Show :  Why SaaS Will Take Off in 2008, But Should You Jump Into Web 2.0?
Guest : Phil Wainewright - ZDNet SaaS Blog
             Gene Marks - President of Marks Group
Aired : Sunday January 27th, 2008

Phil Wainewright of ZDNet returns to talk about SaaS and why he feels 2008 is the year software as a service will hit the mainstream.  Based on his recent entry, he fills us in on some of the driving factors for this, the role of virtualization, how SaaS is "recession-proof", and the expected impact Microsoft Live CRM will have on the industry.  Phil also talks about the companies shaping the future of SaaS and how it will affect how we'll do business.  Plus fill shares with us his ideas on how companies can make money with Web 2.0 tools and strategies, like Amazon.com's newDevPay service.



Speaking of Web 2.0, our other featured guest, Gene Marks, fills us in on the article he wrote for BusinessWeek that explains why he feels small businesses should avoid certain technologies....like web 2.0, blogging, CRM and RSS, to name a few.  Gene has a lot of explaining to do, but he's up to the task. He talks about why spam filters haven't worked for him, his negative experiences with SEO consultants, and why he included customer relationship management software on his list of things to avoid.  And he even fills us in on the special name he was called by someone who didn't necessarily agree with his list, and no that person wasn't Brent or Michael.  Gene finishes things off by talking about the right way to execute email marketing campaigns. 


Phil Wainewright is an influential commentator and strategist on emerging software industry trends. He first spotted the significance of on-demand software services in 1998, when he set up ASPnews.com, which rapidly became a standard-bearer for the nascent industry. He sold ASPnews in January 2000 and went on to found Loosely Coupled, a specialist website covering enterprise adoption of web services and business process automation. He recently completed a series of analyst reports for Summit Strategies on current trends in software-as-services.

Gene Marks owns and operates the Marks Group PC, a highly successful ten-person firm that provides technology and consulting services to small and medium sized businesses. The Marks Group PC, launched in 1994, has grown to help more than 500 companies and more than two thousand individuals throughout the country.

Gene's books include the #1 Amazon Small Business Best Seller The Streetwise Small Business Book of Lists (Adams Media), The Small Business Desk Reference (Alpha Books, 2004), Outfoxing The Small Business Owner - Crafty Techniques for Creating a Profitable Relationship (Adams Media, 2005) and The Complete Idiot's Guide To Successful Outsourcing (Alpha Books, 2005).

Gene's column, "The Penny Pincher's Almanac" appears nationally in American City Business Journals (www.bizjournals.com) publications weekly.

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Show : The State of SaaS (Software as a Service)
Guest : Phil Wainewright, Analyst and author of ZDNet's SaaS blog
Aired : Saturday August 4th, 2007

Software as a service (SaaS) is allowing businesses of all sizes to do things faster, easier and cheaper than imaginable just a few short years ago. The biggest beneficiaries are small businesses who can now compete with companies of any size,  located anywhere in the world.  They can put new strategies into play almost instantly, and automate routine processes with relative ease.  But many are still trying to figure out what are the best ways to use services like Salesforce.com, NetSuite and other service providers to help drive their business.

Our guest this week is SaaS expert analyst Phil Wainewright.  Phil is one of the leading analysts following the SaaS industry and is the author of ZDNet's software as a service blog. Among other things, Phil updates us on the state of SaaS, what the impact of Microsoft CRM Live will have on the industry and gives us his take on what Cisco's acquisition of Webex will mean in the long run.   Plus Michael and I discuss our trip to Las Vegas for the Customer Feedback Week conference and how Facebook is giving LinkedIn a run for its money.  And find out how you can win $20,000 worth of products and services by winning the  ePrize-Entrepreneur magazine Marketing Jolt contest.
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Phil Wainewright is an influential commentator and strategist on emerging software industry trends. He first spotted the significance of on-demand software services in 1998, when he set up ASPnews.com, which rapidly became a standard-bearer for the nascent industry. He sold ASPnews in January 2000 and went on to found Loosely Coupled, a specialist website covering enterprise adoption of web services and business process automation. He recently completed a series of analyst reports for Summit Strategies on current trends in software-as-services.

Listen NOW! 
or   download here