The 10 Most Booming SaaS Solution Providers 2018

www.insightssuccess.com May 2018

REVENUE TIPS SaaS Can Create Business Developments with Different Revenue Streams

EDITOR’S PICK Software: As open Source or as Convenient Service

10

THE

MOST BOOMING

SAAS

SOLUTION PROVIDERS

2018

YUVAL BEN-ITZHAK CEO

Socialbakers The 'One And All' SaaS Solution Provider to all Digital Marketing Queries

Editor’s Note

SaaSPersuading to be an Operational Reality

T

he world has already spectated how the recent emerging technologies have changed the entire business model. While the business world is growing competitive with every passing minute, SaaS has taken over the market space and reforming it. Cloud born technologies have been uprising adoption across organizations, since few years now. It is about time that the business world will be witness more cloud providers and industries turning to software-as-a-solution (SaaS).

The long going debate on whether the software industry should move from traditional license maintenance model to subscription-based models has now come to an end. The study conducted by a popular American research firm mentioned that this rapidly growing software market is compelling the legacy providers to switch to SaaS options or they can risk losing the market traction. The emerging additions to this software are again increasing this risk.

Vertical SaaS, an upcoming trend is expected to hit the market space soon. Targeted at specific industries or companies, it will allow companies to adapt to the features as demanded by the customers or industry. The additional benefits like cost-effectiveness and the industry specific option is the reason why this software is going to blow up the market. Another major change to be initiated by SaaS would be the shift to mobile-focused-SaaS. Since the world runs on mobiles, SaaS companies have now turned their focus to mobile apps, which means- better user experience. Thinking broader, SaaS companies are also on the verge to introduce PaaS (Platform-as-a Service) which will help companies to focus on customer retention rather that acquisition. This single step is going to swipe the customer experience, as customers would be able to add other services and mould the previous one, depending on their usage.

While 2017 was an innovative year for SaaS, 2018 is the year when the business world would get a new dimension with SaaS. Looking at the emerging opportunities and the growing possibilities, we have decided to go for a special issue on “The 10 Most Booming SaaS Solution Providers 2018”.

It will walk you through a list of companies which have proved their substance with their innovatory services. Keeping up the sheer pace with the advancing technologies, these companies have paved their way into the market and this domain.

On the Cover of the issue, we have featured Socialbakers, ‘One And All’ SaaS Solution Provider for all digital marketing queries. While every other company has its platform which offers service to its clients, Socialbakers followed a different path by offering digital marketing service powered with Artificial Intelligence (AI). Apart from such insightful cover story we have also enlisted Artivatic; for offering Intelligent Applications and Solutions powered by AI, CanQualify; for disrupting the market of supply chain management with its reformatory approach, WhiteSource; leading global providers of “Software Composition Analysis” tools.

While flipping the pages, take a note not to miss out articles masterly crafted by our in-house editors. The article SaaS Can Create Business Developments with Different Revenue Streams from Revenue Tips explains the strategies to be followed to generate revenue in the SaaS industry.

While turing the pages you can also find Cloud Computing – Revamping the Technology for the Next Generation from Into the ‘Clouds’ and Software: As open Source or as Convenient Service from the Editor’s Pick. We have also included articles like, Disruption in content distribution and the new normal from the Insights into Cloud, Is Automation Really Helping Humans from the Robo Tech session which are authored by the industry experts. These articles will help you understand the present market scenario of this industry.

Hope this edition of ours will leave an imprint on your mind!

Suhel Mashayak

SOCIALBAKERS: The 'One And All' SaaS Solution Provider to all Digital Marketing Queries

08

ROBOTECH

INSIGHTS INTO CLOUD

THE WORKSPACE

Is the Automation Really Helping Humans?

Disruption in content distribution and the new normal

SaaS Software Platforms Will Empower the Workforce in the Digital Age

18

26

38

INTO THE ‘CLOUDS’ Cloud Computing – Revamping the Technology for the Next Generation

CLOUDING AND BUSINESS The New Way Of BusinessMobility on Cloud

22

EDITOR’S PICK Software: As open Source or as Convenient Service

30

REVENUE TIPS

34

ARTIVATIC Integrating Technology to build Intelligent Applications and Solutions

CANQUALIFY Leading SaaS Provider of Supply Chain Management

SaaS Can Create Business Developments with Different Revenue Streams

42

16

24

WHITESOURCE Creating New Business Avenues with Open Source Components

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www.inď€ onic.com

Pooja M. Bansal Anish Miller Suhel Mashayak Crescent CU Brian Smith Anmol, Devasish Visualiser David King Art & Design Director Amol Kamble Associate Designer Vanshika Mittal Co-designer Poonam Mahajan Art & Picture Editor Paul Belin Jayant Khanna Passi D. Senior Sales Manager Business Development Manager Peter Collins Marketing Manager Sophie Smith Business Development Executives Jim Williams, Misty Thomas, Josh Gray Sales Executives David, Kevin, Mark, Judy Kent, Vijay Technical Head Jacob Smile Technical Specialist Amar, Pratiksha Digital Marketing Manager Marry D’Souza Online Marketing Strategist Alina Sege, Shubham Mahadik, Vaibhav K SME-SMO Executives Prashant Chevale, Uma Dhenge, Gemson, Irfan Research Analyst Chidiebere Moses Circulation Manager Robert, Tanaji Database Management Stella Andrew Technology Consultant David Stokes Editor-in-Chief Senior Editor Managing Editor Executive Editor Contributors

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May, 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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Y R O T S R E V O C

Yuval Ben-Itzhak CEO

“

A

ny business is tricky while digital marketing is the most challenging part of it. Due to vast developments in the technology, staying ahead of the changing trends and the market demands have become the common goal of any entrepreneur.

Technology has been playing a great role in every aspect of human life while the businessmen all around the globe have embraced it wholeheartedly. Digital marketing had taken a big hit when it was incorporated with AI. Many digital marketing solution providers have taken root to help capitalists in their business and help them climb the ladder of success.

However, Socialbakers is standing out among the crowd. While every other company has its platform which offers service to its clients, Socialbakers followed a different path by offering digital marketing service powered with Artificial Intelligence (AI).

The Man Leading the Team of Innovators

Having a profound experience of 20 years in entrepreneurship at both private and public companies, Yuval Ben-Itzhak is the captain of this army of designers and developers. Currently serving as the CEO,

We offer an easy to use SaaS marketing suite which enables marketers to analyze social media data, optimize performance, execute content strategy and manage social communities effectively.

The Guide to all Social Media Problems Socialbakers allows marketers to be successful in understanding their audiences, to better personalize content creation and to engage and grow their customer base. Socialbakers’ easy-to-use SaaS marketing suite enables customers to analyze social media data, optimize performance, execute content strategy and manage social communities effectively. This suite will help the clients in generating great content, publish content at the time when their audience is most active, compare their content strategy, and make smarter advertisement decisions to improve campaigns against industry benchmarks. With fully customizable dashboards, the Socialbakers solution monitors and reports the impact of marketer’s social media activities on their community and business.

Powered by AI, this suite allows marketers to learn the outstanding content created by other marketers around the world. This knowledge later can be used in developing and delivering content that resonates more deeply with the audience and returns real value for the brand. It also enables marketers to gain data-driven predictions and recommendations on the best time to publish their content. The platform shares the content posted by marketers across multiple channels and ranks all of the posts by engagement. The team at Socialbakers is very client friendly. It takes its time to analyze the issues and provide a solution. Socialbakers have studied that one of the main challenges faced by marketers was that they needed between 3-5 different tools to manage their social media. This single solution platform created

by Socialbakers manages all social media related issues.

It also acts on predictions and recommendations, manages the content, community, social ads, and analyzes the performances with visuals and reports.

Yuval adds saying, “From an easy-to-understand the grading system to an overview of the best posts, our tool

10 SaaS

THE

MOST BOOMING

SOLUTION PROVIDERS 2018

At Socialbakers we listen closely to our customers and we have evolved our product offering to answer the challenges they face.

“

Yuval has a prior experience of serving as CTO at Outbrain; one of the leading content discovery platform.

Five years as CTO at AVG Technologies; where he played a key role in taking the company public, CTO of Finjain, a cybersecurity company, where he led six international groups are the other experience cards in his kit. He is also the Co-founder of, KaVaDo; a web application security software company. Yuval is a graduate of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel and a holder of 20 U.S. patents. He is also a frequent commentator in the media and speaks regularly on technology topics.

makes sure that every dollar invested on social media is money well-spent.”

The Technology Driven Marketing Suite Socialbakers with its unique and innovative approach towards marketing is the owner of a marketing suite powered by the pervasive power of AI. While this suite has already proven its efficiency in generating great content, publish content at the time when the clients’ audience is most active.

The new addition to this suite has crowned it as the most favored marketing tool in business. Audience Segmentation, the extended platform provides marketers with insights into their audience personas, the content they engage with, their main interests and the influencers they trust. The biggest advantage of this new offering is

that the client can have access to all these information in just one click. This additional feature is an expert at identifying the different personas within an audience based on their behavior and interests. By integrating social with other digital data sources and leveraging the power of AI and machine learning technologies, Audience Segmentation helps marketers better understand each unique audience, so they can reach them with relevant content in the right channel in real time.

Our methodology enables marketers to be successful in understanding their

personalize content

“

audiences, to better

creation and to engage and grow their customer base.

“By adding AI-powered Audience Segmentation to our platform, we are turning data into productivity.

We are solving key challenges faced by many brands today, such as what does my audience engage with, what interests do they have and who do they trust?”, explains Yuval.

The other new offering which has proved its efficiency is the Influencer Management. This additional offering enables marketers to identify macro and micro influencers that their audience trusts, engages with and share similar interests to.

With this, marketers can leverage smart recommendations to help them discover the social media influencers that are the best fit for their audience and to measure their performance and impact on the campaign at the click of a button.

Launch of Socialbakers’ Influencer Management lets

marketers to access the industry’s largest database of influencers and select the right one based on their influencer score within the selected audience persona.

By accessing Socialbakers’ Influencer Management directly within the Socialbakers Suite marketers can replace the time and budget intensive manual search and performance monitoring with a one-click digital solution.

Success Stories and Global Accolades Socialbakers is much appreciated for its cutting-edge AI-powered social media marketing suite that gives marketers one tool to manage all social media related issues. Among the roster of many satisfied clients, Socialbakers is proud to offer its services to companies such as Nestle, L’OREAL, TOYOTA, Microsoft and Airtel.

This unique platform of Socialbakers has rescued many corporations facing troubles in managing their digital audience. This service of Socialbakers has brought honors from around the globe. It has been listed among the 5000 List of the Fastest Growing Companies in Europe by the 2018 Inc. It has also been listed in the Top 10 Digital Marketing Analytics Solution Providers by Marketing Tech Outlook in the year 2017. In the year 2017 Socialbakers was listed among the 1000 Fastest Growing Companies in Europe by Financial Times.

Future Endeavors Socialbakers have plans to announce the launch of two new modules within the Socialbakers Suite namely, the Socialbakers Audiences and Influencers. These modules have been designed in such a way that it enables the marketers to build accurate personas within their audience, improve targeting, and select influencers based on how well they match their audience and business. As many marketers in today’s world are experiencing a challenge to manage the digital audience and business, Socialbakers have come to rescue such marketers with their unique social media platform.

“

We offer a

marketing suite

powered by the

cutting-edge

technology AI, which

helps marketers to measure, manage and optimize their social media and helps them gain maximum business value from their digital initiatives.

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10 SaaS

THE

MOST BOOMING

SOLUTION PROVIDERS 2018

Management

Brief

Actimo actimo.com

Eske Gunge CEO

Actimo is a globally leading management technology company.

Its application ‘Actimo’ is a mobile-first communication and management application built to meet needs of today’s organizations. The platform provides managers a complete insight with a strong 360 degree tool for Communication and Training.

Artivatic Data Labs Pvt Ltd artivatic.ai

Layak Singh Founder

Artivatic is an end-to-end AI infrastructure platform built on deep-tech, machine learning technologies with an in-depth analogy of genomic science, psychology and neuroscience.

CanQualify canqualify.com

Aaron Harker Founder

CanQualify is a cloud based Supply Chain Risk Management platform.

Cavintek, Inc. cavintek.com

Bhaskar Krishnamoorthy CEO

Cavintek is known to give the best automation solution for SMBs that is uncomplicated to use, is inexpensive and add critical value.

Exponea exponea.com

Peter Irikovsky CEO

Exponea offers B2C customers a full suite of all-in-one cloud based platform for acquisition, conversion and retention of customer.

Ranking Coach rankingcoach.com

Daniel Wette CEO

Rankingcoach provides state-of-the-art software solutions for online marketing activities, search engine optimization and social media.

Selfdrvn Enterprise selfdrvn.com

Mun Choong Lam Founder & CEO

SelfDrvn is a technology company that has designed a SaaS platform to help organizations enhance their engagement, with employees and customers through effective communication, gamification, and analytics.

SLM slm.cloud

Gonzalo Araújo C CEO

SLM is an expert in low-cost technological solutions which offers server-based computing and application delivery solutions globally.

Socialbakers socialbakers.com

Yuval Ben-Itzhak CEO

Socialbakers is a SaaS solution provider company powered by AI which provides unique solutions to all social media issues.

WhiteSource Software whitesourcesoftware.com

Rami Sass CEO

WhiteSource is a market leader in providing open source software (OSS) lifecycle management solutions.

Company Name

Artivatic:

Integrating Technology to build Intelligent Applications and Solutions

A

rtivatic is an end-to-end AI infrastructure platform built on deep-tech, machine learning technologies with an in-depth analogy of genomic science, psychology and neuroscience. This helps large enterprises, start-ups and developers to build and integrate intelligent products and solutions without any development effort. It focuses on Banking, Finance, Insurance, Lending, Wealth Management, Capital Market, Manufacturing, Healthcare, and Robotics sectors. In short, Artivatic’s platform’s agnostic nature enables enterprises to have ‘Smart AI Brain’ like humans to automate all processes and make decisions by themselves in real-time.

Artivatic has 25+ in-house built products, which have been currently utilized to build 10+ industry solutions at a large scale. Most of the products are built in-house without any third party library. One patent has already been filed in India & the USA, with more than five other patents in the pipeline.

An ‘Alternative IBM Watson’ Artivatic was started as an infrastructure level platform in the beginning—which can be called as an ‘Alternative IBM Watson’. The focus was to build a platform that helps enterprises, developers and SME businesses to build innovative and intelligent solutions. Initially, the company focused only on large enterprises, which require on-premise solutions in their datacenter, however then it became more like a service model and scalability was the main challenge.

The company was continuously getting requests from other start-ups, SME and some large clients as well to use cloudbased applications. Coupled with this, the company also found it great to scale without worrying about computation power, GPU and data processing in real-time. This inspired Artivatic to launch all its technologies, products and solutions to put on cloud and serve as a SaaS platform as well other than the on-premise model. This helped it to scale globally too without even focusing more on travel, delivery and customization.

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Leader Holding the Reins Mr. Layak Singh, Founder of Artivatic, is a renowned serial-entrepreneur who graduated from IIT, Kharagpur. His passion led him to start a slew of ventures that had their own flaws and from the ashes of these start-ups, has risen up his current and most visionary project, Artivatic Data Labs.

Layak’s ability to look at a problem for what it is, and not only find the best solution, but also his foresight and ability to learn the most from any experience has helped keep his ideas afloat in times when most people would have given up on their dreams. Above all, it is his spirit that drives the team and the motivation behind the company, providing the oil for every cog in the system to work perfectly.

Unique Services Artivatic makes end-to-end solutions that work across industries. Its products are built on the principles of genomics and neuroscience—two governing aspects of its services. Genomic is the ability to form holistic, comprehensive models or views of people, products, events and situations, while neuroscience uses this holistic understanding to think and automatically make decisions in the same way that a human does.

These products and services are multipurpose in that they can be used to verify identities, flag fraudulent documents or transactions, make suggestions and recommendations based on personal preferences and can even make decisions for a person, based on their previous choices.

Artivatic’s tools require minimum maintenance and effort—they can be installed on a company’s server and do not require an entire tech team to keep it running. There are more than 12 core tech products, 30+ tools and 10+ industry solutions. Some of the tools and products are, AVDATAQUARTZ, AVACROSS, AVPREDICT, AVDECISION, AVNLP, AVSILOSOL/AVSaaS and AVDEVSPACE.

May 2018

10 SaaS

THE

MOST BOOMING

SOLUTION PROVIDERS 2018

‘‘

Most of our products are built in-house without any third party library Layak Singh Founder

Helping Companies Grow “Clients who invest in Artivatic technology stand to gain the most from data-driven insights, integrate AI-driven technology to smooth out workflows, speed up mundane processes by automating and digitising manual tasks and use the insights gleaned from the data to protect themselves and their customers from fraud,” says Layak.

In this day and age, data is abundant but many companies, especially banks and insurers, fail to make the most of this component. Studying user data and behaviour patterns allows a company to understand each individual’s preferences, thought process and intention behind particular choices. Implementing Artivatic technology allows tapping into these insights and providing better services. Ultimately, this increases a company’s performance, bottom line and helps keep their customers happy and loyal.

Scope and Challenges The scope of AI, IoT and automation-driven technology is immense. Today, the amount of processing power available is more than ever been in the past and has paved the way for a better future. Integration of new technology can really change the way many industries operate, especially in a country like India. AI and IoT are set to revolutionise healthcare, agriculture, insurance, banking, retail and many more sectors that have remained non-digitised.

and suspicious of emerging technology. We are not afraid to put up pictures of our most intimate and important moments online, but we are incredibly defensive when companies use this information to their benefit. We live in a time when Facebook and Google already own all the information on us and everyone from Spotify to Netflix use personal data to improve their recommendation section, so people must get used to the idea that their information is now out there for companies to use. After all, who doesn’t want the convenience of your groceries being delivered as soon as you get back from work—without having to lift a finger to order them?,” asserts Layak.

The Best is Yet to Come Artivatic’s focus is to revolutionise banking, insurance and financial services in India. The company is developing genomic science based health insurance products, agriculture-farmer focused lending & insurance products, real-time automated decision making system to approve loans, policies, credit and much more. It is also gearing to launch its own insurance and lending platforms in partnership with existing financial institutions. The plan is to apply for financial licenses as well from regulatory firms to launch some unique products. The focus will be to serve the global market in next one year in the entire BFSI & Healthcare domain. Artivatic aims to bring in more in-depth innovation and research for critical areas in the industry in the upcoming years.

“While we have so much to look forward to, I still think the biggest challenge in the field is that people remain sceptical May 2018

17

RoboTech

18

May 2018

IS THE

ABOUT THE AUTHOR As the Founder and CEO of one of New York's premier SEO agency, Seun Ajanwachuku is a leading New York digital marketing consultant.

Some of his innovations include the creation of conversion marketing software for Wix Market Place, and establishing & cementing his ď€ rm as a leading, reputable and award winning marketing company in NYC. Seun's expertise has created one of the most dynamic and youngest SEO companies in New York City.

In addition to Seun's marketing background, he also holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering and an airplane power plant license. This rare combination of background makes Seun an ideal and indispensable resource for engineering and technical startups.

May 2018

AUTOMATION

HUMANS?

FOUNDER & CEO

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History of Automation Automation goes back many centuries to the time when the Greeks and Arab needed a way to keep track of time.

One of the human first practical inventions that mimics some form of automation was the invention of a mechanical calculator by Wilhelm Schickard. The creation of devices like calculators allowed people to accomplish task fast with higher accuracy. Similarly, some other inventions were developed across a wide range of industries to enhance further the speed and efficiency that comes with accomplishing daily tasks.

highly accessed. Since manufacturing requires many steps and processes, the creation of the automated machinery has improved a lot in terms of efficiency and quality control.

There are different types of automation available in the ground, and some of them are mentioned below.

Numerical automation – Machines programmed to perform repetitive tasks such as 3D printing and embroidery machines Computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) – This automation accessed computer software to control machinery.

Example: CAD

Automation in the Digital Age Currently, people are living in the era where everything is moving towards automation. You can see news related to automation every day in the newspaper, on Tv and online.

Sometimes, it makes people say “Wow, things are moving fast” or “I pray that the day that a machine will replace me at work will never come”!

Automation is permeating every corner of our lives from the apps that exist on your phone to machine powered selfdriving cars. It was projected that 70 million US jobs would be lost to automation by 2030. This is a staggering number, and it plainly explains why automation is considered by some to be a curse more than a blessing.

Overview of the automation and its types These days, automation can be discovered in nearly every industry, which ranges from transportation to defense and medical operations.

Manufacturing is one of the most common areas in which automation is

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Flexible manufacturing systems (FMS) – It combines robots, numerical control system and other industrial automation tools into a single system. Case: metal cutting and forming Industrial robot – It can be programmed and manipulated in two or more axes. It may also operate in mobile or fixed applications. Example: Palletizing Automation and Productivity In specific industries, automation has increased employment opportunity highly unlike before. For example, with the introduction of ATM in the banking industry, it developed more employment for staff in every branch.

According to a recent report, about 43% of human tellers have been added in the past thirty years after the establishment of ATMs. Most importantly, bear in mind that over 90% of jobs will not be able to undergo complete automation. In fact, automation will help you become smarter and do things much better than before.

Automation and Job Security Automation has indeed increased the jobs in so many industries.

E-commerce is one of these industries; which is still in its developing stages.

As the retail sector faces multiple disruptions over the convenience and shopping comfort, which e-commerce industry (automated) offers, job reports have highly focused on the job losses, which this industry has faced.

On the other hand, e-commerce sector is growing at an alarming rate that is three times faster than the retail industry. This eventually adds more 40,000 jobs along with high salary package. When compared to the retail sector, online e-commerce job renders more pay. This is 31% more than the average salary of the person who works in the retail store.

How Automation is Helping us Discover Our Origin At present, many debates are going on whether automation is detrimental to the livelihood of the human. Some of the people remain convinced that massive adoption of automation will potentially lead to the demise of many jobs. As mentioned already, in reality, people should be resistant and fearful of automation. Because contrary to this belief, this incredible technology is not meant to replace humans; instead, it is intended to improve and extend human life. Finally, it is safe to say that automation is here to stay. On both ends of the spectrum, automation will work to amplify job loss and creation of higher quality and paying jobs.

May 2018

Into the ‘Clouds’

CLOUD COMPUTING REVAMPING THE TECHNOLOGY FOR THE NEXT GENERATION

T

he Information Technology has become a prominent force in fueling the economic growth of the business world by spreading across the various sectors around the globe. Cloud Computing is one of the innovative platforms in IT which is gaining the prominence in the market of storage and hosting.

Economics and convenience are the prime reasons why the majority of companies are following the path of Cloud Computing. As the IT market is very dynamic and competitive, innovative ideas in cloud domain are paving way for new prospects and expansions in the market. Apart from basic services like storage and hosting, cloud computing has made tremendous progress towards processing power through technologies like 'Natural Language Processing’ and ‘Artificial Intelligence’. As per the independent research organizations, global expenditure on cloud services might reach up to 260 billion USD this year and around one-third of IT enterprises spending will be directed towards cloud services. These market trends are an indication of growing confidence and reliance on external sources of infrastructure application and security services.

There is a radical shift in the companies as they concentrate more on computing as a service rather than investing in the entire setup. This results in decreasing the capital expenditure (CAPEX) and increases the operating expenditure (OPEX) of a business. Although researchers believe that the cost will be a dominant factor for future investments, there is also a huge demand for new cloudbased innovative solutions.

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Transforming the Business World As per the analysis of independent researchers, approximately eighty percent of businesses will be using cloud services by 2020. Cloud has become a decisive tool to drive business growth and transforms the traditional ways of managing the business. Some of the key ways that Cloud Computing is capable of transforming into today's business: Enhances Data Recovery Innovative cloud solutions are proving to be the most optimal answers for companies looking for viable disaster recovery plans. This recovery process reduces risk, maximizes productivity and resilience when compared to existing recovery methods. ‘Disaster Recovery as a Service’ (DRaaS) is a new solution that ensures the continuity of critical applications for the business. It offers close real-time redundancy in case of any disaster which can bring the business to a halt.

Fuels Business Mobility The cloud-based management space is evolving at a fast pace. This platform provides the perfect solution to mobile businesses by keeping everyone connected from any device, irrespective of any geographical restraints. Rapid deployment and integrating diverse devices gives cloudbased companies to perform much better.

Supports Remote Worker Working with remote workers is another new area where May 2018

cloud-based solutions are in great demand. Remote workers can create virtual desktops which can be accessed from any devices. Also, cloud-based video chat platform allows remote workers to be connected and ensure greater productivity.

Evolving Internet of Things (IoT) The core of cloud technology is IoT. Apart from enabling devices to be connected globally, the fusion of IoT with technologies like ‘Artificial Intelligence’ is allowing innovations and analysis to redevelop IoT into ‘Internet of Everything’ (IoE).

The Financial and Operating Benefits of Cloud Computing Reduced capital investment is one of the key advantages of implementing cloud in today’s business houses. Cloud helps to eliminate the expenses incurred in setting up the computing environment. Furthermore, the revenue-andservice premise for cloud providers is built on a ‘pay as you go’ model in which the charges are only for the services which have been actually utilized by the company.

From the operational point, cloud computing proves to be beneficial to the organizations. Operational activities like upgrades, change control, release management and data center mirroring are been eliminated to a huge extent. As it helps to simplify the complex technical structure, business find it easy to concentrate on the core operational activities.

May 2018

Quick facts -Top-line growth, employee collaboration, and supply chain are the three areas which are expected to surge over the next three years.

-The launch of new products and services, new lines of business and entering new markets are three ways through which cloud is transforming organizations.

-Independent surveys reveal that around fifty eight percent of enterprises think that using cloud services will increase their revenues in the coming years.

Marching towards the Horizon Moving to cloud services is the beginning of a new journey.

In the longer perspective, cloud computing is increasingly appearing to be a transformative change in the business landscape. This technology may not be suitable for every organization but implanting this technology presents immense benefits for enterprises to enhance their productivity. Cloud services are helping enterprises in achieving a high level of transparency and adaptability of IT infrastructure. Being able to access the latest technology without any investments is also – one of the reasons why companies are so inclined to adopt cloud services. At present, cloud solutions have emerged as the best methods to revamp and enhance the IT infrastructure within an organization.

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CanQualify: Leading SaaS Provider of Supply Chain Management

S

aaS applications are revolutionizing the business environment. They offer many advantages such as low upfront costs, anytime, anywhere access, and automatic updates and upgrades. The SaaS market is seeing major growth in all areas. This growth cycle is fueled by the need for enterprises to reduce costs, while boosting efficiency. CanQualify, a fast growing cloud-based Supply Chain Risk Management platform. They connect the world’s largest companies with the safest and most qualified suppliers. CanQualify ensures that companies who work for you are prequalified based on your requirements to work.

would be a tremendous value-added partner and or team member to any organization and a positive influence in his working and personal communities.

Services Offered by CanQualify CanQualify has a team of dedicated customer service representatives who contact each company and guide them through the prequalification process. Once all client requirements have been submitted, CanQualifiy validates that all hiring client requirements are met. CanQualify validates data annually and or as it expires and communicates any changes to the client.

The Establishment Story Like all innovations, CanQualify is driven to be the best.

SaaS providers in the market sometimes miss the mark when it comes to balancing both technology and personal touch together. Technology is great, but there’s a time and place for it. When the human factor is completely missing from the equation, then there’s a problem. So CanQualify, set out to create a more complete, convenient and costeffective solution to meet the needs of both their clients and customers. Based in Lehi, UT, the company was founded in 2015.

The Dynamic Founder Founder of CanQualify, Aaron Harker has effectively resurrected an old art of providing excellent customer service that recognizes customer needs as the ultimate mission. Aaron’s ability to organize and prioritize the small details for overall meaningful impact and true course direction that leads to continuous improvement is one of his strengths. Additionally, his vision for positive change with a good dose of patience is commendable. Aaron Harker

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In addition to CanQualify’s products described below, they consider themselves and their platform to be the service.

They make phone calls and provide hands-on support, eliminating the need for a third party to help walk their customers through the process. Their varied products each address specific client needs: CanQUALifier: CanQualify’s intuitive web-based software platform connects clients with qualified companies DocuQUAL: CanQualify’s risk-based prequalification form includes collection & verification of client requirements InsureQUAL: CanQualify’s collection & verification of insurance certificates ensures compliance with client requirements AuditQUAL: CanQualify’s collection & verification of contractors’ safety manual ensures regulatory & trade requirements are met

May 2018

10 SaaS

THE

MOST BOOMING

SOLUTION PROVIDERS 2018

Aaron Harker Founder

EmployeeQUAL: CanQualify collects & verifies employee-specific client requirements CustomQUAL: CanQualify’s custom prequalification form is tailored to a client’s specific needs The Client Base There are many benefits which their clients & customers receive: · Reduce time and money spent gathering and submitting compliance information · Leverage spend with contractors for even more cost savings · Centralized web-based archive of all compliance documents and data · Proactive notifications · Improved safety culture among contractors · Single data submittal · Standardized qualification criteria for all participants (levels the playing field) · Opportunities for new client relationships

expand and roll out additional products in the near future.

Also, as a company, CanQualify is intentional and strategic with continuing its momentum, and it is always passionate about its developing leadership in the ever-growing space of supply chain management. Innovation and creativity have always been the driving force behind their products, and that mission and drive will remain the same over the coming years, positioning them as one of the premier SaaS companies.

Future Roadmap CanQualify is growing at a steady pace and will continue to May 2018

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Insights Into Cloud

Disruption in Content Distribution and the New Normal C ontent distribution is experiencing tremendous disruption. Broadcasters are going online, telcos are offering digital TV services, and players like Netflix and Hulu are storming into a space once dominated by a handful of all-powerful television-broadcast leaders. It’s a new era of content democratization, where viewers are sure winners and content owners, rights holders, telcos, and broadcasters alike are rushing to meet consumer demand for anywhere, anytime content.

The net result? More content is available across more digital platforms than ever before. Content delivery networks (CDNs)—geographically distributed networks of servers that hold copies of content—have risen in number and importance in response to the booming content marketplace. Using a general-purpose CDN service is one approach, especially if you don’t have too many viewers or they are widely dispersed. But costs rise in

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direct proportion to the bandwidth used, so they don’t offer much economy of scale or control over content delivery.

Edgeware has pioneered a more specialized purpose-built approach.

We build TV delivery technology for high-quality, low-latency content distribution at large scale. One of our purpose-built TV CDNs can deliver live-to-VOD, catch-up, start-over and pause-live TV, cloud DVR, TV everywhere, ad insertion, fast channel change, 4K TV – all from one shared platform. It can also eliminate expensive bandwidth rental and provide operational and resource efficiencies that result in significant cost savings over time.

An exploding, crowded market Edgeware began by helping telcos offer TV services with local ad insertion and other features that optimize networks’ reach and infrastructure. Now, a growing number of OTT (over the top) providers and content owners are

also looking for cost-effective ways to distribute content. And as services become more successful, and the capacity per viewer increases with advancements like 4K and VR (virtual reality), there is little economy of scale to be gained by distributing across someone else’s service. So, it makes sense to explore creating and operating your own network.

It’s a landscape of opportunity but it’s also a crowded one. It’s important for any company to positon for growth, to make the most of market opportunities. While it’s not without its challenges, it’s a great place to be.

Success through innovation Companies that succeed in today’s rapidly changing landscape are those that innovate alongside, not in response to, these changes. Our focus on innovation translates into specialized offerings like anti-piracy and forensic watermarking that are tremendously important to combat a pervasive problem. Billions of

May 2018

dollars are lost each year to online piracy.

YouGov research that has recently been commissioned by Edgeware has found that nearly 40% of viewers are likely to watch pirated content on-demand by downloading or streaming illegally shared versions of popular films and TV programming. Further, more than one fifth (21%) said they would watch live events like live sports from unsolicited online sources. Protection of digital content across the content creation and distribution chain is critical.

At the same time, the industrywide move from software to hardware and to cloud-based technologies and a more open virtualized environment can’t be underestimated. But it’s not a onesize-fits-all proposition. Hardware is a still a viable, competitive sector.

Not all regions of the world have the fiber infrastructure required to support entirely software-based operations. For many content owners and distributors, hybrid solutions are the best answer, allowing hardware to be distributed closer to viewers and bypass a congested Internet. In fact, Edgeware is uniquely positioned to play in all spaces – software-only, hardware-only and hybrid. We design

Karl Thedéen Managing Director & CEO

Edgeware

May 2018

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systems according to the specific needs, budgets and infrastructure realties of our customers.

We can also provide our customers unique insight into their viewers’ behavior and give control back to the content owner, rights holder or broadcaster. By correlating viewing insights and analytics with network performance, they can get a clear snapshot of who’s watching, what they’re watching, and how they’re watching it – as well as how’s it’s being delivered. It’s said that knowledge is power and perhaps nowhere is this truer than internet TV services.

Managing growth within the content distribution landscape is also critical.

Many of our customers are seeing tremendous subscriber growth. At the same time, providers must address occasional viewership spikes related to programming. So a high quality service that can scale is critical. We know Netflix solved their scaling challenges by building their own CDN for TV delivery. And the same is true for lots of our customers. Our TV infrastructure, including software design, is optimized to scale.

Find your competitive advantage It’s important for any technology company to innovate to keep abreast of customer needs. Sometimes that innovation delivers unique benefits and sets you apart in the market – a sweet spot of differentiation. For Edgeware, repackaging content at the edge of a TV CDN instead of at the origin reduces backhaul and cache storage by a factor of two to three, which is enormously compelling to

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our customers. The network is less congested because only a single format of the content needs to be distributed. This frees up caching memory and reduces the risk of buffering or glitches, significantly improving the viewing experience.

You can also repackage, encrypt and personalize streams to include ad insertion, watermarking, time-shift TV, and serve multiple devices directly at the edge without the going back to the source content and fetching lots of different versions. It optimizes storage and saves capacity.

The content only needs to be ingested once in the origin, before it is automatically distributed to the delivery server upon a viewer’s request.

Evolving revenue models The reality is that ad revenues have been leaking out of the traditional TV industry for more than a decade.

Today, content owners, telcos and service providers are exploring subscription-based as well as advertising-driven models or a combination of the two. Targeted advertising achievable through online content delivery has blown open the door to new revenue models. And now, personalized ads and local ad insertion are driving a return to higher advertising revenues.

The sporting life The launch of myTV SUPER, an OTT service provided by one of the largest commercial Chinese program producers in the world, speaks to what can be achieved through a smartly designed platform.

Rather than rent capacity on a generic public CDN service, myTV SUPER decided to launch its portfolio of online TV services—including 50 linear channels, live programming and 4K VOD content—by building its own TV CDN for full control of its new OTT services. Their TV CDN was built using 60 Edgeware distributed servers across Hong Kong, to cache popular content and stream it in high quality directly to viewers. They were also able to deliver a rich set of time-shift TV functionality and personalized advertising insertion options with subtitling support in multiple languages. The service has attracted more than five million users in less than two years and put viewers in total control of everything they watch.

We’re seeing more local providers and content owners getting into the game. Sports leagues and other regional content owners are sitting on valuable content they want to distribute – not just in their own backyard but to others around the world who share their affinity.

Audiences are willing to pay for high-quality content, so the breadth of the market is expanding exponentially. It’s an exciting time for content owners and viewers as technology innovation brings these worlds ever closer. www.edgeware.tv

May 2018

Editor’s Pick

SOFTWARE:

As open Source or as Convenient Service

T

echnology is trying to overhaul the old school methodologies of business from a long time now. Technology has leaped a high jump in the past decade, providing humans with easy and fast ways of everyday tasks. After forming commune with smartphones, AI, and virtual reality, technology is now coming after the hardware. SaaS and cloud computing are the new waves of technology that are being used in small and mid-business to minimize the overall cost of the production. Cloud technologies like SaaS are threatening the world of old on-site and open source software alongside with their functionality. Richard Stallman of the Free Software Foundation refers SaaS to Service as a Software Substitute (SaaSS). According to him, the use of SaaS is a violation of the principles of free software.

Setting it up On-premise software installation can be a long tedious afternoon task. It requires the perfect hardware and software combination to work accurately. Open source software is generally free, but they pluck expenses from user's pocket via additional packages which include design, extensions, plugins, and themes. For example, Wordpress is extremely helpful free website builder but requires additional costs in themes. Furthermore, the starting and running up a software requires the user to conversant with technical skills. The software requires certain hardware needs that are mandatory to be filled in order to use the software at its peak performance. The Internet is not required in most cases, but it is always required in order to update any software.

Software updates depend upon the software developers, whether they will fix the issues or bring new features and also whether the updates will be free or not. It should also be noted that the support for the software will definitely end in future.

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May 2018

SaaS on the other hand just requires a computer, internet connection and a subscription to a software service. This eliminates the need for maintaining high power computing machines to fulfill the requirements of the software. SaaS services are run on provider’s servers, hosted by the provider, managed by the provider, and updated by the provider. Such services eradicate the factors of technical knowledge and extensions/plugins comes together in a single package. These kinds of wide integration are pre-installed and provide smooth interaction with the user.

Functionality As SaaS is accessed by users via a browser, the service is licensed on a subscription basis, most commonly a monthly fee or an annual fee. As it is hosted from a remote location, it’s the provider’s responsibily of maintaining the hardware. Such services are future proof as the providers will take care of any upcoming needs. Updates are rolled out and installed without the user’s input, eliminating all the hassles related to updating. Additionally, security and performance standards are also met by the provider.

Open source software is created by people who are passionate about software programming. Not only they provide the executable file, they also provide its programming code. Users can modify the source as per their requirement and there are lots of openly available enhancements. Although, consumers must be aware of open source licensing terms and they must check it regularly as they as present in large numbers and gets updated with brevity. Open source provides the flexibility only if the consumer can spare the time, energy, and expertise.

Cost, control, and security For startups, a low number of users, and short-term deployment, SaaS can take the overall cost over the open source. However, if the users are more than twenty then the open source is the best cost-effective alternative. Open source requires large hardware to set up, a licensed operating system, facilities, support, and most important salaries for the personnel. In terms of control and security, open source offers the full control over the user data. In SaaS, the security is guaranteed by the provider and customers have to agree to service level agreements regarding backup and privacy. The conundrum arises when customers have to migrate data from one service to another. It gets difficult in migrating the data over the internet and sometimes, the data is held hostage when a customer tries to leave a provider and customers can be stuck with dead-end applications with no access to their data.

Organisations can't entrust their data with third-party providers.

For small and mid business, SaaS is ready to go, but for organizations, if they can’t afford, can opt out for on-premise software. In the end, SaaS has to spend some time to fully acquire the attributes provided by on-premise software so it depends on the consumer how they want to move forward with their business.

May 2018

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WhiteSource: Creating New Business Avenues with Open Source Components

A

s businesses continue to evolve and digitize their offerings, companies are moving towards cloud systems in large numbers. Thanks to SaaS technology, there has been a profound shift in the way that businesses are offering their software solutions. By incorporating real-time analytics and faster innovations, businesses are able to customize the site experience for everyone. Not only is it affordable and flexible, SaaS technology is transforming the way services are being provided by companies.

WhiteSource is one of the leading global providers of “Software Composition Analysis” tools. It has a vision to empower businesses to develop better software by utilizing the power of open source. Founded in 2011, it is headquartered in New York and has offices in Boston and Tel-Aviv in Israel. It is the only company providing all-inone licensing, security, quality, and reporting solutions for managing open source components. Industry giants like IBM, Microsoft and others trust WhiteSource to secure and manage the open source components in their software. It has been recognized by Forrester as the best current offering in their Software Composition Analysis (SCA) Wave™ report in 2017. Microsoft and 83 North have invested in WhiteSource, raising a $10 million Series B in June 2017. By using the open source software (OSS) lifecycle management solutions, users get more insight on the open source components that they are using in their products. This analysis tool also allows users to enforce security and compliance policies automatically throughout their SDLC without slowing or affecting the development process.

Processes which make the Difference Detection, Selection, Alerting, and Reporting - are the key processes that make WhiteSource the obvious choice for

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developers and businesses. The tool automatically identifies all the open source components in the software. The browser extension reveals any bugs or security risks for each component so that the developer can have more idea about the components before they even make a pull request.

The alerting system helps to identify the potential pitfalls in the open source components. One of the core advantages is that the platform provides full visibility over all the components, dependencies, and licenses, allowing users to instantly produce inventory reports. These reports assist to understand the development environment in more comprehensive manner.

A Seasoned Entrepreneur in the SaaS space Rami Sass is the Co-Founder and CEO of WhiteSource.

He is an experienced entrepreneur with a deep background in software engineering and product management. His innovative mindset and pragmatic approach has assisted him in emerging as a successful entrepreneur over the years. He is a firm believer in the values of the open source community and carries deep acumen in working on complex technical issues and algorithms. His high level of expertise in designing and implementing complex security management and compliance software systems makes him quite popular in this field. His frustrating experience while selling his previous startup to CA technologies when they were asked to produce a full Bill of Materials for all of the open source components in their product gave him and other co-founders the idea of WhiteSource.

Current Trends and the Next Big Change Continual changes in business requirements and modern IT trends are the prime reason for companies to focus on SaaS technology in order to provide effective solutions. Going by the current trends, this technology along with other XaaS May 2018

10 SaaS

THE

MOST BOOMING

SOLUTION PROVIDERS 2018

We empower businesses to develop better software by harnessing the power of open source

‘‘

Rami Sass Co-founder & CEO

industries are creating new business opportunities in the market. This platform has provided flexibility to the existing stringent business processes. It has motivated businesses to move forward with greater scalability and multiple options to choose from. The next big movement in SaaS technology will be when heavily regulated industries like banking and healthcare will embrace this platform for their security needs. That will be a new era of cloud computing where SaaS solutions will witness wide acceptance and implementation.

Key Solutions – Transforming the Business The most significant part of commercial software is the open source components. WhiteSource manages to automate security and compliance throughout the entire software development lifecycle including selection, approval, tracking, and management. It also provides realtime alerts on components that can be a potent risk.

WhiteSource is the pioneer in developing an Agile open source security and licensing compliance tool which is a perfect answer for the modern software development teams.

Covering more than 200 languages and integrating with popular CI/CD solutions like Jenkins makes WhiteSource stand ahead in the league. Maintaining the highest level of accuracy without any false positives is the USP of WhiteSource. By allowing for policy enforcement at every step of the SDLC, WhiteSource is able to reduce frictions May 2018

between the development and security teams, shifting left security and compliance, thus removing bottlenecks that can slow down releases.

Transforming Challenges into Opportunities The market and demand for open source components are witnessing an upsurge with the advent of new technologies like Artificial Intelligence, IoT, and ‘the App Economy. As software development teams struggle to keep up with sprints and short release schedules, they are relying on open source to get the job done. Independent researchers suggest that open source components accounts for 60%-80% of the code base in software product market. WhiteSource has been in the forefront to assist developers and software teams in adopting open source components in their business, while maintaining high standards of security, compliance, and of course quality.

Future Prospective WhiteSource holds a positive outlook of the future as it continues to dominate the market with new capabilities and features that are about to be launched. WhiteSource is committed to leading the way forward in the Software Composition Analysis space, providing the strongest offering in the industry.

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Clouding & Business

The New Way Of Business- Mobility on Cloud 34

May 2018

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he radical change in the innovative technology, is changing the basics of the enterprises function. The way of the businesses today is very much affected by the convergence of enterprise mobility with Cloud Computing, Big Data Analytics and Social Media. The mantra for a successful business today is to observe and adopt the way employees, partners and customers connect and energetically engage in fulfilling business objectives and attaining the enterprise goals in record time. This is the reason, that the enterprises of today have to follow the current trends in the real time.

There is one more paradigm shift the IT industry is observing, and that is the entrance of Enterprise Mobility in the business. With the use of it now critical business data, complex analytics and reports are getting available to the decision makers and executives in no time. The vast acceptance of the Mobile Phones and Tablets burgeon the businesses.

With anytime-anywhere access to the business data for swift decision making and improved customer service, is only getting possible with the use of Enterprise Mobile Device Management (MDM). In this way Mobility on Cloud is helping SME’s to get benefited by the technological advances.

Approximately, 70% of the North American workforce is now mobile, cloud-based environments require a transparent mobile policy management strategy. As is observed, more and more data of the companies, nowadays is residing on mobile devices and is distributed on off-site servers, protecting that data is becoming a mission-critical priority. That is the reason that security concerned enterprises are more concentrating on the three critical mobility factors as they evaluate and deploy cloud computing. The three important factors are: Easy access to cloud-based data and applications from anywhere at any time The availability of the flexibility of the mobile workforce is only possible with the enablement of easy access to the cloud-based data and applications from anywhere at any time. The workers today have to travel from one place to another switching between various public, private, wired and wireless networks in order to get access to the corporate

May 2018

applications. Mobile workers have to manually select and connect to the best available network in the given location because of this. This creates a confusion in between the workers what network to select, what policies to apply and etc. just because of the connectivity process is left on the end-users. This whole process is the reason of less productivity on the part of the mobile workers.

Unnecessary Access Costs Wi-Fi and 3G like technologies are getting used to access cloud-based data and applications by the mobile workers today, from anywhere, on the road, from a hotel or a home office. This is becoming a reason of extra cost, when you are supposed to gain from the cloud computing environment. Most of the time this cost becomes unnecessary, like paying for LAN or Wi-Fi fees when a mobile worker is in an area covered by his paid 3G subscription, using 3G when roaming internationally or using 3G when a free or low-cost Wi-Fi or LAN option is available.

Security Concern Today, many enterprises are investing on endpoint security solutions and corporate VPNs, data compromise is still a big threat for enterprises because of a variety of threats that stem from network bridging, visits to malicious Web sites, download of malicious software, and use of open and unencrypted networks. The process of connecting to wired and wireless networks is a manual, user-driven process makes the risk high. Despite these high risks, enterprises can maintain itself against these risks with the Mobile Policy Management (MPM): The critical mobility factors of cost control, security and end-user connectivity for cloud-based enterprises, comes under a term, ‘Mobile Policy Management (MPM)’. MPM adds to the overall return on investment of cloud-based initiatives through reduced costs and improved security.

MPM helps enterprises to: Pre-define network prioritization policies MPM helps IT to pre-define network prioritization policies

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and assign specific mobile policies to a given network for cloud and non-cloud data and application access. By automating network selection and mobile access policies, MPM boosts the mobile workforce productivity.

Additionally, MPM helps IT to pre-define network selection rules and assign mobile policies to each type of network.

MPM solution automatically selects the best available network as defined by IT, connects the user and applies the relevant mobile policies, while the mobile workers roam around. This gives the worker a remote access and connectivity transparent to end-users, saving their valuable time when accessing cloud and non-cloud data and applications.

Enables to cost-optimizing network selection MPM enables an option of ‘cost-optimizing network selection’ to reduce the cost of mobile data usage by costoptimizing network selection. Leaving network selection up to the end-user can drive data costs far over budget and create significant cost liabilities, for the enterprises. For an instantance, a mobile worker with an unlimited 3G subscription should avoid connecting to, paying for and expensing hotel Wi-Fi when in an area covered by a 3G local provider. For the enterprises benefit, MPM platform

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avoids unbudgeted data costs by helping IT to define and enforce a network white list, preventing users from adding unsanctioned laptop communications options to their mobile Pcs. Avoids common Data-Security Threats The data security threats occur only because of the rogue access points or networks that are in place to lure mobile workers onto them in order for hackers to gain access to corporate data like public Wi-Fi access points in airports labeled “free Wi-Fi” or rogue Wi-Fi placed in proximity to corporate offices. Though there are security solutions working for the same, but of no use. When a mobile worker is working and visiting various places an MPM platform enables IT to dynamically automate and enforce networkspecific security policies.

Enterprises who are deploying cloud computing are influencing Mobile Policy Management to gain organization-wide visibility and control over their mobile workforce.

May 2018

The WorkSpace

SaaS Software Platforms Will Empower the Workforce in the Digital Age

A

s entrepreneurial CEOs who fund our ventures or executives who grow into being CEOs of more mature companies, we produce annual budgets and financial plans. We estimate our future revenue and given available capital we fashion budgets we believe will deliver our revenue objectives. Hard capital and non-labor expenses are generally predictable. Workforce planning is more of an art and boils typically down to headcount planning. The amounts and types of headcount needed are often based on proforma financial modeling and estimates from primary functions such as engineering, sales, marketing, etc.

Traditional headcount planning falls short. We continue to rely on a traditional headcount model even though it’s crude and includes built in biases such as incremental benchmark planning from last year, organizational and process complexity that hides waste, and the talent of managers negotiating beyond real needs. Market forces and technology advances are increasingly exposing the weaknesses of headcount planning and staffing. For example, employees now only amount to about 65% of the workforce down from 90% twenty years ago. The remaining contingent workforce (QuartZ) is expected to exceed 40% by 2022. While HR is responsible for acquisition of employees, the contingent workforce is frequently managed directly by managers or procurement.

How do you leverage the available talent to perform the most important work? The answer is not more complex management approaches that don’t scale. Better job descriptions or skills matching won’t do it unless the work and its value is clearly understood.

Bots are coming -- where do they belong? In addition to the complexity of managing and estimating the needs for people, bots are becoming an important and integral part of workforce management. Billions of dollars are being invested in AI (bot) solutions that are designed to replace some or all of the work traditionally allocated to people in

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR Michael Grove is the Founder and CEO of CollabWorks, a technology company that provides a powerful management framework (FrameWork™) in the form of software and professional services. His core belief is that if individuals are empowered to manage their own engagement they will thrive to the benefit of themselves and the organization.

The FrameWork technology sits at the center of the Digital Workforce of humans and automation (AI).

Michael’s vision is that work will evolve from jobs to a marketplace of services by 2025.

Michael currently co-hosts CEO workshops and sponsors the CollabWorks Thought Leadership Team (TLT), DisruptHR (Bay Area), and Disrupt.Work. He has been a successful CEO for over 25 years of venture and self-funded companies including Open Country, Micromodule Systems, Introplus, and the Pathway Group.

Michael has produced several breakthrough patents and led businesses in aerospace, renewable energy, semiconductor, information, social networking, and workforce management.

Michael holds Bachelor and advanced degrees from California Polytechnic, UCLA, USC, and Wharton.

May 2018

Michael Grove Founder

May 2018

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jobs that include repetitive tasks that can be automated.

(Deloitte). The forecast for bots as a percent of the workforce vary wildly from 10% to beyond 30% (Singularity) by 2022. A major startup, Automation Anywhere now has more than 15 million bots implemented in 700 major corporations.

As CEOs we need to wake up to this new reality. We are in a digital world where defining jobs and allocating heads will no longer yield a competitive human capital operating model. For example, does our current staffing process clearly define the optimal mix of employee, contingent, and bot labor for our 2020 “digital” workforce plan? Who and how can our team provide a clear reliable answer? If our workforce represents 50% of our total expense and our workforce includes a 10% inflated headcount – we are leaving 5% operating profit on the table. This is huge!

Getting to the optimal answers will not come from doubling down on the headcount planning process. Worse, competitors who learn to optimize their digital workforce composition can use their margin advantage to improve market share, etc.

Talent related SaaS software vendors are stepping up.

The good news is that SaaS solutions are evolving to make it easier to manage both employees and contingent labor.

Modern HR tools such as Workday, SAP’s Success Factor, and a host of startups are offering to support contingent labor with much of the employee talent management functions such as staffing and reviews.

While an improvement, these platforms will not address optimizing the work content among employees and contingent labor nor do they include bots.

The core of digital workforce planning is the work and its value. In order to get at wasted use of talent, planning biases, and the increased complexity of available sources of talent it is essential to start with the value the workforce renders in achieving business outcomes – namely, the work. In addition to work, the second necessary information for digital workforce planning is the use of talent. For example, how much top talent work is your top talent doing? Neither the work quantified by FTE per service or use of talent is achievable with current headcount planning and management tools.

Current methods of measuring the work are not effective. We can track tasks such as monitoring locations

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and network devices as often done by large software development organizations. Or, we use surveys of time tracking such as activity-based planning implementations.

These methods are time consuming, prone to errors, difficult to value, and hated by workers.

Introducing a management framework SaaS solution (CollabWorks). However, technology has now evolved to allow management to focus on delivering the most valuable work with the best available talent. The first step is to capture data that clarifies what is the work, the amount of FTEs spent doing the work and by whom at what level of talent. In addition, to optimize both the work and the use of talent, a metric is needed to value both.

All work can be described as services. What we can learn from the rise of SaaS work platforms such as Upwork or Gigster demonstrate is that work can be described in the form of services instead of tasks. A service describes work delivered by a supplier to one or more customers (internal or external). While tasks may vary and come and go, services describe a supplier-customer relationship where tasks flow across the service. For example, we use software developers via Upwork who continuously perform tasks as part of services where the value of the work is established.

These platforms are now being used to align service needs with both contingent and employee workers.

Customers need to drive the flow of work. Another positive reason for describing all forms of work as services is recognition that the value of work (services) depends on the customer receiving the benefit of the work. Rather than distributing the work via a typical management top down structure, work as services can be distributed based on customer needs. This keeps the focus on value where it belongs – the customer. And this relieves line management from gathering, reporting, and communicating activities.

Organizations are now able to clearly understand the services within a workforce consisting of employees, contingent workers and bots. And more importantly, for each service the organizations are able to measure the relative contribution to operating profit.

Summary. These new SaaS management frameworks (CollabWorks) will integrate with existing SaaS talent and work platforms to enable both workers and the organizations to optimize their respective needs to their mutual benefit.

May 2018

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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May 2018

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

May 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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