Welcome to OpSource's monthly newsletter. Learn the latest news in the software as a service (SaaS) industry and discover best practices and trends to help you succeed.

Best Practices & Tips

Telesales vs. Direct Sales in a SaaS Sales Environment
Telesales and direct sales can both play vital roles in selling software-as-a-service (SaaS). In both cases, however, the roles may differ from their counterparts in the on-premise software world. Source: Ray Solnik, President & COO, OpSource

Technology Enablers for SaaS
A robust SaaS product can be built with a minimalist approach, for example, Tomcat, mySQL, XML, Struts 2.0, POJO and JSP are all it takes to build a SaaS product using Java technology. However, there are additional tools that can be utilized effectively when building SaaS products. Source: Karthik Viswanathan, Architect, Aspire Systems (an OpSource partner)

SaaS Business Model Execution from Top to Bottom
One veteran CEO shares best practices for on-demand success based on his company’s experiences. Source: Michael Gregoire, CEO, Taleo

How to Jumpstart Your On Demand Business for Free
Want to launch your SaaS or Web 2.0 app at no cost? OpSource offers a 30-day free trial of its complete delivery solution OpSource On-Demand with no set up costs and no obligations.Learn more.

Trends & Analysis

Web 2.0 Startups Find Europe Fertile Ground
Source: BusinessWeek

The Internet Service Bus
Source: MSN Architecture Journal

Rapid Growth Seen For "Software as a Service" Industry
Source: ebizQ

SaaS Trend Continues to Sweep the Call Center Industry
Source: TMCNet

Blogs and Opionions

Will Financial Institutions Ever Embrace the SaaS Marketplace? Even though businesses throughout the United States have embraced the SaaS model, most finance companies continue to present a cold shoulder when asked to provide competitive financing alternatives for companies who offer their application through this environment. Source: Donald Polfliet, Falcon Leasing (an OpSource partner) Hosting without Borders Microsoft offers new site migration options that could help avoid Navisite-like outages. Windows Server 2008, to be released Feb. 27, 2008, includes tools and features intended to make Microsoft partners better hosts. Source: Michael Hikins, eWeek How Open Source Can Help the SaaS Company Sometimes we think that the reasons for Software as a Service and open-source success are mutually exclusive. According to David Heinemeier, founder and developer of the various 37Signals' projects and products, however, open source is integral to 37Signals' success. Source: Matt Asay, CNET

News Headlines