headaches” (46 percent); the ability to access new and niche markets (48 percent); improved usage tracking (33 percent); and faster time to market (32 percent).

Sixty-one percent of software publishers that have already adopted a cloud-based software delivery approach confirm the validity of these expectations by reporting a positive financial impact, due to reduced operations costs or increased revenue. Reinforcing that, only six percent of respondents reported a negative financial impact or security threat once introducing cloud-based software delivery.

Software publishers are not alone in their desire for the flexibility and transparency promised by cloud-based software delivery. Thirty-five percent of enterprise end-users reported inflexible licenses that don’t meet organizational needs as the number one headache related to software consumption. In addition, 14 percent of enterprise end users cited cloud-based services as their top software licensing model preference, and 16 percent specifically identified a metered billing method as their preferred pricing model.

Obstacles to Adoption

More than half (55 percent) of software developers do not see their organizations as “cloud-ready,” with security concerns about data in the cloud (36 percent), and the perceived cost and complexity of the transition from on-premise (25 percent) being cited as the biggest obstacles to true cloud readiness. On average, respondents said it would take 16 months to make all or a portion of their product portfolio cloud-ready; however, 26 percent of respondents believed that they could never move their offerings to the cloud.

Additional Resources:

Rhianna Collier is VP for the Software Division at SIIA. Follow the Software team on Twitter at @SIIASoftware.

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Filed Under: All About the Cloud, Software, Software Events

SIIA Releases 3rd Annual Software Industry Forecast & CEO Survey

May 8, 2013 By

Today SIIA released “Vision from the Top” — its third annual report on the future of the software and services industry. The publication, unveiled at the SIIA All About the Cloud conference in San Francisco, features insight from 41 CEOs, who discuss opportunities and challenges facing the future of software and services industry. To offer a better understanding of the state of the industry, SIIA also conducted a survey of software and cloud executives and announced the results along with the report.

The survey, which included responses from 37 top executives at software and cloud companies, found that there are expectations for moderate-to-strong technology industry growth in the year ahead.  Fifty-seven percent of executives said they expect moderate growth, while 35 percent expect strong growth.  When asked to identify whether leading social media platforms are “over-hyped” or “under-hyped” in terms of their usefulness for business, 86 percent said Pinterest is overhyped.  LinkedIn and Twitter, however, are more useful, according to the executives, 59 percent of whom said that LinkedIn is under-hyped, while 57 percent said Twitter is under-hyped.   Full survey details are available upon request.

Vision from the Top features insight from 41 executives, including: Jim Whitehurst, President and CEO of Red Hat; Rick Nucci, General Manager of Dell Boomi; Matt Ellis CEO of Cloudability; and Larry Cates, President and CEO of Bancroft Technology Group.  Each executive answered questions related to where they see business opportunities, public policy concerns, the evolution of business models, international opportunities and more.

Our goal for this book is to provide insights into some of the challenges brought on by these new technology trends and how successful companies are addressing these challenges to continue on a path of solid growth. We also look at how these trends are not only affecting business today, but also what they will mean for the future of our industry.  To do this, we took the pulse of SIIA member executives driving innovative technology businesses.

From the insights contained in the 41 entries in the book, I identified four key takeaways:

  • Social media continues to redefine and enhance sales and marketing strategies. Social media is now a significant part of the B2C and B2B sales and marketing strategy. In fact, a survey of our CEOs showed that the majority felt social media platforms, LinkedIn and Twitter, were under hyped in business.
  • Mobile will continue to change the way we do business. Today’s always-connected workforce expects to be able to carry out all aspects of their business regardless of location. We see more and more companies supporting increased mobile device usage with business applications.
  • Companies are using data analytics to gain market share. Just as we see the impact of mobile and social on business, analyzing the data provided by trends like these is increasingly important.  Businesses are finally making sense of this explosion of data.
  • It is all about efficiency. To keep pace in an increasingly competitive world, businesses need to run as efficient as possible. Mobile allows employees to have access to business processes, customers and prospects, anytime, anywhere. Social allows businesses to track competition, customer and prospect behavior, and increase business collaboration. Data analytics allow companies and organizations to make better business decisions.

The CEO insights can be read here.

Rhianna Collier is VP for the Software Division at SIIA. Follow the Software team on Twitter at @SIIASoftware.

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Filed Under: All About the Cloud, Software, Software Events

EuroCloud and SIIA start collaboration to drive global industry support for ISVs, SaaS and Cloud providers

April 30, 2013 By

Today, EuroCloud (www.eurocloud.org) and SIIA announce their collaboration on providing global membership support within the fast growing International SaaS and Cloud market. Through the partnership, they will support European based SaaS and Cloud providers growing their knowledge of the US market, and US based SaaS and Cloud providers growing their knowledge of the European market.

This collaboration is content driven, and will start with participation in each other’s events, including AATC, May 7-9, 2013 in San Francisco and the EuroCloud Congress, October 15-16, 2013 in Luxembourg. Furthermore, mutual working councils will be established to address global topics on Trust, Security & Compliance and other relevant subjects in order to drive international acceptance of SaaS and Cloud services.

“A first important step has been made in cross-Atlantic activities that support the Industry in gaining Trust & Compliance on a more global scale,” said Frits Veltink, Liaison Officer EuroCloud to SIIA.

The Collaboration is effective immediately. The first membership benefits are due at SIIA’s AATC event in May, where EuroCloud members will be welcomed with a special program.

Rhianna Collier is VP for the Software Division at SIIA. Follow the Software team on Twitter at @SIIASoftware.

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Filed Under: All About the Cloud, Cloud Computing, Software, Software Events

Netflix Chief Cloud Architect Adrian Cockcroft & Other Top Tech Execs to Keynote AATC Next Week

April 29, 2013 By

Leading cloud executives for Netflix, HP and Telx will be the keynote speakers for the 2013 All About the Cloud conference taking place on May 7-9 at San Francisco’s Palace Hotel.

This year’s conference will focus on the cloud marketplace’s most significant issues and trends – including risk management and cybersecurity, data analytics, new cloud and mobile monetization methods, social media utilization, and more.  Through keynote speeches, panel discussions, and company presentations, the event will explore how the cloud is revolutionizing the development, consumption, and delivery of software.

Keynote speakers include:

  • Adrian Cockcroft—Director of Architecture, Cloud Systems, Netflix

“The Netflix Open Source Cloud Platform”

Cockcroft will provide an overview of Netflix’s cloud strategy and the company’s efforts to provide a complete cloud-based platform that can be adopted and customized by anyone who is looking for a highly scalable and robust solution.  He will also discuss the recently announced Netflix Cloud Prize effort to encourage external contributions.

  • Margaret Dawson—Vice President of Product Marketing & Cloud Evangelist, HP Cloud Services

“Future of Cloud: Will Diseconomies of Scale Break the Silver Lining”

Using examples of untapped capacity and continued increase in power costs, Dawson will discuss how the centralized cloud model’s infrastructure does not create economies of scale.  In this “white board” session, the audience will evaluate their own infrastructure and data challenges and consider unconventional IT solutions.

  • Joe Weinman—Founder and Author of Cloudonomics and Senior Vice President, Telx

“Rethinking Cloud and IT Value”

Weinman will argue that IT and cloud computing are strategically necessary for success and even survival in today’s business world.  He says IT and the cloud– complemented by mobility and big data– can form the basis for strategic differentiation in an era of global hyper-competition.

All About the Cloud will also feature:

  • NextGen: Spotlight on Cloud Innovators. SIIA’s 2013 NextGen companies, ranging from software application companies to technology providers, represent the most innovative companies transforming the software and services industry. Attendees will have an early look at cutting-edge technologies, as well as new strategic partnership and investment prospects.
  • CODiEs: Industry’s Only Peer-Selected Tech Awards. The 2013 SIIA CODiE Award winners will be announced during a special awards presentation at All About the Cloud. The CODiE Awards, now in its 28th year, have recognized more than 1,000 software and information companies for achieving excellence and continue to be the industry’s only peer-recognized awards program in the content, education, and software industries.  This year’s award program has been enhanced with new categories reflecting dramatic changes in the software and information industries.

View the complete schedule of events.

Rhianna Collier is VP for the Software Division at SIIA. Follow the Software team on Twitter at @SIIASoftware.

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Filed Under: All About the Cloud, Cloud Computing, Software, Software Events
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