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Softletter's SaaS University: Marketing, Selling, Infrastructure and Financing Conferences, 2009

Chicago, IL
June 30-July 1/2, 2009

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SaaS University
Workshops,
Chicago, July 2nd

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SEMINARS
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Complete Agenda for
Softletter's SaaS University:
Marketing, Selling, Infrastructure and
Financing Conferences, 2009

The University is Back in Session in
Chicago, June 30-July 1/2, 2009

Main Session June 30/July 1st;
Optional Workshops July 2nd

Four Keynotes
Five Tracks
30 Sessions

And special presentations from Softletter providing unique and invaluable data from our research on the SaaS industry available nowhere else

Only $995

Three Optional Dedicated Workshops

Check Here for Combined Main Session/Wokshop Pricing

Special Bonus to Attendees

The 2009 Softletter Marketing Report

Each attendee will receive a free copy of The 2009 Softletter SaaS Marketing Report. Over 500 pages dedicated to analyzing 21 separate marketing activities. A $495 value free to SaaS University Chicago attendees.

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Day One, Tuesday, June 30th

Morning

7:30 - 8:30AM

Breakfast, Registration

8:30 - 9:15AM

Opening Keynote Address and Opening Remarks

SaaS in the the Enterprise Over the Next 18 Months

Times are tough and budgets are tight, but SaaS can be a great fit to the current market. Our opening important keynote analyzes what you can expect in the SaaS market over the next 18 months while the economy shakes and groans.

John Aiello, The Savo Group
9:15 - 9:50AM

Selected Stack Yourself: Building Platform-Independent SaaS Systems

As the desktop and SaaS worlds collide, is there a modus operandi that can make both sides happy? And do you need to pledge your troth to third party platforms to grow your business?

Jan Aleman, Servoy

 

ROOM ONE

ROOM TWO

9:55 -10:30AM

Mastering Subscription Business Metrics: How to Measure the Peformance and Success of Your SaaS Business

The title says it all.

K. V. Rao, Zuora

 

SaaS FINANCES TRACK:

Selling SaaS to the Enterprise

This session will examine how best to make the big sale to major enterprise accounts.

Jeff Saling, Callidus
10:30 -10:55AM

Networking Break

10:55 - 11:30AM

The Oracle from Oracle Speaks: SaaS Projections and Prospects

It may come as surprise to many that Oracle has big plans for SaaS as it forays into this high growth market. This session provides insight into the database giant's plans for its future in SaaS as well as further oracular projections into the future of SaaS.

Kevin O'Brien, Oracle

SaaS FINANCES TRACK:

Saving Your SaaS Piggybank

Learn how not to crack the ceramic oinker. Timely tips and tactics on how to conserve SaaS cash and make every penny count in tough, tough times..

Michael Turner, AlertLogic
11:30 - 12:05PM

Building a SaaS Reseller Channel: A Step by Step Approach

Channel maven Ted Finch takes you step-by-step through the process of building an effective SaaS reseller channel.

Ted Finch, Chanimal.com

SaaS INFRASTRUCTURE TRACK:

Delivering Applications as a SaaS Model: Best Practices and What You Need to KnowSaaS Platforms

Senior Architect Fred Clift will present a case study featuring SaaS firm Accrisoft in its quest to transition quickly to an on demand model. This session analyzes the choices the company  made in executing the pland, with and emphasis on designing applications that are suited to SaaS, the advantages and challenges of a managed vs. unmanaged platform, and important considerations dealing with center/server administration, provisioning/billing systems, customer support, sales/marketing, and more.

Fred Clift, Verio

 

12:05 - 1:05PM

Birds of a Feather Lunch: Sit With SaaS Experts to Further Discuss Your Needs and Concerns (Your Choice, of Course)

Afternoon

1:05 - 1:55PM

Afternoon Keynote Addresses

Cloud Platforms: Leverage or Lock-In?

Various vendor visions of a "Platform as a Service" require careful balancing of time-to-market benefits versus long-range lock-in limitations. Peter Coffee, former technology editor of eWEEK and now Director of Platform Research at salesforce.com, will examine alternative approaches to managing developer workload and enabling "InterCloud" integration, including both salesforce.com's Force.com platform and other offerings from Amazon, Google and others.

Peter Coffee, Salesforce.com
2:00 - 2:45PM

Your SaaS Infrastructure Choices: A Comparative Analysis

The 2009 Softletter SaaS Survey revealed that SaaS companies are faced with choosing from colocation to the Cloud, with many choices in between. This session analyzes the choices available to your company and presents different scenarios and options for your company.

Brian Wolff, BlueLock

2:45 - 2:55PM

Networking Break

2:55 - 3:30PM

SaaS Selling Models: Building Compelling Value Models that Maximize Sales Success

At our San Francisco conference, several people nominated Chuck for the Presidency after his presentation. He didn't run, but he'll be in Illinois discussing how to add more value to your product without benefit of a bailout.

Chuck DeVita, Growth Process Group

SaaS INFRASTRUCTURE TRACK:

SaaS Face Plant Protection: Offering Your Customers Complete Fallover and Escrow Protection

Our 2009 SaaS report reveals increasing numbers of customers are interested in both escrow and fallover protection. Learn what you need to tell your customers.

Frank Bruno, Iron Mountain
3:40 - 4:30PM

SaaS Pricing Models: Developing a SaaS Strategy That Doesn't Leave Money on the Table

Price tags! Pricing strategies. Intelligent discounting! The information is here.

Jim Geisman, Software Pricing

 

TRANSITION TO SaaS TRACK:

Developing SaaS Terms of Service and Reseller Agreements

Our legal eagle speaks! If you want to make sure you stay out of court, you should probably listen.

Michael Whitener, Vista Law
4:40 - 5:20PM

The Numbers: Key Highlights from Softletter's SaaS, Marketing, and Sales Compensation Surveys

Randy Hujar, Softletter

5:30 - 6:10PM

Panel Session:

Their Cloud, Your Cloud, or Our Cloud?

A lively discussion on the different Cloud approaches being introduced into the market and how to best leverage them to SaaS success.

Moderated by Jeff Kaplan, THINKstrategies

6:10 - 7:30PM

Networking Hour: Kick Back and Enjoy Some Drinks and
Hors D'oeuvres With Your Peers

 

Day Two, Wednesday, July 1st

Morning

8:00 - 9:00AM

Breakfast, Registration

9:00 - 9:55AM

Second Day Keynote Address

SaaS in Hard Times: Surviving (and Thriving) During the Recession

Rising customer interest and adoption of SaaS has created a ‘gold-rush’ effect, attracting a proliferation of players. Although the market is continuing to grow, a combination of tightening credit due to today’s economic crisis and intensifying competition are making the prospect of an industry shakeout inevitable. This session will identify the steps SaaS companies must take to survive.

Jeff Kaplan, THINKstrategies

10:00 - 10:45AM

SaaS Multi Tenancy: The Business Case

SaaS multi-tenancy -- shared infrastructure and resources in a single application that serve multiple clients -- has been the subject of great debate that often begins and ends at the technical/architectural level. Like any good technology decision, multi-tenancy should be driven by the underlying business strategies explored in this seminar. This session examines how SaaS vendors should use multi-tenancy to monetize beyond the application, streamline sales & implementation, improve customer service, and gain and maintain a competitive advantage.

Lincoln Murphy, Sixteen Ventures

RANSITION TO SaaS TRACK:

Teaching IT to Love Your SaaS

Sometimes IT is your friend when attempting to introduce SaaS into a customer's infrastructure and sometimes they're not. This session explains what you can do to make sure corporate IT is on your side during the sale.

Andy Greenawalt, Gnostic Ventures
10:45 -11:10AM

Networking Break

11:10 - 11:55AM

Focusing on the Customer Service Side of SaaS

The service element of SaaS is more complicated than hosting, upgrading and managing the technologies for your customers. Additional complexities exist in the segment responsible for customer interaction. This session enables you to meet these challenges live on two different fronts; helping customers by adding value with every touch point and changing your internal culture to orientate around service methodologies.

Matthew Gonnering,
CEO of Widen Enterprises, Inc.

Smoothing the Bumpy Road: Helping Your Customer's Deal with SaaS Disruption

Ease of deployment and flexibility have made SaaS and cloud-based applications even more attractive in the current economic environment. As a result, SaaS adoption is accelerating faster than anticipated, even in the enterprise. The problem? SaaS applications radically disrupt organization models for managing technology, including applications, users and data. Conformity outlines these challenges and a holistic approach to resolving them.

Scott Bils, Conformity

 

12:00 - 1:00PM

Working Lunch: SaaS Revenue Recognition Accounting Update

Proposed changes to accounting rules could significantly impact how SaaS companies price and sell service offerings by this summer. Learn about this proposed change and other SaaS specific revenue issues to help optimize your selling practices, stay ahead of the competition and stay out of trouble.

Jay Howell, BDO Seidman, LLP

Afternoon

1:00 - 1:55PM

SaaS Security for the Very, Very Nervous Enterprise Client

The SaaS model is probably more secure than the alternatives, and multi-tenanting makes scaling your business a lot more fun and profitable. But it just so happens there are plenty of clients (like JP Morgan) who simply won't accept technologies that involve co-mingling of data and loss of control over key aspects of their operations. This session will assist you to understand the issues these clients bring to the table and how to manage the operational costs and issues these customer's concerns will create for your business.

Sam Mele, Firm58

SaaS SALES AND MARKETING TRACK:

Marketing SaaS Without the Release Cycle

Our recent SaaS survey revealed that one third of SaaS firms have abandoned the traditional 12 to 18 month release cycle, rasing the question of how you generate buzz and excitement for your product. Today, more than ever, SaaS companies are looking for proven, cost-effective ways to increase revenue predictably and profitably. During this presentation we will present the fundamental building blocks that every company needs in place before it can scale any demand generation program. We will then review five proven demand generation programs for SaaS companies, including inbound, outbound and organic, i.e., social media programs. These programs are tied to a metric dashboard to determine effective ROI. Finally, we will share with you practical examples of how SaaS companies have applied and benefited from these vital programs.

Robert Jurkowski, OnDemand Advisory Services

 

2:00 - 2:45PM

SaaS Sales Compensation Models: The Most Effective Compensation Models to Incent Your Sales Personnel

SaaS presents companies with unique challenges to effectively compensate and motivate sales forces; this session prepares you to meet those challenges.

Laura Roach, Xactly


SaaS SALES AND MARKETING TRACK:

SaaS ROI Metrics Benchmarks and Methodologies

If you're going to sell SaaS in a recession you need to provide powerful ROI numbers and potential cost savings arguments as part of the sales cycle. This session prepares you to do just that.

Marty Siewert, Kadient
2:45 - 3:05PM

Break

3:05 - 3:50PM

Lessons from the Field: Best Practices in SaaS Customer Retention, Cash Management, and Executive Leadership

In three years, AvidXchange has grown from 7 to 120 customerss without raising any real outside capital, maintained 100% client retention, and obtains annual pre-paid support from 70% of their customers. We think you should learn how they do it.

David Miller, AvidXchange

SaaS MARKETING TACTICS &
TECHNIQUES TRACK:

Marketing SaaS Using SaaS: Taking Advantage of Search and Social Media to Sell SaaS

SEO. Social marketing. PPC. This session reveals the most effective tactics and approaches for SaaS companies.

Rajiv Parikh, Position2
3:50 - 4:30PM

More Numbers and Closing Remarks: Further Results from Softletter's 2009 SaaS and Software Marketing Surveys

Merrill R. (Rick) Chapman, Softletter

4:30 - 4:40PM

Closing Remarks

 

 

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