Winning Formulas

On the panel:

- Greg Gianforte, CEO, RightNow Technologies- Subrah Iyar, CEO, Webex- Jeffery Lunsford, CEO, Websidestory- Michael Topolovac, CEO, Arena SolutionsHighlights:

- Subrah opens the session with his experience setting up Webex - started in 1996 and only to be shipped in 1999, his vision real time collaboration
- Michael gave me the first explanation I could understand about PLM (Product Life Cycle Management)
- Greg pitches that his value addition is certainly not the way they deliver software
- Subrah says more about the changing patterns of sales as the pricing point changes (before retails software sold $250 and business software at $15,000)
- The underlying problem of new SaaS pricing is the initial lower sales volume that did change the game changed.
- Nice anecdote from Scott - GE was an initial customer at Webex and 3 years later at a board meeting GE's decision was announced to introduce Webex on a company-wide scale - that's the way SaaS software should be sold.
- Product development cycles are shorter then ever and need even more timely customer input more than ever.
- More and more customers are willing to accept that relevant data are stored outside of their premises.
- Measurability of QoS is becoming an issue in the industry.

Conclusion: Simple conclusion - there is no single winning formula. SaaS is a new challenge in customer service, pricing and availability.

Some more video footage from Webex Founder Subrah (27MB, AVI).