This webinar will provide insight into the results of the survey including how marketers have changed their focus over the course of the year. You will learn the metrics marketers are watching to determine ROI of marketing activities and the areas where marketers continue to face challenges. Following an overview of the marketing survey results, you will hear from Marketo and SoftServe who will share their marketing strategies and best practices for ROI.

Click on the links below to view a copy of each presenters slides:

SIIA
Marketing Report Overview

SoftServe
Keys to Marketing Success

Marketo
5 Secrets to Marketing Success

Presenters
Rhianna Collier
Vice President, Software Division, SIIA

Mary Brandon
Vice President, Marketing, SoftServe

Jason Miller
Social Media Manager, Marketo

  Name: Feyzi Fatehi
Title: CEO
Company: Corent Technology, Inc.

Bio:
Feyzi Fatehi is a Silicon Valley veteran with 25 years of leadership experience building high performance teams at HP and multiple software start-ups that commanded more than $1 billion in valuation. He has been a speaker at Harvard Business School, Wharton, Stanford, Pepperdine and UCLA Anderson School of Management. Feyzi is a member of the IBM Partner Advisory Council, as well as the UC Irvine Chief Executive Roundtable and serves as the chairman of the Technology Council of Southern California/ Orange County. He has a BS in Solar Engineering, an MS in Software Architecture and an MBA in International Management.

Home town: Laguna Niguel, California

First job:  Software Engineer at HP Cupertino, as a member of the small and elite team that invented the first ever commercial Real-Time Database, the HP Real-Time Database.
What are you currently reading?  Aleph; by Paulo Coelho, Mojo, by Marshall Goldsmith

All-time favorite music:  Imagine, John Lennon

What is the best meal you have had recently? Eggplant Parmesan, at Mama Cella’s Italian Kitchen, Rancho Bernardo, San Diego

What is your next (dream) career? Anything that would push me beyond my comfort zone, and would allow me to learn as well as contribute, while having the privilege of working with genuine, driven, energetic, visionary, and innovative people.

Hobbies: Reading, movies, golf, ski, ocean … and spending quality time with my family and good friends.

What do you think is the hot button issue for the software & services industry going into 2013? Recognizing that the “Cloud” is much more than just a set of virtualized systems hosted by third parties, and start looking at the next gen software platforms that help deliver the promises of the “Cloud” such as tangible and timely benefits that would accelerate and amplify SaaS success.

Why is your company a member of SIIA? The high quality of member companies, a first-class management, and the top SIIA industry events and programs.

Rhianna:Why was it important to you to be a part of the AATC Program Committee?

Russ: Being a part of the Program Committee helps SoftServe give input into the shape, structure, and content of the event agenda, while staying abreast of the latest developments with respect to the event plan.

Rhianna: What are your goals for the conference this year?

Russ: As always, to get some strong new ISV leads, or to further nurture existing prospects. We do this through networking, speaker presentations, and the sponsorship.

Rhianna: What is unique about AATC that makes it so valuable to ISVs?

Russ: AATC is the premier event for ISVs who are just entering or already leading in various segments of the Cloud Computing market. This event has it all: thought leaders, great panels, practical education, and how to content.

Rhianna: What are some of the topics you are excited to see in the program this year?

Russ: Mobile + cloud monetization strategies, the evolution of PaaS technology, a report card on Azure, and the role that Big Data platforms are playing in various SaaS offerings.

Rhianna: What are your industry predictions for what’s in store for 2013-2014?

Russ: 1. SaaS. Large ISVs are in an adaptive race to both build and buy SaaS capability. In this race, the course of 2013 will show increasing gaps between executing leaders and confused or denying followers. This race is the single most important determinant of the future value of the 100 largest ISV providers. The leaders will not simply make more SaaS acquisitions. They will also create hybrid solutions for current install bases. They will deliver new SaaS offerings in the SMB market by refactoring current on-premises technology. And they will adapt channel, sales and marketing models to the economics of the SaaS business.

2. DevOps. Cloud computing is changing the skill set and composition requirements of technical teams. Designing and developing software is now the front end for the long-run challenge: service delivery management and continuous application enhancement. Development operations (DevOps) are one of the critical disciplines for the new technical team. The skill set of a DevOps tech lead includes systems programming, build management, configurations management, service monitoring, security, backup, recovery and more. Over time, the technical team composition for a large SaaS deployment will trend towards an equal number of software engineers and DevOps engineers.

3. PaaS. PaaS remains a clever software technology for rapid application development or refactoring rather than a specific market. Small PaaS players can survive by deploying their technology primarily to create conventional and nimble SaaS solutions in established markets. PaaS technology will be combined with Big Data platforms to create new services and sites in several business and consumer markets.

4. Health Information Exchanges. The firmer establishment and acceptance of The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2009 (“Obamacare”) resulting from the re-election of Obama is driving acceleration in construction and deployment of Healthcare Information Exchanges and Health Insurance Exchanges. HIE construction and operation is attracting large hardware/software providers and major systems integrators. The cloud-based security and data integration requirements for HIEs will introduce new software and security technology like JSON and Oauth into the healthcare IT market. Other industry-specific community clouds may begin to develop in public education, finance, retail and manufacturing.

5. Social media. The technology behind the massive horizontal scalability of major social and search platforms is driving into the smaller-scale footprints of independent colocation facilities, hosters, ISPs, and enterprise data centers. Enterprises will refactor and redeploy more and more applications into hybrid and private cloud deployments, taking advantage of virtualization, multi-tenancy and horizontal scalability to become more competitive with public cloud-computing metrics and price points.

6. Mobile. Scalable back-end cloud services continue to be the anchor for mobile business and consumer applications. Mobility and cloud computing enjoy a virtuous synergy that can be seen in the rich native mobile applications for popular social networks, the hugely successful online store models for application purchase and delivery from Google/Apple/Amazon, and the overall growth in mobile device traffic on popular cloud-based sites and services.

Rhianna: Why was it important to you to sponsor AATC and be a part of the Program Committee?

Eileen: Sponsoring All About the Cloud is important because the audience at AATC is our target market, ISVs, and one of our key consulting areas is consulting and cloud developing for ISVs. AATC allows us to network with our target audience and potential partners. We’ve seen success in the past and we look forward to continued participation.

Being part of the program committee is important because we have a much stronger network ourselves in terms of the types of topics people want to see and we know a number of people that are excellent speakers. We want to contribute to making this as strong a conference as possible by helping leverage our resources.

Rhianna: What are your goals for the conference this year?

Eileen: We’d like to hear about some of the new trends from other leading vendors and hear about the current key issues that ISV’s are discussing. We’re looking to establish some new partnerships as well as generate new business.

Rhianna: What is unique about AATC that makes it so valuable to ISVs?

Eileen: It’s one of the only forums where ISVs can come together and share what works, what doesn’t work and what is still needed to be successful in developing and delivering SaaS products. It’s also the one place they can go to talk to the vendors in the space and get a much better idea of what is possible for them.

Rhianna: What are your industry predictions for what’s in store for 2013-2014?

Eileen: ISV’s have been developing SaaS products and almost all new products are SaaS…the acceptance is ok, but Enterprises are still worried about cloud. We need to prove the environment is secureand make integrations easy between products to establish confidence with the larger Enterprises.

The Program Committee for the industry’s most comprehensive ISV conference, AATC 2013 includes executives from:

CorSource Technology – the leading provider of strategic consulting, development services and technical staffing that businesses need to succeed in the fast-moving, highly competitive world of software development and IT.

FPX - the pioneering innovator of cloud-based Configure-Price-Quote® solutions that improve sales efficiency and effectiveness.  We enable salespeople to respond to customers faster by aligning sales processes with customers’ decision-making behavior.

LogiXML – offers the fastest way to create BI applications, deploy scalable dashboards and reports, and embedded analytics into existing applications – all for a fraction of the cost of other solutions. Unlike traditional Business Intelligence platforms that are complex and costly, LogiXML’s agile technology allows organizations to rapidly develop, refine, and adapt BI applications that serve any number of users on any platform, all without extensive development or professional services.

SoftServe – the global provider of proven high quality software development, testing and consulting services. SoftServe is committed to bringing the best commercial software to independent software vendors and enterprises. We combine our unmatched experience with best practices delivering SaaS/Cloud, Mobility and SDLC innovative solutions.

Corporations or individuals interested in registering, sponsoring, speaking opportunities at AATC 2013, please contact: Rhianna Collier, VP, Software Division, +1.408.884.3834, rcollier@siia.net or visit: http://siia.net/aatc/2013/.

The SIIA is excited to launch our NextGen program for its 8th year. This program showcases the competitive nature of what truly makes a company the next generation of young companies to watch. We are calling all companies that are transforming the software and services industry. By being selected as one of the NextGen companies, you will receive:

• SIIA issued press release announcing the 2013 NextGen Companies distributed and supported by the SIIA public relations firm.
• NextGen Companies will have the opportunity to be coached on their product pitch by our NextGen Selection Committee.
• Full conference registration to AATC 2013.
• CEO is invited to participate on the NextGen panel at AATC 2013, May 7-9, in San Francisco. Panel will be moderated by a partner at a leading advisory firm.
• CEO is invited to the VIP dinner at AATC 2013.
• Company will be featured in the NextGen Pavilion at AATC 2013.
• Company and contact information will be featured on the SIIA and AATC 2013 websites.
• Company and contact information will be distributed to all AATC attendees in the attendee bags.
• SIIA 2013 NextGen Companies will be recognized in front of your peers at the 2013 CODiE Awards Luncheon on May 9, 2013 in San Francisco.
• Each company will be featured separately in a SIIA blog post in 2013

Apply today to gain industry exposure, secure funding, form strategic partnerships, gain new customers, or form your exit strategy.

Organizations must fully develop an enterprise mobile strategy that considers both employee and customer facing aspects of today’s continually expanding use of mobile technologies. It is important to consider the customer experience as they launch new products, services, and applications. Grant Thornton LLP brings the perspective of working with both ISVs and the consumers of their products in a business advisory capacity. This recorded webcast focuses on several key aspects of an enterprise strategy:

• Key criteria for an Enterprise Mobile Strategy
• Application architecture- Is it ready for mobile
• Planning for BYOD within the enterprise
• Deployment interface
• Importance of security

Click here to download the slides.

Presenters
Tony Hernandez, Principal, Business Advisory Services, Grant Thornton LLP
Mike Barba, Manager, Business Advisory Services, Grant Thornton LLP

What is the first round review?

For the first round review, two judges review each product in each category. For example, products nominated in two categories will be assigned four judges. During this first round, judges participate in product demonstration s given by the nominees. Two options are available for the products demonstrations:

– Live product demonstration: Nominations walk through their product webinar-style with the judges participating as they do the walk-through

– Recorded product demonstration: Nominees may already have a video product demo that can be sent to the judges to watch.

We recommend that the nominees keep the demos to under an hour. If it is a live demo, remember to leave time for Q&A with the judges.

The first round review also includes product access. It’s beneficial for the judges to get a feel for the product on their own, as a supplement to the guided demo. Product access can happen in several forms, including temporary online login information or by sending the physical product to the judge.

I also suggest sending as much additional information as you would like to the judges. This can be additional links to PDF’s, videos, news releases, etc.

Who are the judges?

We take great care in selecting the industry experts who volunteer as judges. Each division reviews every judge application to determine if he/she is qualified. We want to ensure there are no conflicts of interest.

For our software and content categories, the judges consist of industry executives and analysts, members of the media, bloggers, investors, and even some customers.
For our education categories, we use educators and administrators as our judges. They are the users of these products and can best determine what products may work the best in their classrooms.

Judging is a great experience because it gives the customers a chance to review the products and provide feedback that the companies can use to make improvements.

How can you help?

We are still looking for judges in several of our categories in Content, Software, and Education. If you are interested in judging or can recommend a colleague please complete our brief judge application.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

Wendy Tanner is CODiE Awards Coordinator. Follow the CODiE Awards on Twitter @CODiEAwards

Mobile remains a top priority for FPX in 2012. FPX’s core business centers on enabling sales teams to be more successful by responding quickly, if not instantly, to the needs and requests of their prospects and customers. Since every sales situation today is highly competitive, buyers have the power. FPX is committed to equipping our customers to serve their prospects whenever and wherever those customers expect; enabling them to take action immediately. Only a solid mobile component of a greater sales process system can do that.

When sales people have the solutions they need at their fingertips, they have the information they need to give their prospects the confidence needed to buy.

Our commitment to providing superior mobile solutions, beginning with the Budgetary Quotes Mobile App that we released in late 2011, means platform agnostic apps. Our strategy is to continue to develop mobile apps for people, not for a specific device. Our core competency is to exceed the expectations of our customers, allowing them the ability to access their sales systems and solutions from any mobile device.

In 2020, looking back on this decade, what will be the single most impactful technical advancement driving business growth?

Cloud computing, and the Software-as-a-Service model, will prove the single most impactful technical advancement driving business growth today and for the foreseeable future. The transformative power of the cloud is driving innovation virtually everywhere, but its most significant impact will come from bringing to bear the power of solutions previously only available through on-premise systems without the inherent expenses.

This is already creating a movement away from on-premise software installs to SaaS solutions, especially under certain conditions. In the CRM and Configure-Price-Quote® marketplace, SaaS provides undeniable benefits including lower initial cost and total costs of ownership, higher ROI, and reduced strain on IT resources to name a few.

FPX is committed to this model. As one of a very limited number of providers of SaaS-based, multi-tenant sales process solutions, we are increasingly attracting enterprise customers who, in the past, would have had to select a big-box on-premise software provider.

This demand is already pervasive. Adoption to the Cloud empowers companies to transform their business models and gain a competitive advantage. The Cloud allows companies to be agile and enable the development of effective virtual business processes, which will facilitate their employees, customers, partners and suppliers to connect and conduct business seamlessly.

According to a recent study by Bain & Company, the cloud computing share of the tech wallet will quadruple by 2020, growing nearly six-times faster through the end of the decade than spend on legacy hardware and software.

Social media and social business are big themes for 2012. In which areas of business will the social movement have the most impact (or most potential for impact)? Why?

Social media and social business will impact sales and marketing more than any other area of business. In B2C selling situations, consumers have always had access to the thoughts and opinions of those they trusted. This provided consumers a limited degree of power in making personal purchase decisions. For the most part, however, retailers have held most of the power.

Online social media has radically shifted the power in the B2C space from retailers to consumers. Consumers in the early stages of the purchase process now have ready access to others who are farther along in that same process. They can search out reviews, polls, comments, and can even engage in conversations about retailers, products and brands with those they choose and trust. This arms them with knowledge long before they enter a store or engage with an online retailer. Further, the input of others can either undermines or substantiate the claims made by expensive advertising and marketing campaigns.

In the same way, those responsible for making purchase decisions in B2B environments now have access to the opinions and experiences of those with similar responsibilities. Using social media including LinkedIn, salesforce.com’s Chatter, Twitter and a myriad of other specialized networks, decision makers have access to credible sources of information prior to and during the vendor selection process.

The use of social media among business professionals levels the communication playing field. A buyer in a B2B situation can quickly investigate any claim made by a sales person or contained in a company’s marketing collateral. Companies who exaggerate their claims do so with a high degree of peril. However, companies that are committed to customer success will be rewarded for their efforts. As the use of social media increases among business professionals, companies selling to other companies must remember that they are ultimately selling to people. Social media has the potential to push the phrase B2B into obsolescence, making P2P the new reality.

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

As you look around the globe, which markets will provide the best opportunities for tech companies in the next five years?

Most of recent growth trajectory and net job addition seems to be coming from mobility/ social space. With more and more people accessing their social, email and other day to day functions/ applications via their mobile, app development in mobile is a given. India as a target & growth market cannot be ignored. Tele-density has been increasing at a random pace and the telecom sector itself has been growing at more than 25%. Some interesting dynamics include land line adoption of only ~ 35 million whereas cell phone adoption at ~ 882 million. Recent Mckinsey study revealed that India’s internet users will increase fivefold by 2015 and more than 3 quarters of them will choose mobile access. Gartner sees the penetration reaching 82% in 2014.

Yet with all this growth, infrastructure is a challenge and it isn’t going to be easy. Of the country’s 100 million Internet users, just 12.5 million have broadband, compared with 450 million households in China. Internet speeds are sluggish compared to international average of 5.6 mbps. Policymakers are trying to solve this by utilizing cable TV lines. However there are couple challenges to this approach-most of the subscribers only have analog connection and upgrading infrastructure isn’t going to be cheap. Secondly it isn’t going to be easy to up convert an analog box to digital box. Given the demographics, companies might have to push the box at real low price.

Now, where there is a challenge there is an opportunity. Mobile content and applications could be the answer.

There are over 850 million registered mobile numbers (these numbers are skewed as there are multiple accounts registered to the same user). Average revenue per registered number has fallen over the years and service providers are constantly looking for ways to up that. Mobile apps if delivered at affordable prices and with the right content will deliver attractive returns to content and application development companies. As long as the applications are compelling and tuned to local demographics (more so with all the different languages spoken and read) and the pricing right (in order to attract the low end of the demographics), all players can make some money. With mobile advertising picking steam, local ads could be another money spinner.

If email takes a backseat to Facebook, Twitter, and SMS for business communication in 5 years, how will that change your business strategy? What are you doing today to prepare for that possibility?

It is true that new channels have come up but I think there is a synergy between new channels and email. You still need an email to login to Twitter and Facebook. You still get notifications via email for updated info and new followers. It is true that web based email is starting to take a back seat but that is web based. Mobile email usage is skyrocketing. In fact comscore’s own numbers show that about 30% of American mobile users regularly access email via smartphones / mobile devices.

Numerous studies have shown that email is still one of the most effective ways to drive online and offline sales, and is the preferred method by which consumers are notified of offers. Sure, there are better ways to communicate a single line or a short message but the way twitter and Facebook is set up, it is difficult to imagine that someone would send a contract via social sites.

While in about 5 years Facebook and the probably likes may take over intranet communications, for all external communications email still might make sense. I wouldn’t change the business strategy yet…

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