SaaS Hits the Wall In Two Years

Claiming that we are witnessing the third rise-and-(soon-to-be)-fall of software as service, Lawson CEO Harry Debes predicts the demise of SaaS in a recent interview with ZDNet Asia.

So what will this mean for Marketing Automation? Even with SaaS darling Saleforce.com at a market cap that is 20% higher than GM, Harry claims Lawson backed off of that strategy because the profit is too back end loaded, if profitable at all. Here’s more of the highlights on the collapse of SaaS prediction posted by our friends at the WebGuild.

Private Investors Grab Marqui

The investor group, which includes SIL Enterprises, Krystal Financial Corporation, Abraxus Holdings, and Ogilvie Communications, also owns WaterTrax, a Vancouver company that develops and markets software to help manage and monitor water quality in communities across North America. Neale, who is CEO of WaterTrax and will be CEO of Marqui, said the acquisition is in line with the group’s goal of moving toward the creation of a multi-brand software-as-a-service (SaaS) company. Read more…

A Peek at Marketo’s Java Technology

Based on Ext, a client-side JavaScript framework for building web applications, Glen Lipka, Marketo’s Director of UX and Product Management, and Paul Abrams, lead UI engineer, discuss how their application made use of this technology to create its slick UI. Read more…

$8M Second Round for Marketo

Capitalizing on it’s rapid growth since March 2008 (now 60 customers by their count), Marketo announced today that it has secured it’s second round of venture funding. Combined with its initial $5.4M round in 2006, Marketo has now had a total of $13.4 mm invested in the company, principally by Storm Ventures and InterWest Partners. Read the full press release…

Aberdeen Group: Best in Class Adoption Hits 58%

According to research recently published by the Aberdeen Group, fifty-eight percent (58%) of Best-in-Class companies are now using marketing automation technologies. Reasons cited include improving marketing results and demonstrating return on marketing as the key drivers for marketing automation adoption. 215 organizations were surveyed.

Learn more about this report.

Call to Participate

Have you implemented a marketing automation system? Do you have in-depth knowledge about using a particular system? Read more

Some Perspective on Loopfuse

Jeff Haynie, former colleague of Tom Elrod, one of the founders of Loopfuse, shares his favorable outlook for this up-and-comer in the marketing automation space. In the case of Loopfuse, the first open source player that we’re aware of. Read the blog entry…

System Reviews

In the future, this feature section will contain the latest review of a Marketing Automation system.  Are you interested in providing a review?  Please let us know in the comments section.