The 10 Best Performing SaaS Solution Providers 2018

www.insightssuccess.com December 2018

The

10

Best Performing

Tech-Trend

Solution Providers 2018

Embedded Systems are Gaining Popularity across All Domains

Revenue Tips SaaS Can Create Business Developments with Different Revenue Streams

Steve Wilson CEO

WhiteSky Labs Modernizing Legacy Infrastructure

What the Future Beholds for SaaS

N

ot so long ago, people like you and me were used to buying software on a CD-ROM and had to install them manually. However, in recent times more businesses have moved away from their conventional on-premise software model in favor of the web based Software as a Service solution (SaaS). According to various researches, more than 64 percent of small and medium businesses are now relying on cloud-based technology in order to boost productivity. The best part is, around 88 percent businesses are planning to invest in SaaS in the coming 2-3 years.

On the other hand, SaaS has been present for more than a decade now, and only achieved its maturity after legacy software providers finally abandoned their outdated pricing, licensing and delivery models in favor of SaaS and cloud subscriptions.

So, what’s driving this continuous growth even after a decade of existence? The simple answer is convenience! SaaS helps organizations with flexible payments via subscriptions, automatic updates and support. It additionally, saves various organizations from having to install and run software on their own PCs and data centers, which eventually leads to savings of money, time and resources.

So, what does the future hold for SaaS? While it’s not easy to answer, still there are few trends which can eventually impact the growth of SaaS.

Ÿ

With each passing day, organizations are growing and reaching a certain level of maturity and adoption, which is eventually shifting the focus from customer acquisition to customer retention. This is helping to the rise of Product as a Service (PaaS), allowing companies to choose add-on apps and services while allowing companies to expand their original product.

Security has always been an ongoing issue for SaaS, especially after regulations on privacy are increased. With increase in adoption of smart phones, multiple points of entry for security breaches are also increasing. Additionally, workers who are working from a remote location often expose companies to Wi-Fi networks that are unencrypted and are more vulnerable to attacks. Ÿ Eventually, smartphones are becoming an integral part of our lives, be it joining a FaceTime call with colleagues who work in remote location or accessing files from Google Docs or Dropbox.

Nowadays, near to half of the small business owners use smartphones as a primary device to run their daily operations, which is eventually increasing the demand of mobile apps or mobile first solutions.

Ÿ

In the end, we can say that SaaS companies are embracing innovation and change, knowing that they cannot rely on first generation SaaS strategies in order to stay in the competition.

So, with great enthusiasm, Insights Success has selected some of the most prominent organizations around the globe in the issue of “The 10 Best Performing SaaS Solution Providers 2018”. These organizations are transforming the SaaS industry with their revolutionary innovations and foremost initiatives that mainly focus on product acceleration and customer satisfaction.

The journey starts with WhiteSky Labs, a specialized consulting organization that helps companies unleash the potential of flexible, scalable integrated applications. A growing number of successful Mule ESB implementations in Australia, New Zealand, United States and the Philippines make us a partner of choice for all Mulesoft consulting and support requirements.

Then we have Avetta, who provides a cloud-based supply chain risk management platform. Our global solution is uniquely designed to connect the world’s leading organizations with qualified suppliers, driving sustainable growth; Digital Guardian, who provide data security solutions to protect data from insider and outsider threats; Highfive, which is on a mission to transform every meeting room with modern, beautifully-designed technology that empowers people to get their best work done together; PROMIS@Service, who helps European organizations to deal with a complex regulatory environment, to structure processes and data systematically and efficiently, and to achieve de facto compliance with legal requirements for Health & Safety, Quality, Environmental management and other international standards; ProMobi Technologies, who works as your technology partner to help you build and grow your products; Spiralinks, which has designed, installed, and hosted secure web-based systems for human resources, compensation and finance teams for more than 20 years; ActivTrak, whose intuitive software, helps users to analyze reports and real-time data, then use this information to find trends happening in the day-to-day operations of the company.

Happy Reading!

Kaustav Roy

08

16

Tech Outlook The Evolution of Testing: Unmatched Acceleration with Fifth Generation Automation

32 Tech-Know Insights Minimize Risk of Digital Transformation Failure

46 Leadership Viewpoint Challenges in Cloud Computing

Articles 26

Revenue Tips

Cover Story

WhiteSky Labs Modernizing Legacy Infrastructure

SaaS Can Create Business Developments with Different Revenue Streams

40 Tech-Trend Embedded Systems Are Gaining Popularity Across All Domains

Contents 28

20

38 Digital Guardian: Protecting Sensitive Data from Potential Threats

ActivTrak:

30

PROMIS@Service: Offering Exemplary Multifunctional Performance Enabling Solutions

Making Employee Monitoring Easy

22

Highď€ ve:

44

Meetings Reimagined

36 Avetta: Using SaaS-Based Technologies to Empower the World

SpiraLinks Corporation: Redeď€ ning Management Processes since Inception

MobiLock: Driving Simplicity and Innovation in Mobile Device Management

Editor-in-Chief Managing Editor Executive Editor Assistant Editors Contributing Editors Visualiser Art & Design Director Associate Designer Co-designer

Pooja M. Bansal Anish Miller Kaustav Roy Jenny Fernandes Kedar Kulkarni Bhushan Kadam Hitesh Dhamani David King Amol Kamble Nagesh Tambekar Shweta Shinde

Art & Picture Editors Paul Belin Jayant Khanna Senior Sales Manager Passi D. Business Development Manager Peter Collins Marketing Manager John Matthew Business Development Executives Steve, Joe, Alan, Rushikesh Sales Executives David, Kevin, Mark, Vijay Technical Head Jacob Smile Technical Specialists Amar, Pratiksha Digital Marketing Manager Marry D’Souza Online Marketing Strategists Alina Sege, Shubham SME-SMO Executives Prashant Chevale, Uma Dhenge Research Analyst Patrick James Circulation Managers Robert, Tanaji Database Management Stella Andrew Technology Consultant David Stokes sales@insightssuccess.com

December, 2018 Corporate Ofces: Insights Success Media Tech LLC 555 Metro Place North, Suite 100, Dublin, OH 43017, United States Phone - (614)-602-1754 Email: info@insightssuccess.com For Subscription: www.insightssuccess.com

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Cover Story 10

The

Best Performing

Solution Providers 2018

WhiteSky Labs: Modernizing Legacy Infrastructure

We offer agile and cost-effective solutions to address all stages of your MuleSoftÂŽ requirements from professional services to managed support.

Steve Wilson CEO

A

ccording to a report from Gartner, there will be 50 billion connections to the internet by the end of 2020; the majority of these will be machine to machine. In the age of digitization, organizations are constantly being challenged by the explosion of data, apps and devices. Companies are innovating through digital transformation programs in order meet rapidly changing market dynamics and the demand to introduce new products to market faster, while delivering a seamless customer experience across all channels. In order to achieve these goals, companies are realizing they must integrate their data, and business processes with onpremise, cloud and mobile applications. Meet WhiteSky Labs, a Premier Partner of MuleSoft with the mission to be the number one, full-service Partner, delivering a complete range of integration services to their customers.

In an interview with Insights Success, CEO, Steve Wilson described the journey of WhiteSky and how they

are adding value to the customers they are working with.

Below are the highlights of the interview between Steve and Insights Success: Give a brief overview of the company and its vision?

WhiteSky Labs are specialists in the Enterprise Integration domain. Many of our executive management team have worked together for the past 20 years in the UK, Europe, US and Asia Pacific. We specialize in strategy, architecture and the delivery of outcomes using the Mulesoft AnyPoint Platform.

When I say specialize, to clarify, we are 100% focused as a business on MuleSoft. This is all we do and we provide a complete range of services across the entire MuleSoft solution delivery lifecycle. To use a medical analogy, the vast majority of system integrators could be described as general practitioners offering services across many different technologies, whereas at WhiteSky we are the specialists.

WhiteSky continues to win awards including the MuleSoft 2017 APAC Delivery Partner of the Year and the 2018 MuleSoft APAC Solution Delivery Partner of the Year. We have over 100 staff working from our offices in; Sydney, Melbourne and Singapore, while our large MuleSoft engineering team is based in Manila, Philippines.

We are a Premier Partner specialised in connecting apps, data and devices using MuleSoft’s Anypoint Platform, the world’s leading integration platform for SOA, SaaS, and APIs.

Our blend of on and off-shore delivery provides our customers with a very attractive commercial solution. This is further augmented by MuleSoft related IP that accelerates and de-risks our customers outcomes. All our consultants are MuleSoft certified and a large number also have advanced certifications. To put it simply, this is what we do for a living.

Our vision is not just to be the best MuleSoft services partner worldwide, but also to challenge our people who have built WhiteSky to where we are today, to continually innovate and constantly seek to improve our systems, processes, IP and the value we provide. The benefits of being a 100% dedicated specialist, when combined with the network effect or Metcalf’s Law, means our combined corporate knowledge and level of practical experience continues to grow exponentially.

What services do you offer?

WhiteSky works with customers throughout all stages in their adoption of MuleSoft, as well as potential customers, by helping to define pragmatic and cost effective integration strategies and implement them rapidly.

Specific services include; Strategy and Architecture, MuleSoft Project and Programme Delivery, MuleSoft Software Upgrades, MuleSoft Performance Tuning, MuleSoft License Capacity Planning, 24/7 Managed Services for the Anypoint Platform and full enterprise wide MuleSoft Centre of Excellence enablement when required.

How do you deliver benefit to your customers?

Our experience over many years of specialization in the enterprise integration space, working with hundreds of companies, we have gained a deep level of insight into what customers need to do to be successful and drive measurable competitive advantage.

Companies tend to focus more at the

beginning of the cycle on technology selection, rather than how they will actually live with the software once it is purchased.

We continue to see the same issues and while it is easy to buy software, to be successful and realize a return on investment, companies must have a robust operating model in place.

Typically the business case supporting the selection and acquisition of enterprise integration software is put in

Our team of MuleSoft experts helps you leverage digital innovations by accelerating your time to value and lowering the total cost of ownership for MuleSoft® solutions on a regional and global scale.

a drawer once the software is purchased and not actively managed or reported on to ensure the business benefits are actually delivered.

Without the correct architecture, design patterns, governance, delivery processes, estimation models and tooling, they will never be realized.

Enterprise integration is a more complex problem than the majority of companies realize. We call it the execution gap and we help companies

bridge this and ensure they are creating truly reusable APIs, complete with enterprise wide service level agreements as opposed to project level ones.

Describe the experiences, achievements or lessons learned that have shaped the journey of the company.

The greatest achievement without doubt is the quality of the people working at WhiteSky. It is our staff who have built the exceptional business we have today. They set very high standards for themselves and are accountable for meeting them. We have been growing exceptionally rapidly over the past three years; in 2018 alone we have grown from 50 staff at the beginning of the year to over 100 today.

Our focus and commitment to excellence as a team and ourdesire to continually improve all aspects of the business, is underpinned by a very strong company culture and a shared vision. We actively seek the very best people we can find to work with us and as a company. We are passionately committed to ensure our staff, as individuals, can clearly see their career growth and that each and every one of us are achieving our personal objectives.

Give a detailed explanation regarding the Founder/CEO/Management’s influence towards the industry and the company?

I wouldn’t say I am influencing the industry in any major way, however within the company I am responsible for defining our strategy and ensuring it is articulated and clearly understood by everyone. A clear definition for everyone of their role in the company, combined with a high degree of autonomy and accountability, ensures we are all focused on the same outcome and working together as a team to achieve it.

We connect apps, data and devices in this digital economy leveraging the uniquely comprehensive features of the Anypoint Platform™, the only unied platform for ubiquitous connectivity on-premise and in the cloud.

I am also responsible in conjunction with our leadership team, for setting the culture. I strongly believe this is the secret sauce which fundamentally differentiates us a company. Good enough is not enough. We set high standards for ourselves and hold each other accountable for maintaining them. We operate with full transparency, which is a fundamental level of respect everyone deserves. This gives us a platform of honesty and trust that we can build from. It is a huge honour and a privilege for me every single day that every single person chooses to arrive at work with WhiteSky. This naturally carries over to how we work with customers and the obligations and responsibilities we have to them.

We do not have the word “blame” at WhiteSky, it is a fact of life mistakes happen, and we are all human. So we accept this at a fundamental level and expect our employees to call any mistakes out immediately. This means they are not covered up, they can be addressed and we can all learn and improve. We operate as a true meritocracy and with a very flat structure. As a team we genuinely enjoy working together and while it may sound trite, we regard everyone as part of the WhiteSky family. We strive to embody this every day in how we look after each other and the respect we have for each other. We are a very multi-cultural company and our overall culture and ethos has been driven strongly by our large team in the Philippines. I have personally learnt a lot since I began travelling there is 2014.

We have an outstanding track record of successful delivery and continue to push both ourselves and our customers, out of a genuine desire to be as good as we can be and create a company that is truly different. I have been influenced in this by entrepreneurs such as Tony Hsieh and Ricardo Semler and it was mandatory since the day I joined WhiteSky we create a company people our people feel proud to work for.

Considering the rising number of SaaS Solution providers how does WhiteSky Labs stands out from its competitors?

We are differentiated from our competitors for many of the reasons I have already discussed. Our strong culture based on mutual integrity and respect, our high performance MuleSoft delivery centre of excellence in the Philippines, coupled with world class integration consultants locally, combine to create a unique and commercially very attractive solution for customers. The 20 years of experience working in the integration space as specialists and our 100% focus on MuleSoft, enables us to dramatically accelerate outcomes and continuously improve. Working with like-minded colleagues who are share the same values and are committed to the same goal of building a truly world class business, creates an environment that is inspiring to be part of and a lot of fun.

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10

The

Best Performing

Solution Providers 2018

Company Name

Management

Brief

ActivTrak activtrak.com

Herbert Axilrod Persident & Co-founder

Through ActivTrak’s intuitive software, users can analyze reports and real-time data, then use this information to find trends happening in the day-to-day operations of the company.

Avetta avetta.com

John Herr CEO

Avetta provides a cloud-based supply chain risk management platform. Its global solution is uniquely designed to connect the world’s leading organizations with qualified suppliers, driving sustainable growth.

Bottomline Technologies bottomline.com

Rob Eberle President & CEO

Bottomline Technologies, is an innovator in business payment automation technology for 30 years, eliminates that struggle by helping companies make complex business payments simple, smart and secure.

ClickFunnels clickfunnels.com

Russell Brunson Co-founder & CEO

Clickfunnels makes it simple for any entrepreneur to build their own marketing funnels in just minutes.

Digital Guardian digitalguardian.com

Mark Stevens SVP, Global Service

Digital Guardian provides data security solutions to protect data from insider and outsider threats.

Highfive highfive.com

Joe Manuele CEO

Highfive’s on a mission to transform every meeting room with modern, beautifully-designed technology that empowers people to get their best work done together.

PROMIS@Service promis.eu

Caterina Berbenni-Rehm Founder & CEO

PROMIS@Service Sarl helps European organisations to deal with a complex regulatory environment, to structure processes and data systematically and efficiently, and to achieve de facto compliance with legal requirements.

ProMobi Technologies promobitech.com

Harishankar Kannan Co-founder & CEO

ProMobi works as your technology partner to help you build and grow your products.

SpiraLinks spiralinks.com

Julie Southern Co-founder & CEO

SpiraLinks has designed, installed, and hosted secure web-based systems for human resources, compensation and finance teams for more than 20 years.

WhiteSky Labs whiteskylabs.com

Steve Wilson CEO

WhiteSky Labs is a specialized consulting organization that helps companies unleash the potential of flexible, scalable integrated applications.

Tech Outlook

The

Evolution of

Testing: Unmatched Acceleration with Fifth Generation Automation Shoeb Javed CTO Worksoft

T

he Early Years of Packaged Applications

From the inception of packaged applications, companies of all sizes have taken advantage of the economies of building, maintaining, changing and deploying functionality through third party software providers. Why build a general ledger or payroll/human resources system when you can license it instead? Why not leverage out of the box functionality offered by third party software and rely on the vendor to

16

offer support and maintenance and stay current on regulatory, industry and process best practices.

The first generation of mainframe software transformed quickly as the technology evolved, introducing client-server as the better, more cost-effective deployment platform. The applications themselves were still being developed and deployed in functional silos – their interaction with other critical functions of the business an after-thought. Although less than ideal, interfaces were developed to transport data |December 2018

from one system to the next – leading to the introduction of middle-ware as an economical means of “connecting” the silos.

At that time, SAP emerged as the leader in delivering comprehensive, end-to-end business solutions on the most advanced platforms. They quickly captured the market and cross-industry adoption continued to deliver best in class results to their customers. PeopleSoft was also introduced to the market during this era, initially focusing on the payroll/human resources market. They ultimately started developing and delivering ERP and CRM systems as well.

Change continued to accelerate as web-based systems were introduced which impacted the economic and technological dynamics of “user requirements,” development, deployment, and costs.

Throughout this evolution, industries, companies and individuals not only developed an incredible reliance on the performance of their “systems,” but forward thinking organizations saw this as a quick path to competitive advantage.

The Need for Speed The problem then as now – how do you accelerate the value of the technology investment to the business? The technology was purchased, licensed, and implemented to achieve a specific set of business benefits. When it comes to these large enterprise application investments, companies conduct in-depth evaluations and build business cases to map out exactly what results they expect to realize. This typically involves a look at what financial and human capital investments – time and money – will be needed to achieve success with a product as well as the financial, efficiency, and competitive gains that come with the ongoing use of the software.

On one side of the equation, development methods have evolved to meet this need for speed. Waterfall methodologies are being replaced with Agile. DevOps has become the new buzz-word. But there’s something else to consider – the business side of things. There is an everincreasing reliance on packaged applications to execute and deliver critical business outcomes. It’s important that applications are developed and deployed quickly and changes can be made regularly, but how do you ensure that business processes are running flawlessly?

Surprisingly, many companies are managing their enterprise application processes manually. This means hours of whiteDecember 2018 |

board meetings spent trying to understand existing business processes. Weeks during every project spent writing test scripts that break when something changes. Delays in delivery because manual testing can’t keep pace with business change. The implementation and ongoing management of enterprise applications is complex, and a crucial component is making sure that end-to-end processes work—every time, every day. Manual or first generation testing means system downtime, errors in production, wasted time and energy and companies left open to technology risk.

The bigger picture is that those approaches are fundamentally standing in the way of achieving the results companies set out to achieve with packaged apps. How can you make the financial, productivity, and competitive gains

About the Author Shoeb Javed, Chief Technology Ofcer, Worksoft, is responsible for the technology strategy, software development, quality assurance and customer support for all Worksoft solutions. As CTO, Shoeb also works with quality assurance and business leaders of some of the largest global Fortune 1000 corporations to help automate testing of complex packaged enterprise applications to speed up project timelines and improve operational efciencies.

17

that you were counting on if your processes aren’t performing flawlessly?

The Evolution of Testing Thankfully, the answer is today’s fifth generation test automation that is enabling business users and organizations to adopt, accept, and utilize new applications faster. When processes across enterprise applications are executed seamlessly and as designed, companies can harness the potential of their enterprise applications to achieve strategic goals like entering new markets, increasing revenue, and maintaining a competitive advantage.

Worksoft, the pre-eminent fifth generation automation platform, delivers unmatched speed in automating the identification of current business processes and automatically creating tests to ensure that each business-critical process works as required. An independent study of Worksoft customers by industry analyst IDC identified many unique benefits of Worksoft’s automation platform, but chief among them was accelerating delivery of these applications by an average of nearly

18

two months. Consider how much more you could accomplish if you could cut weeks and months from every project.

Leaders across the globe have adopted Worksoft as their weapon of choice to improve their financial and operational positions in their respective industries.

Lead the Way First to market with autonomous cars?

Moving your business model from DVDs to online subscription services?

Evolving from an online bookstore to the world’s largest internet retailer?

These companies didn’t simply try to keep up. They were determined to lead.

Today’s digital economy brings massive opportunity to companies looking to disrupt the market. There has been a fundamental change to the business landscape and companies who are competitive innovators will win.

About the Company Worksoft provides the world's leading automation platform for enterprise applications. Companies worldwide rely on Worksoft’s automated business process discovery, documentation, compliance, testing, risk analysis, and RPA to support critical packaged applications, including SAP, Salesforce, Oracle, Workday, SuccessFactors, ServiceNow and more.

Our fifth-generation automation platform helps enterprises accelerate innovation and change, lower technology risk, and increase efficiency. Our ecosystem includes partnerships with Accenture, IBM, Cognizant, SAP and our Global 5000 customers include 3M, Intel, Microsoft, Siemens and more.

|December 2018

10

The

Best Performing

saas

Solution Providers 2018

ActivTrak: N

Making Employee Monitoring Easy

owadays most organizations invest in behavior analytics software in order to fully understand how their teams are performing. However, collecting this data can be very costly and time-consuming. Meet ActivTrak, a cloud-based employee monitoring service.

The easy-to-download software provides employers and offices with a tremendous amount of data to analyze. The software gives organizations the figures required to perform in-depth user behavior analysis to identify key trends within their company. Users can examine how administrative changes affect the overall workflow of their company.

When describing the importance and efficiency of the software Herbert asserts, “We were among the first, if not the first, in the employee monitoring space to move to cloud-based reporting. Before then, solutions were based on local networking with peer to peer communication. Not only was the cloud solution much easier to deploy, but it allowed us to collect and analyze employee activity data at a scale and in ways that hadn’t been done before.”

Along with these features, ActivTrak offers access to the raw data as well as integrating via webhooks to send behavior-based activity notifications to programs like Slack, Trello, IBM Qradar, Segment, Salesforce, and others. This gives companies full transparency into the inner workings of their organization. All of the tools available in ActivTrak are customizable, allowing the user to get the most out of the product.

In 2002, Herbert Axilrod and Anton Seidler bootstrapped ActivTrak without any outside investment. This sacrifice not only allowed them to conserve capital but also gave them a deep insight into the product and market. Both founders were able to witness the natural evolution of the marketplace and the growing acceptance of employee monitoring. While there were some things they could do to accelerate growth, they didn’t want to get ahead of themselves. Herbert emphasizes, “Too often, money is raised without a clear knowledge of how it should be spent and thus often wasted.”

The software provides a tailored experience that gives the user full control over what they get out of the product whether that is detecting insider threats, improving workflow efficiency, or creating a more productive workplace. From selecting which workstations have screenshots taken to choosing where the data is housed, ActivTrak has a personalized experience which caters to every customer, giving them exactly what they need.

A Pioneer When launched, ActivTrak was one of the first in the employee monitoring space to move to cloud-based reporting. Herbert Axilrod, the President & Co-founder, and Anton Seidler, the Co-founder, saw a need for a solution that was mostly effortless on the user’s part and didn’t require much time to understand. The program is purposefully built to be accessible. Within minutes of installing, users start to receive real-time reports and behavior data.

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Tackling Misconceptions and Making the Industry a Better Place

ActivTrak delivers a flexible user experience that can be utilized at all levels of business. From small businesses to enterprise companies, ActivTrak can provide real-time feedback. The software arranges a treasure trove of data into an easy to understand layout but also allows for raw data access. Anyone from a beginner to IT expert can take the software and use it for their specific purposes.

Versatile Suite of Features ActivTrak is unique because it provides an easy-to-use program that effectively allows users to gather large amounts of behavioral data that can be used to improve workforce management and boost workflow efficiency.

Through ActivTrak’s intuitive software, users can analyze reports and real-time data, and can also use this information to find trends happening in the day-to-day operations of the

|December 2018

“We take a lot of pride in our work, and we strive to meet the needs of every user we have the privilege to serve.”

— Herbert Axilrod President & Co-founder

company. Using this information, employers can be sure they are maximizing productivity by making decisions based on reliable, unbiased data.

Painting the Picture of the Future When it comes to the future of the company, Herbert mentions artificial intelligence, “We see it playing a big part in the next evolutionary phase of this marketplace.”

The organization also believes that AI techniques will not be limited just to user activity data-streams, but it will also be used to analyze the many screen images and videos that ActivTrak captures.

Lastly, by combining incredibly powerful software, with an easy to use interface and personal customer service, ActivTrak aims to provide a complete resource that can boost productivity, improve security, and drive increased revenue. By creating a digital twin of an operation, ActivTrak also helps decision makers analyze trends to improve performance throughout the organization.

December 2018 |

Promising Appreciations from Clients “The information provided has been useful to provide feedback to the project sponsors and provide direction for the continued development of our system, including investment decision making.” — RAF Case Study “ActivTrak was simply plug and play, believe it or not. It took me 2-3 mins per machine to get started and overall took me 1 hour to block all the unnecessary sites. In no time, I was ruling the entire thing, and was on top of my employees’ activity.” — Regenersis Huntingdon Case Study “We are big fans of ActivTrak! Loyalty and trust are the foundations for any company to grow and succeed, and ActivTrak helps us to know which employees are honest and loyal behind our backs and reward the right ones.” — Parry International Case Study

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10

The

Best Performing

saas

Solution Providers 2018

Avetta:

Using SaaS-Based Technologies to Empower the World

I

n an interview with Insights Success, John Herr, CEO of Avetta, shares how his company is utilizing SaaS-based solutions to create a global network of connections. He also discusses the unique technical landscape prevalent in the industry today and gives tips on how to help your organization stand out.

Avetta has proven its worth among tens of thousands of users. Learn how you can begin leveraging the power of Avetta’s solutions in your own company today. Below are some of the highlights from the interview.

Give a brief overview of the company, its solutions, and services?

We provide supply chain risk management solutions for companies by vetting and qualifying the suppliers involved in their projects. On their own, many businesses have to go through thousands of documents to verify that the contractors they work with meet their safety and sustainability requirements. This administrative burden is expensive and time-consuming.

However, it’s even more costly if a problem occurs. Our platform takes care of these details efficiently. We collect all client-required safety, insurance, and sustainability documentation and verify them for accuracy. Companies then have all the information they need to make smart, responsible decisions on which contractors to hire.

Give a detailed explanation regarding the Founder/CEO/Management’s influence towards the industry and the company?

Our Founder came up with the idea to start Avetta (then PICS) while working as an occupational safety professional for a large supplier company. Part of his responsibilities included fulfilling all the prequalification requirements for the company’s clients. It took a lot of time and resources to collect and send off the data, which was often redundant. Avetta was born from the desire to alleviate the inefficiency of supplier companies prequalifying for multiple clients, and to help the clients

22

have easy access to all of their suppliers’ current standings as well.

Considering the rising number of SaaS Solution providers, how does Avetta stand out from its competitors?

Our goal resolves around solving problems and alleviating burdens for both our clients and suppliers.

However, unlike other companies, that philosophy extends well past our product. We’re consistently looking for better ways to serve our audiences, whether that’s releasing new features or simply spending time on the phone teaching them how to create a pdf. As a result, our teams are focused on each individual client and their unique needs. We go to great lengths to understand the pain points of our clients and then embed that insight into configured risk management solutions.

If you could sum up the Avetta platform and its services in one line, what would it be?

Supplier and Contractor Qualification Made Easy How does Avetta contribute towards making the industry and the world better?

Avetta is proud to support our customers on their journey to sustainability. Through our platform we help manage environmental, social and economic impacts. With these and other deficits resolved, our clients are able to focus on their own growth and build up long-term value in their supply chain. With operations in 163 countries worldwide, Avetta’s platform was built to operate on a global scale. In addition to enhanced economic performance, this ultimately leads to a better environment, better working conditions, and a better relationship between companies and their customers.

Where does Avetta see itself in the long run and/or what are its future goals?

Avetta is currently growing at a tremendous rate across the globe. As more suppliers are integrated into our |December 2018

“We go to great lengths to understand the pain points of our clients and then embed that insight into configured risk management solutions.”

— John Herr, CEO network, more value is added for everyone. Our focus for the future is to continue nurturing existing client relations, develop strategic partnerships and accelerate this global expansion. With these goals, we’re prepared to grow Avetta’s innovative solutions across the world.

Testimonials from Avetta Clients “Before Avetta, we calculated a need for six employees, all working full time, to properly manage our supply chain. With Avetta, we have one person sitting in that seat.” – Supply Development & Performance Manager, Australian Railway Leader

and accommodated our process in their solution to better satisfy our needs.” – Procurement Specialist, LafargeHolcim Brazil “Avetta gives us proactive risk management. We’re able to leverage the expertise and experience that Avetta provides based on years of tracking and evaluating contractors. Avetta also gives us instant data access in a database we could never develop internally, allowing us to benchmark against peers and uncover opportunities to improve.” — Corporate Safety Manager, Huntsman

Because of Avetta and our use of an improvement plan with our contractors, we were able to demonstrate more than 30% improvement in just one year for the health and safety performance of our contractors.” – Bill Burket, EHS Compliance Contractor, Range Resources “We evaluated other vendors, possibilities, and platforms. Avetta really listened to our business needs

December 2018 |

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Revenue Tips

SAAS Can Create

Business Developments

with Different

Revenue Streams

S

aaS or ‘Software as a Service’ is being used rigorously in current business ventures as it provides more accuracy and vision to any business project. Interestingly, with this solution, the importance of installing the hardware devices to run the data and different applications has lost its importance. It is a very selective section of cloud computing, through which the future business data collection process can be simpler than ever. SaaS is a very profitable genre in the field of futuristic business ventures, and thus a question may arise about the SaaS business, and that is what could be the revenue stream for such business enterprise, or in general words, the earning process for the SaaS business!

Unfortunately some people believe that there are no such good ways of earning revenue for Saas business and if there are some sources, those are very minor in their conducts. Interestingly, the reality and the current situation are otherwise, and there are a number of ways in which the SaaS business can earn its revenue. ‘Payment’ to get the software is not the only mode of earning, and the enterpriser of this business can earn great revenue with multiple options, without stressing out on particular section of the business venture. Here are some of the solutions: Set-up Cost and Upsell A Set-up cost is one of the common ways to earn the revenue and it gives clarity to the providers about the authenticity of the users and determines the commitment too, thus it is a great way to explore the minds of the customers and the possible future relationship with the users. On the other hand the set up earning can actually lead to the upsell market for the SaaS providers. It is one of the easiest ways to enhance the revenue through the existing customers, and it is a great business opportunity, as this way of earning lessens the dependency of the brand on the pressure of adding up new customers. To maintain the continuity with the existing customers certain facilities like offering additional storage, speed, data, bandwidth or the frequency are enlisted as 'services'. Though, this process of earning is largely dependent on the benefit of the product or the service, along with the need or requirement of the client.

Affiliate Marketing It is another great way to boost the earning for the SaaS business as, through this process, it becomes a two-way system to get business, where the users advertise or sell the product. As the process is

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earning money, and it is the best way of earning through the free version users, but not very apt for the paid customers. As the paid customers already pay a certain amount, adding advertisements can create a negative impact on them. So even if the ads are there, they must be in a way that looks less annoying for the users.

dependent on the users, it is not dependent on any other external way from the business providers’ side. The SaaS providers are only responsible to pay the commission after getting the revenue. So it is definitely a win-win situation for the SaaS providers.

Customer Service and Information Charges Saas providers are on the verge of adding a new structure for great revenue, which are customer service and information charges. As with this system, the business providers offer to sale some of the researched information to the clients. It is not very difficult for the clients to value them by paying the money as they are getting a great help, and interestingly it can work for the clients to cling to the services which can create the path for more business. Basically, a great customer service is the key to earn good money and with the satisfaction of the customers; the process can be on the loop for a great revenue system.

Advertisement Advertisements are the most common sector of

December 2018 |

API Model This is rather a complicated but effective method of earning lucrative revenue. If the SaaS can coordinate or work with other software applications, the importance of it can rise to a whole new level. This work model can do magic for some of the users and it can have a great value or earning in the future. But this great system comes with certain risks, and the reason is, the amount of money invested to create and run it. But if the developers can be assured of its service and the demand of the customers, it can turn out to be a great moneymaking option.

Reselling When some of the SaaS is so apt that the potential customers want to avail it for their business purpose, the tie-up with the providers or the reselling of the product can be beneficial form the point of view of the revenue. This process is known as the White Label Licensing.

At the end of this discussion, the conclusion is, a better service can open up new trails for Revenue Streams for SaaS Business. SaaS is not a new concept, but the vast implication is definitely new. So there are a number of scopes yet to be explored by the developers of this new business. Thus, the future and the success of SaaS business is dependent on exploring various ways for SaaS revenue, and with more innovative ideas for the revenue, the market of SaaS business will be more strengthened to touch the zenith.

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10

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Solution Providers 2018

Digital Guardian: Protecting Sensitive Data from Potential Threats

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rotecting sensitive data is an ongoing challenge for every security professionals. The challenge grows each year. Cybercriminals now a days are far better funded than before, which necessarily means attacks are much more varied, ranging from those that are very sophisticated, to those that rely on human weaknesses.

Defending against these attackers requires much more than purchasing technologies. Successful defense require a combination of the right technologies, people, and processes. While some companies can build and maintain these resources internally, for many others leveraging external expertise and cloud infrastructure can deliver better results.

Comprehensive SaaS and Cloud-based Data Protection As organizations adopt the cloud to run their businesses more efficiently, it is logical that the cloud and Software as a Service (SaaS) can deliver a more efficient data security platform. Moving from on-premises to SaaS delivery model can pose a transitional challenge at first but once the customer sees the benefits of a big-data back end architecture, the transition is much smoother.

Digital Guardian’s Data Protection Platform leverages SaaS to provide data protection in a package that results in superior security, better economics, and reduced overhead.

Compared to legacy, on-premises infrastructure, this solution is delivered via its secure cloud and provides the performance, scalability and cost advantages enterprises need. With Digital Guardian’s team managing the infrastructure, security resources of enterprises don’t need to spend time learning how to configure, manage, and update applications.

Digital Guardian’s SaaS enables enterprises and its teams to focus more time, energy, and resources on identifying and mitigating risks to their sensitive data and less time on acquiring, building and maintaining the infrastructure. This service leverages the scalability, data visualization and ease-of-use security analysts need. Centralized reporting in the cloud removes storage limitations and gives enterprises

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the ability to aggregate, analyze and query system, user and data related events across the network and endpoints over longer periods of time. This service delivers workspaces and workflows tailored for the unique needs of CISOs, InfoSec Analysts, Incident Responders and Threat Hunters.

Digital Guardian’s SaaS enables enterprises with big data security, analytics, and reporting without investing in a big data infrastructure. Its SaaS essentially reduces overhead, complexity and cost with cloud-based data protection.

Digital Guardian is the first and only solution purpose-built for data protection from all threats delivered via a SaaS. Its SaaS offering includes everything in the subscription – provisioning and support for all back-end infrastructure, application monitoring, backups, upgrades, etc. This cuts costs and eliminates the complexity of patching, updating and maintaining on premises infrastructure.

Consolidated DLP and EDR The Digital Guardian platform performs across the corporate network, traditional endpoints, mobile devices and cloud applications to make it easier to see and stop all threats to sensitive data. For more than 10 years, it has enabled data-rich organizations to protect their most valuable assets with an on premise deployment or an outsourced managed security program (MSP).

Digital MSP offers data protection as a managed service.

With its consolidated Data Loss Prevention (DLP), and Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) or compliance security experts protects sensitive data of the organizations from internal and external threats.

Assuring the Integrity of Business Processes Digital Guardian is a next generation data protection platform designed to stop data theft. It protects sensitive data and critical assets from both insider attacks and external adversaries. Its advanced data protection solutions and managed services secure sensitive/confidential data and assure the integrity of business processes. |December 2018

“The Digital Guardian Data Protection Platform is the only SaaS solution that detects threats and stops data exfiltration from both well-meaning and malicious insiders as well as external adversaries.”

— Mark Stevens SVP, Global Services

Digital Guardian’s unique data awareness and transformative endpoint visibility, combined with behavioral threat detection and response, enables enterprises to protect data without slowing the pace of their businesses.

Proficient Leadership Mark Stevens, SVP of Global Services at Digital Guardian is an accomplished, results-driven senior information technology leader with extensive experience in managing diverse technology organizations. At Digital Guardian, Mark is responsible for driving customer success across professional services, managed services, support and training. He is known for his high-energy emphasis on customer success, leadership and teamwork, and his tireless work ethic.

Throughout his career in software development and consulting, he has succeeded and established higher standards by focusing on results and driving excellence through his efforts and his teams’ performance. With a distinguished academic record — and work experience in various developed and developing nations throughout Europe, Asia, and the Americas — he delivers results as a true, technology-savvy business leader in the software industry.

management, project management, business development, and system architecture design. He is from a distinguished academic background, including a Master’s degree in International Economics. He has Strong managerial, interpersonal, writing and presentation skills.

Prior to Digital Guardian, Mark was Area Services Director for BMC Software, a $2 billion leader in the business service management space. Previously, he served as Senior Director of Professional Services for Progress Software, a $550 million provider of application infrastructure software and services. In this role, he managed and directed a team of 80+ technical field personnel to help drive a $225 million sales region.

Appreciations of Services “With Digital Guardian, we can be completely transparent with our clients about how we handle their data, giving them peace of mind that their sensitive reservoir data is fully protected.” - John Barton, CIO, io oil & gas consulting “With DG’s MSP service, I can rest easy knowing that we have 24/7 protection and my team’s resources are allocated effectively.” - Scott Wiggins, CIO, ANDRITZ GROUP

Mark’s key proficiencies include sales, account

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Solution Providers 2018

Highfive: Meetings Reimagined S

aaS has become a common delivery model for many business applications because of its numerous benefits in terms of cost and performance. Highfive, which combines software and hardware into a singular service, is one of the best performing solution providers putting its own spin on the SaaS playbook.

Joe Manuele is the Chief Executive Officer at Highfive.

Joe joined the company earlier this year amid a period of rapid growth for the company, which was recently recognized by Fast Company as one of the “World’s Most Innovative Companies in Enterprise Software”.

Highfive’s Inception While enterprises were struggling to figure out how to make conferencing work for businesses on a broad scale, Highfive founder Shan Sinha, formerly of Google, saw the simplicity and reliability of consumer products, and knew there had to be a better way to make video conferencing just as easy for the business world. Thus, Highfive was born.

Highfive was founded with a simple mission: meetings reimagined. Shan foresaw the open-source technology WebRTC as the future of communications and shared content, and made a concerted effort to build a conferencing system that could be powered on that protocol. WebRTC is the perfect tool for team collaboration solutions, since it enables seamless browser-based audio and video calls and content sharing. CEO Joe Manuele shares this vision.

Together, Shan and Joe have formed a powerful partnership aimed at making video conferencing ubiquitous in every meeting room. Improving collaboration through video communications is now viewed as a must-have for the business; however, more than 80% of meeting rooms still do not have video capabilities, and that number rises to 90% when adding small and medium-size huddle rooms.

Reducing IT Headaches Highfive built the first WebRTC-based conferencing solution on the market. Highfive’s integrated platform marries dedicated video conferencing hardware and bornin-the-cloud software in order to provide a seamless experience for workers, while also making enterprise-wide

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deployment simple for IT administrators. The powerful, allin-one solution delivers a consumer-simple experience with superior video (4k cameras) and high-fidelity audio that reduces IT headaches and meets the challenges of today’s most demanding virtual meetings and collaboration workspaces. From large enterprises with offices all over the globe, to startups seeking a better way to communicate internally, Highfive enables instant collaboration for every worker at every organization, no matter their size or location.

Highfive is hosted on Amazon’s AWS hyperscale cloud to ensure the best quality service and leverages WebRTC to enable the industry’s first true download-free and one-clickto-join experience that connects participants from any combination of physical meeting rooms, devices and locations.

With this, Highfive is leading the charge as the only end-toend WebRTC-powered solution on the market. The versatile technology is fully integrated and built into every aspect of Highfive’s hardware, and by pioneering the shift to WebRTC, the company has rewritten the playbook for how cloud-based visual and audio communication is built and deployed.

Cost Effective Solutions With WebRTC, Highfive calls are crisper and more reliable than competitors, and consume fewer network resources, battery, and bandwidth. The browser-friendly framework means no software downloads are necessary for workers, and that Highfive can run on any type of operating system for incredible flexibility. Best of all for IT administrators, WebRTC’s browser-based functionality and updates over the cloud eliminates the need for hardware maintenance and management with zero compromises to the user-experience.

With WebRTC, Highfive is also able to provide a comprehensive dial-out experience that eliminates the need for conference phones, landlines, and VoIP providers.

Pushing the Limits for Larger Impact For years, the collaboration equipment needed to enable distributed meetings has been clunky, complicated and difficult for users and administrators. Highfive puts an end

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“Highfive makes video conferencing insanely easy for instant, reliable collaboration for every worker at every organization, no matter their size or location.”

— Joe Manuele CEO to that with an easy-to-setup, affordable platform that can serve as the go-to form of office communication for every conference room, every employee, and every organization.

Highfive’s signature software also combines with helpful productivity tools because the best work tools are the ones that play nicely together. This includes integrations with popular apps like Google Calendar, Outlook, and Slack, making scheduling or starting a virtual meeting intuitive and easy no matter what platform users are on.

With innovations like WebRTC and these partnerships with industry leaders including Dolby, Slack, and Microsoft, Highfive has pushed the boundaries of what’s possible with a video conferencing platform. Highfive’s modern solution allows users to join a video meeting or conference call the way they want, from the location they want.

Exceptional Audio and Video Quality Highfive has focused on providing top-tier enterprise solutions, developing deep partnerships with notable channel distributors, including Dimension Data, Ingram Micro, and Best Buy for Business, and PC Mall. Channel partners are a key part of the company’s strategy to deliver Highfive on a global scale.

Highfive also recently launched its powerful new Premium meeting room offer, which includes advanced features such as whiteboard view, intelligent scene framing, dual-screen support, and digital PTZ (point-to-zoom) with an intuitive touchscreen control. Highfive has a full partnership with Dolby Laboratories, the world leader in audio, which has enabled Highfive to fully integrate Dolby Voice into December 2018 |

Highfive’s conferencing technology. This leads to exceptional visual and audio call quality, and an unparalleled user-experience typically reserved for consumer platforms such as Apple TV. What they’re saying...

Here’s what some of Highfive’s enterprise customers have to say about their experience with the conferencing platform: “We now have a singular, uncompromised experience no matter the conference room or user. Highfive is everything a video conferencing service needs to be right now.”

– Naren Santayana, Sr. Manager, IT at Paperless Post “Realistically people are usually joining video conferencing calls remotely, from the airport, from their cell phones, so we want to make sure that everyone can actively participate no matter where they’re calling from. Highfive lets us do that.” – Dave Engberg, CTO, Livongo Here’s what some industry analysts have to say about Highfive: “Highfive checks all the boxes as a truly innovative conferencing solution that makes it easy for teams at any type of business to collaborate together, no matter where they are located. The company has shown significant growth, and is well positioned in the competitive collaboration market.” – Blair Pleasant, President and Principal Analyst, BC Strategies

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Tech-Know Insights

Minimize Risk of Digital Transformation Failure in place to accomplish a successful and smooth delivery on Digital Transformation promise, and to avoid loss of money and prestige. Every kind of transformation project comes across a certain resistance; a mobile application delivered with no issues will minimize this resistance.

Better Application through Continuous Testing Most of our customers in Continuous Software are switching to agile project delivery in order to rapidly evaluate and provide for the internal and external demands.

The traditional test processes, which are done at the end phase of a project, remain insufficient for the agile management. For better quality and a rapid outcome, testing and development has to be a continuous process of DevOps course. Thanks to test automation scripts throughout the whole development process, softwares and applications can be tested before going through end-user tests with minimum amount of problems.

Hakan Turgut Chairman OPTiiM

O

ne of the greatest agonies in test automation is the time and effort spent to continuously testing what has been developed. The simpler and the more straight-forward the mobile applications look to the customer, the more complex they are in the background. As the number of of mobile platforms and devices increases, enterprises need to provide their developers with effective way to test across the platforms — testing fast, verifying the code quickly.

Why is it so important? Because continuous digital transformation is an inevitable part of growing the business.

Often more than 60% of customer interactions happen through the smartphones. What is the number like at your business? Anyway, an effective mobile testing needs to be

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One of the key trends in the market is the increase of native application development, which enables the usage of mobile devices in a broader spectrum. With the increasing demand towards more complex, stronger functionalities and interface, the responsive design techniques are outdated. To provide an optimum result for mobile testing, conducting the tests with actual devices, a device lab, has a large importance. The problem here is how the manual testers and test automation systems will share devices. This is solved by creating a mobile device lab according to producers, models and operating systems.

Renting a device lab on cloud, uploading your scripts and running your tests in a parallel execution costs you serious amount of money. We couldn’t ignore the fact that this method makes our customers’ apps less profitable every minute. If you create an actual device lab by purchasing every kind of smartphones out there, you still ned a web interface to run all those scenarios and scripts to manage your mobile device lab.

Continuous Software developed an interface, where you can run your scripts on different devices with its own cloud |December 2018

device lab, observe text execution and integrate with source control systems. You can use it with your own mobile device server, or you can connect your device to your mobile lab with client integrations. As a result you’ll be able to observe your text execution in real time with detailed results, clickable stack trace exceptions and screenshots, and see how much of the resources (CPU, Memory, System Logs) your app consumes. No matter which language your scripts were written or no matter which tool was used to write them, by integrating with open source automation servers this interface allows you to include mobile testing to your continuous DevOps process.

Continuous Software Our first business line is application testing. Today we offer a wide range of services such as Manual Sourcing, Test Automation, Performance Testing, Security Testing, Service and Network Virtualization and Mobile Application Testing and Mobile Device Lab Management. Our philosophy lies on the successful implementation of test automation frameworks, enabling the rapid creation of test automation scripts that are stable and easily maintainable. Our scalable test automation framework optimizes every level of application from network to code- speeding up he execution and reducing test maintenance.

Our success comes from working together with organizations to optimize every level of application- from the network to the code. We have solved the complexities of software testing through our unique solutions and helped a multitude of enterprises in accomplishing desired results.

We believe our Mobile Device Lab will be a game changer in the industry.

Case studies One of Top 5 Banks in Turkey This bank has decided to make a transformation project with Mckenzie. Part of the transformation project they found out that one of the biggest bottleneck is Software testing. As they were planning to use Agile project management approach within this initiative; testing was becoming even more critical for the success of the project.

That is why they have decided to implement Test Improvement Project. They have identified 5 areas and Continuous Software has been involved in all these five workgroups which are Functional Test Automation, Performance/Load Testing, Service Virtualization, Test Environment Management and Test Data Management. The project scope covered core banking, alternative channels, international banking and credit cards application suites, they all are in-house developed application based on Java, .NET and IBM Mainframe. This was a teamwork, which we have worked together with the bank’s testing team.

Development team has also participated to the project when it was needed. We have identified sample applications, December 2018 |

designed processes, decided on technologies that will be used and finally implemented the best practice within sample applications to prove the solution. We have guided the bank’s team and prepared documentation for them to continue after project has been finalized. During the project we have used HPE UFT, HPE Loadrunner, IBM Service Virtualization, CA Test Data Management and HPE Codar and OO solutions for respective areas.

One of the Top 10 International Banks Entered to Turkey by acquiring an old bank, which was not able to invest in IT for a long time. After the acquisition, they have been audited by BDDK (Banking Regulation Authority) and BDDK gave them a deadline to resolve their compliance issues. Within a very limited timeframe to implement an end to end automated Devops process which starts from demand collection till deployment of the applications to production environment. The solution had to be fully automated, no human interaction other than development of the application and be traceable on each level of the process. Continuous Software delivered end-toend DevOps project to make sure to have a complete process from demand to production deployment. Created five different pipelines for core baking (oracle forms), alternative channels (java), credit cards (.NET) and ATMs (.NET). Jenkins, SVN, Nexus, HPE Codar, HPE ALM, HPE UFT, HP PM, HP SM are implemented in project scope. Thanks to Continuous Software, this bank passed the audit successfully and avoided to pay a big amount of penalty.

Management Levent Ozalp is a serial entrepreneur and the Founder and CEO of OPTiiM. He created 3 startups in Turkey, 1 in Ireland and 1 in UK from military tech to system integration. Having launched Continuous Software now boasts 100+ employees and customers all over Turkey, Middle East, North Africa and Europe.

Hakan Turgut is the Continuous Software Chairman. His 30 years career span took him to executive positions in IBM, CA and Nortel. He brings maturity and wisdom to the team.

About the Author Levent Ozalp is a serial entrepreneur. He created 3 startups in Turkey, 1 in Ireland and 1 in UK from military tech to system integration. Having launched OPTiiM now boasts 100+ employees and customers all over Turkey, Middle East, North Africa and Europe.

Hakan Turgut is the OPTiiM Chairman. His 30 years career span took him to executive positions in IBM, CA and Nortel. He brings maturity and wisdom to the team.

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Solution Providers 2018

MobiLock:

Driving Simplicity and Innovation in Mobile Device Management

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ompanies globally are preferring simple yet feature-rich SaaS applications to stay ahead of the technological curve and this gave ProMobi Technologies, a promising B2B SaaS provider, an opportunity to build MobiLock - a scalable and intuitive solution that helps companies to implement Device Management strategy with minimum IT Expertise.

In an interview with Insights Success, Harishankar Kannan, the Co-founder and CEO, and Arnab Chakraborty, Co-founder and CTO have shared some of their insights behind setting a benchmark in the industry.

Give a brief overview of the company, its solutions, and services.

ProMobi was founded in 2014 as an outsourced product development company, building software for SMBs. But the reason behind our existence is to build world-class SaaS products from India, for the world. For that to happen, we first needed to be cash-flow positive before venturing out to product-building. Later in 2014, we built our first B2B SaaS product called MobiLock that we launched in January 2015.

Today, we are a leading provider of Mobile Device Management Solution under the brand MobiLock Pro, which allows organizations of any size, be it a start-up, or a Fortune 500, to manage their Android, iOS and Windows devices from the cloud.

How do you diversify SaaS Solutions so that it will benefit your customers?

We have divided the product into core solutions and a bunch of add-ons, depending on the company’s requirements. The entry barrier to understand, use and buy the product has been kept extremely low. Any company can start using the core solutions and can opt to select the addons depending on its requirements, budget, and usage. Our top-notch support ensures that our customers succeed in using the product with ease and efficiency.

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Describe the experiences, achievements or lessons learnt that have shaped the journey of the company.

As a product development company, we gathered experiences and lessons by trying our hands at all functions and working closely with customers to make them successful in using a Mobile Device Management (MDM) Solution. We shaped the product keeping the customer problems in sight and went on to provide a specific value for company-owned devices, before branching out to a fullblown MDM. An early implementation of Customer Support function in the form of a live chat allowed us to resolve our customer queries at a much faster rate. In terms of achievements, we have grown 300% YoY since the launch of the product and bootstrapping kept us focused on our customers. We can clearly see now that India can become a B2B SaaS powerhouse by leveraging the tech talent around while identifying the many white-spaces in the Industry to provide awesome solutions.

How does the company contribute towards making the industry better?

The sector we entered is a crowded space where numerous providers are struggling to carve their own niche. And that’s why we value innovation and improvisation and look at it as the most important differentiator. This also influences the industry to stay competitive focusing on customer service and experience. In 2019 we will take baby-steps from our side to indulge with the B2B SaaS community of India to help and seek help as and when/where necessary!

Give a detailed explanation regarding the Co-founders’ influence towards the industry and the company?

Being the two co-founders of the company, me and Arnab Chakraborty always had the vision to solve real-world problems faced by organizations. This vision drives the team to build or add features to our product that will solve the pain points of our customers.

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“We at MobiLock want to ensure that you manage your endpoints with almost zero IT experience.”

— Harishankar Kannan Co-founder & CEO

When we came together through ProMobi, we set equilibrium as I looked at the business side of things and Arnab chose to lead the technical and design front. Our impact is gradual and consistent. We encouraged and embraced the idea of Bootstrapping as we sent out a message to B2B SaaS companies that it is possible without getting external fund!

We are finding the white spaces in this field and are trying to redefine the way MDM is seen at this moment.

Where does MobiLock see itself in the long run and what are its future goals?

Oh, we would love to do an IPO! The journey so far has been good, and we are going from strength to strength. We want to continue the growth momentum and all the learning we are accumulating along with the positive changes in the industry. Going further we want to be a significant player in this sector for not only Unified Endpoint Management but also for all the supporting ancillary segments.

Considering the rising number of SaaS Solution providers, how does MobiLock stand out from its competitors?

process will not take more than 15 minutes.

We are seeking our place at the top and this can be done only through innovation on to the product, on to the segment and on to the industry. We are planning to build meaningful features in our product by leveraging AI, Machine Learning and Blockchain technologies. We hope to move away from being just another player in this segment to being a trendsetter!

Client Testimonials MobiLock is a great product and the support available has been exceptional. The dashboard is really simple to use, and with easy account management and set up for devices, it’s been a great product to use. - Claire Bell (Listening Books, UK) Great support; the support team is always very helpful to answer questions to help. I love the Dashboard, Enterprise, upgrading our APK’s, looking at all of our devices, keeps it all locked down 100%. Great company and people to deal with. - Rich Aldrich (UNIT Innovations, USA).

We make it real simple for them to start using our solution and the platforms. One can easily sign up and start using the dashboards with a bunch of help-guides and the entire

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Solution Providers 2018

PROMIS@Service: Offering Exemplary Multifunctional Performance Enabling Solutions

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ROMIS@Service is an innovative high tech company whose mission is to support organizations in private and public sectors, to be better on their way to continual improvement towards excellence, by being compliant with the demanding requests of regulators and standards, by enabling integrated business management for compliance and governance in an SME, association, institution or corporation. The company’s multinational and multi-disciplinary team, reflects the demands of the heterogeneous SME market and the SMEs’ need to enter international markets. It asserts to nurture a culture and approach embracing interdisciplinary teamwork, multilingualism and the capability to understand and respect sectoral and national differences, while striving to integrate commonalities at international level. The company relies on an experienced professional management team with direct and hands-on knowledge of the compliance projects, as well as extensive experience in working with SMEs, applied research, technology transfer and international strategic marketing skills.

An Impeccable e-Platform PROMIS@Service is a spin-off of well administered research and innovation co-funded by the European Commission and selected private investors that resulted in the Business Enabling Open Innovation e-Platform, PROMIS®.

PROMIS® is a multilingual, multi-country and multi-client Software-as-a-Service and Intranet e-Platform of interactive services, enabling small organisations and international corporations to cut their budgets for compliance management by half, decreasing the compliance risks dramatically. It is an e-Platform that organizes and tailors integrated process management, legislation, online communication, learning and training and helps to capture, structure and interlink all relevant information in an organization. In addition, it supports knowledge structuring and sharing, online collaboration and communication, community building of experts, eMentoring and the generation of new services out of the knowledge and content available in an organization.

The Solutions offered by the company focus on various purposes including structuring and sharing individual and

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institutional knowledge in multiple languages, collaborating, communicating and working interactively online in the mother tongue while being understood internationally, generating new services out of the content and knowledge existing in an organization, keeping transparency and order in an organisation through an integrated management system that supports evidencebased compliance and faster decision making which conforms to norms and other legal requirements.

Comprehensive Leadership Caterina Berbenni-Rehm is the Founder and CEO of PROMIS@Service. She started her marketing career at FERRERO OHG, Germany followed by the responsible direction of a cultural exchange’s organisation with 153 people. She was the CEO of FUTUREtec for 14 years, leading an interdisciplinary team of experts in the fields of ICT, knowledge transfer from research to SMEs, rollout plans and project management.

Caterina is a recognised thought leader and keynote speaker at international conferences and has been the co-founder of the ‘European Entrepreneurial Regions Initiative’ taken up by the Committee of the Regions. She is the former ViceChair of the EC Commission’s High-level Advisory Group DG RES for SMEs, member of the Ethical Review and an Advisory member of AI& Society “Artificial Intelligence & Society” Springer Eds. Caterina holds a PhD in modern Philology.

Knowledge is Capital PROMIS@Service has learnt so many things in its professional tenure. It believes that knowledge is capital and a most important asset for the organization. Hence it must be structured and channelized effectively at all levels.

According to the company, communities of knowledge develop ideally when the source of knowledge is respected and the tools acknowledge the owners of the data and content. The knowledge providers are well versed with the needs of their clients. Therefore it is crucial to offer tools and services that support the interaction and collaboration among them.

According to PROMIS@Service, entering into any type of organization is a challenge if the e-Platform does not

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“PROMIS® - Integrated Compliance through Knowledge intensive Services and eLearning” — Caterina Berbenni-Rehm Founder & CEO

involve and values all existing tools, and also does not reuse the data and information already available in the organization. It was a challenging and a long term endeavor for the company to develop such disruptive innovation which would not have been possible without the support of the European Commission and the EU Parliament.

‘ALL in One’ Approach PROMIS@Service offers the cutting-edge e-Platform in the domain of integrated compliance and governance with a comprehensive ‘all-in-one’ approach in 9 languages (content included) and integrated human- and machine translation technologies, which at present is second to none.

Software programs such as CRM and ERPs are strongly synergetic to PROMIS®. SAP, Tenaxia, Intelex, Enablon, and others are both partial competitors and synergetic partners.

Aspiring Market Leadership PROMIS@Service aims to be at top as the recognized leader in providing SMEs and corporates with a new kind of multilingual knowledge management and integrated compliance- and governance-based business enabling ePlatform of interactive services at international level. To achieve this, it is intended to bring the work on ‘Terminology Policy’ to OASIS (www.oasis-open.org) for the final phase international standardization. More than 20 years working relations with the European Commission and related institutions has enriched PROMIS@Service with interdisciplinary people and expertise concerning not only funding, as well as technology & knowledge transfer of R&D projects’ results, but most important, new business models, pre-competitive deployment, and rollout of

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innovative research results and industrial projects. Such experience is highly valuable for companies striving for the wish to remain at the forefront of innovation.

Reflection of Excellence “I can only congratulate you on a solution like PROMIS®, which –in the long run – stands to allow both industry and public bodies to save billions of Euros through highest efficiency !

– Rainer Tielsch, Prof. h.c. Dr. rer. sec., Dipl.-Psych “Being responsible for the supply of medical materials, I have always looked for a tool that could help me in a flexible way during my work, adapted to my needs, as well as to those of our organization, i.e. the growing need to comply with the ISO standards, the new GDPR standards and Health and Safety at Work. With PROMIS® I have reached a point of excellent management of everything that is under my responsibility, I have seen that nurses and doctors are satisfied with the simplicity of the management system and, above all, I am pleased that PROMIS® follows and meets all my needs to be at the service of AVIS and the blood donors.”

– Vanghelis Spiridon, Technical Coordinator, AVIS Milano, Italy .

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Tech-Trend

EMBEDDED

SYSTEMS ARE GAINING

POPULARITY

ACROSS ALL DOMAINS

I

n today’s emerging world, systems have bought an ease of work due to its inherent advancements and features. The embedded system is one of the most imperative subjects in the digital world. Thinking about technology, daily lifestyle essential devices like mobile phones, tablets and laptops come to our mind, but the internal features is not known to most of us.

The presence of these devices is almost inevitable in all facades of the human endeavor. In order to understand more about the operations, functions and features of embedded systems, it is defined here ahead.

Embedded Systems -It is an electronic system incorporating hardware integrated circuit with software programming techniques for delivering various projects solutions.

The main advantage of using an

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embedded system is it helps to reduce the complexity of the circuits which becomes expedient. It also offers a cost effective and an appropriate size which is suitable for the system. This electronic system can perform single or multiple tasks based on the application. An embedded system consist of hardware such as power supply kit, central processing unit, memory devices, timers, output circuits, serial communication ports and system application specific circuit components and circuits.

Types of Embedded Systems The Embedded systems are classified into categories such as · Based on its performance and functional requirements · Performance of the Microcontroller

The category- based on its performance and functional requirements are classified into four types that are Stand alone, Real time, Networked, and Mobile embedded systems. Further, the categoryperformance of the microcontroller is classified into three types that are small scale, medium scale and sophisticated embedded systems.

An Excellent Application Provider The embedded systems are highly applicable as it is a special-purpose system due to its unique characteristics. It is used in a diversified area of things as its components and functions of hardware and software are different for each system. It is applicable in areas like communication, space, transportation, robotic systems, and home appliances and many more.

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Real Time Applications of Embedded Systems Ø As it has a vast variety of application domains it differs from high expense to low, consumer electronics to industrial equipment, academic equipment to entertainment devices and from weapons to medical instruments and aerospace control systems. Here goes some of the categories embedded systems are used: Ø Consumer electronics- Mobile phones, videogame consoles, digital camera Ø Household appliances- Washing machines, microwave ovens, refrigerators Ø Medical Equipment- CT Scanners,

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Ø

Ø Ø

heartbeat monitors, electrocardiogram Automobiles- Antilock braking systems, air-conditioner controls, electronic fuel injection systems Industrial Applications- Assembly lines, multiple parameter monitoring systems, data collection systems Aerospace- Navigation systems, guidance systems, GPS Communications- Routers, network hubs, satellite phones

Progression of Embedded Systems over the Decade With changing times, inventions have become a routine in the world of technology; the embedded systems have also undergone some salient modifications. In the existing times,

the embedded technologies are responsible for the intellectual capabilities of utmost modern devices, for both consumers as well as industrial. To present this in a simpler manner, the embedded systems not just control the lifestyle devices like microwaves, smartphones, tablets, and other consumer electronics but also directs the telecommunication systems, submarines, ATMs, and many more.

The upper echelons in the field of embedded technologies have created some innovative technologies over the last decade which is highly admired.

Multi-core processors, virtualization, the expansion of devices with improved security requirements, 64-bit processors and new chip manufacturing processes are some of the innovative achievements.

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Embracing such innovative technologies addresses the scale of the market and the number of its players which include companies like semiconductor suppliers, system software development, and mechanical components suppliers, system software development companies, and mechanical components suppliers. The embedded systems market leaders include national and international renowned companies.

Advancing with Multifunctional Features With the advent of multi-functional engineering, the next age of wireless communication systems is encouraging a new level of technology integration. Incorporating effective measures like progressive data rates, great connectivity for systems such as the Internet of Things (IoT), less power consumption, and other striving goals can be achieved by joining advanced digital, RF, and antenna technologies.

An embedded system which performs multiple applications is known as a multi-mode embedded system as it dynamically recomposes the system functionality. Moreover, an embedded system which additionally assists multiple tasks to be executed in a mode is known as a multi-mode multi-task embedded system. The multi-material additive manufacturing processes offer the potential for multi-functional parts to be manufactured in a single procedure. To utilize the potential benefits of the developing technology, analysis, new designs, and optimization methods are needed. Such methods are facilitated in the optimization of a multifunctional part by pairing both the structural design aspects and system. An application development platform known as Multifunctional Embedded Application Platform (MEAP) is used to create customized applications.

Trends to Watch Developers should constantly keep an eye on the trends and make appropriate use of the latest advances in techniques and technologies. Some of the trends include Internet of Things (IoT), processor technology, storage, artificial intelligence and, virtual and augmented reality. Also, there are several trends like embedded security, realtime visualization; cloud connectivity and Bluetooth mesh networking, low power consumption and optimization that will help developers working with microcontroller-based solutions.

Elevating with Time Over the years, embedded systems have come a long way and contributed to every aspect of the industrial sector. All the devices or appliances used in our daily lives are designed in such a way that can be used without creating difficulties using the embedded systems. Taking this into account, in coming times every object around will consist of a either a small processor or sensor embedded within itself. Even though it is invisible to the naked eye it still connects with multiple other devices to make the lives more allied and accessible than ever before. Using embedded systems, wonders like driverless cars, fully automated factories, adaptive home appliances and many more devices have successfully been created.

In the upcoming times, the embedded systems are looking forward to evolve with technologies that will assist large data storage dimensions, faster communication and highly linked connections among the devices.

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10

The

Best Performing

saas

Solution Providers 2018

SpiraLinks Corporation: Redefining Management Processes since Inception

F

ounded in 1993, a woman-owned company, SpiraLinks Corporation specializes in designing, implementing, and supporting webenabled application projects; the company has a record of on-time, on-budget delivery that meets client requirements and specifications. In the past 10 years Spiralinks has elevated its flagship product the FocalReview® Total Rewards software suite to the cloud, while strengthening on-premise clients and implementations.

The organization has designed, installed and hosted secure web-based systems for marketing, human resources, compensation and finance teams for more than 20 years. With this deep understanding the company offers a compensation and performance management planning suite, FocalReview®. It can be tailored to what works for a particular business, and is a proven leader in compensation management for companies in the US, Europe, and beyond.

Adding Value and Planning Ahead SpiraLinks can implement the FocalReview® product for any client in the cloud or on-premise. It is the same code base. The organization releases new updates twice a year in order to keep up with the industry mandates, apply new business features, and take advantage of new technical solutions to improve the software - and stay relevant in the market. SaaS powered systems allow SpiraLinks to support clients better, and reply to questions faster.

FocalReview®, SpiraLinks’ flagship tool, helps its clients to manage their compensation planning and performance processes more efficiently. With FocalReview®, now clients can manage salary, bonus, and stock plans on different timetables for different employee populations –

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in multiple currencies and languages. Thanks to the groundbreaking product, now HR teams can budget, recommend, analyze, and approve changes in all forms and phases of compensation, even if multiple management organizations are responsible for input and review – either on-premise or securely in the cloud.

In general, the HR business unit often has a limited budget and a short time frame for software implementations. The FocalReview® product can address both these hurdles. Clients ranging from 100 employees to 3000 employees have implemented in 4-8 weeks.

Spiralinks’ longest implementation took around 6 months - and it was a multi-national, Multi-currency corporaton of more than 300,000 employees!

According to the organization, some key lessons are to plan ahead, map your data, and set expectations on input, process, and reporting. A train-the-trainer approach by the company helps the clients to take control faster, and rely less on the vendor. Spiralinks believes this is better strategy; because the faster a client becomes comfortable with the system, the can really discover the software’s capabilities.

Leading from the Front SpiraLinks’ founders focused on the beauty of quick delivery that the World Wide Web provided over traditional Information Technology implementation projects. Early on and expanding on their experience in HR and Administrative Systems they developed custom solutions. About 10 years ago SpiraLinks created the FocalReview® product that could be scaled in both functionality and client size. After the death of a key founder back in 2013, Julie Southern, Co-founder became CEO of Spiralinks and led the company to it next level. She achieved this by moving the software into

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“SpiraLinks improves management processes.

From project planning to compensationmanagement to performance assessment, we've got you covered.”

— Julie Southern Co-founder & CEO

the Cloud as well as making the tool 100 % configurable - avoiding custom charges to the client. This makes an easily supported implementation, while giving flexibility to address all vertical businesses – and a more affordable solution to their clients.

Pushing Boundaries When it comes to standing out amongst the crowd, Spiralinks believes that it stands out in three ways; Ÿ The organization has a straight forward pricing, with no hidden fees. Ÿ Thanks to the configurability, Spiralinks can scale from medium to large implementations, with little effort. Ÿ Spiralinks’ exceptional customer service also plays a vital role when it comes to standing out.

the software costs - something unheard of with their competitors, as well as in the IT industry.

Ready for the Future SpiraLinks is the leader in sophisticated Total Rewards software that is multi lingual, multi-currency and an ideal add on to any HRIS or HCM that does not have the depth in compensation planning and performance management. SpiraLinks’ FocalReview® is best of breed, but can work very well with other best of breed software - providing a bespoke solution to each client. The company envisions continuing adding more value for money thru features in its flagship product and lead the industry with its distinctive solutions.

The organization’s philosophy is to make its software easy to use and administer by making key business logic configurable. This allows a flexible and focused software solution for each HR cycle. Spiralinks want to sell great software at a fair price; not sell software to sell implementation teams. The company proudly mentions implementation costs for FocalReview® are a fraction of

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Leadership Viewpoint

Challenges in Cloud Computing T

he Clouds keep rolling in for enterprises. In the 2018 State of the Cloud Survey performed by RightScale, they found that 96% of respondents now use the public, private, hybrid, or a mix of cloud computing models. To add some additional complexity to the mix, from the same survey, organizations are already running applications in 3.1 clouds and experimenting with 1.7 more for a total of 4.8 clouds.

2

Businesses report the key advantages of moving workloads to the Cloud are flexibility, agility, easy access to information, and cost savings. All of these great advantages though come with a price. Just like any migration project, there are a lot of moving pieces and a lot of places a company can run into issues.

There are really three silos of challenges that both cloud migrations and operating in the Cloud fall into.

1 Planning – Without a well thought out plan, your migration is destined to have a rocky road to operational readiness.

2 Risk Mitigation – It is key to understand all the risks, technology and business, that moving and operating in the Cloud creates. Adding risk mitigation to your initial plan will help ease the transition and make a surprise free environment when services go into production in the Cloud.

3 Governance (Cost and Security) – The ease of use, agility, and elasticity of the Cloud are great benefits, but, they can also lead to runaway costs and a lack of adherence to security best practices.

This is also a good time to start reviewing Cloud service providers that may fit the requirements of your applications, your infrastructure, and your budget.

3

Migration Planning Now that we know what we are moving and where it is moving, we can start to put together a plan. During the migration planning phase workloads are prioritized for the order they are going to be moved, a budget is put together, a business case is made for each workload that is to be moved, and pilot migrations are performed where further design, performance, or reliability testing is needed. Once this stage is complete, a full migration roadmap along with buy in from all the interested parties within the organization should be secured.

4

Migration and Testing Once a workload is migrated, full testing should take place. Testing for performance, load, security, resiliency and reliability should be performed. This is one of the most critical steps. It is much easier to mitigate issues BEFORE going into production.

5

Go Live This is probably the shortest but scariest part of the process. After all the hard work, the plug is pulled on the original system and the new system in the Cloud goes live. All support processes should be transitioned to support the new cloud infrastructure and all documentation should be updated. After any issues are

At CCSI we break the migration and operation in the Cloud into 5 key areas.

1

Discovery It is a critical start with a full understanding of what exists in the environment today. All applications, services, and supporting infrastructure should be inventoried and documented. This will ensure nothing gets left behind and that there is a clear understanding of the current steady state infrastructure.

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Assessment Once a complete inventory is created, each application and service can be evaluated to determine if it should be moved to the Cloud. If it is to move, is it best suited for public, private, or hybrid deployment or would it be better to move to a SaaS (Software as a Service) solution. Perhaps it can be decommissioned because there are duplicate services, or it is not being used anymore. It may also be determined that the application or service is not a good target to move. Perhaps it is a legacy application that can’t support more modern infrastructures.

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About the Author Joe Goldberg is the Senior Cloud Program Manager at CCSI. Over the past 15+ years, Joe has helped companies to design, build out, and optimize their network and data center infrastructure. Joe is also ITIL certified. Joe can be contacted via Twitter handle @DevOps_Dad or by email jgoldberg@ccsinet.com.

Joe Goldberg

Cloud Program Manager

CCSI

ironed out, a post migration review is always valuable to see if there are any ways to improve the migration process for the next workload.

Now that your organization is officially “in the Cloud”, the challenge of governance begins. For effective cost control in cloud computing services, it is important to understand the different factors that impact an organization’s cost.

Cloud cost management tools should be used to help discover the source of these inefficiencies. Unplanned costs are often due to a lack of visibility of current consumption and past trends. When organizations used on premise infrastructure, they financed it with fixed upfront CAPEX investments. Cloud consumption is an OPEX subscription model based on utilization. A shift in the approach to operational management is now needed. Optimizing for cost is as important as optimizing for performance.

Cloud-based governance tools can track usage and costs then alert administrators when costs are greater than budgeted. These same tools can be used to ensure corporate security policies are being applied to all workloads and that best practice security frameworks like Center for Internet Security (CIS) are being applied.

models deliver the best results and have adequate planning in place - but it’s not easy.

About CCSI For more than 40 years, Contemporary Computer Services Inc. (CCSI) mission has been to help solve modern business challenges with technology solutions that optimize cost, reduce risk, simplify operations, and increase performance. CCSI provides the highest quality of service in the industry for the full spectrum of technologies–from containers to PCs, network infrastructures, managed services, IP telephony, cybersecurity, cloud services, SD-WAN, to storage solutions. At CCSI, we believe that technology exists to make our lives - and our businesses simpler, more productive, secure, and ultimately more profitable. Let’s Grow Together. Learn more at www.ccsinet.com.

As cloud services move deeper into the organization, it’s as important as ever that technology leaders make informed decisions about which products, services, and payment December 2018 |

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