I wanted to talk about the WebEx acquisition this week but a more pressing issue is limitations on my time and continuation of the blog. I do want to continue the blog but do not have time to make updates as frequently as I would like. I’m curious if any of you are interested in teaming up to expand the dialogue and reach?

IT/Redux has an updated summary of it’s Office 2.0 Roundup with a review of 10 online email applications. The review focused on services that have been registered in their database, Yahoo! Mail, Hotmail, Gmail, FastMail, Jubii, Zimbra, Webmail.us, WebExMail, Mailroom, Tamadaa. As they noted there are a lot of email players so narrowing the field to a reasonable number to review is tough although I would have probably replaced a couple on the list with established players Load.com and BlueTie.  

I’m a big fan of the IT/Redux site, the only thing that I believe the Office 2.0 Roundup leaves to be desired is a perspective of application suites. Some of the tools listed encapsulate multiple functions and while they may not be the best at each individual function there is something to be said about their ability to integrate functions together and provide efficiency.

Photoshop has announced that they will offer a web based version of Photoshop within six months. I think this is an interesting development. Many would have pointed to Photoshop as a prime example of a desktop app that couldn’t work as SaaS. I suspect the SaaS version will not have all the power of the desktop version but on the other hand will have the key features that a majority of us non-designers use every day. And the fact that it will be free and carry’s the Photoshop name is sure to result in lots of users.

What I’m not sure about is the revenue model. Do you think they will get sufficient revenue from Banner Advertising? What kinds of ads will I get when I’m going to edit an image that will cause me to stop wanting to edit my image and click on them? With the price of Photoshop what it is wouldn’t they be more profitable if they charged say $9.95 a year for access? Or what about some type of App Exchange where you could buy additional filters or macros?

How do you think adobe could best monetize the online version of Photoshop?
 

Thanks to Marc over at Foldera for the heads up. The Foldera blog is now updated. I haven’t read the post yet have to run to some meetings but if you read and have some thoughts would love to hear them.

The topic of ‘trusting’ your data to a third party when it comes to SaaS is sure to be around for some time to come.  While I don’t think it’s a useful topic just from a security standpoint, I think it’s a valid concern in a larger context. I think there are three elements of Your Data and SaaS, Security of your Data, Accessibility to your Data and Backup of your Data. While some might argue these are different elements of product selection, I think they can be grouped into the single element of ‘Your Data’ for consideration.

I’m going to skip the discussion on Security here for the most part. I’ll only link to Phil’s article here and note that if you are unsure if Google’s application security, or that of many of the small players in the industry, is less secure than the laptops of any of your employees (or perhaps even their desktops in some cases) then you are significantly uninformed. 

I do want to touch on the other two.

When you use a SaaS product what do you do if you’re not connected or if the provider is down? How to you get access to your data and continue to work with it? Accessiblity is important and that is why Offline support is going to continue to grow as a key feature in all SaaS offerings in 2007.  If you are a small business considering and comparing SaaS products you should include Offlline support in your selection criteria. If the products your looking at don’t have Offline support now you should ask them when they plan to provide it and, in the meantime, what is the companies system availability like? You’ll want to work with a company that gives you access to your data with high reliability, especially if they don’t have Offline support.

Backup of your data is important. Whether it is provided as a downloadable file or sent to you on CD, you’re going to want to have your own copy for various reasons. The circumstances where your data would be lost by any reputable provider would have to be extremely extensive but theoretically possible and it should be a simple matter to have your own backup of your data. When considering SaaS providers you need to be able to get your own physical copy of your data.

These latter two items are also important in the larget context of Continuity of Business. First, your systems and data are stored in a separate location from your primary business (usually) and second in times of emergency when perhaps your office is no longer available or you must be relocated for one reason or another, using SaaS providers means that your software and data are available to you wherever you are.

As you know they say, Immitation is the Sincerest form of Flattery. BlueTie has offered Free and Pro versions since October and there are some very key similarities, judge for yourself:

Google: http://www.google.com/a/help/intl/en/admins/editions.html

 BlueTie: http://www.bluetie.com/smb_content/products/products.php

I posted almost two weeks ago that Foldera information was coming soon. I got this information from Foldera directly and had since my original post been keeping a positive outlook. Here it is almost two weeks later now and nothing. No updates on the blog still. The best I can do is to tell you that the email I received noted a “…Public Preview release….” in March. Which means that it is not fully launching in March only a ‘Preview’ is launching in March, I’m not sure what that means exactly, but I’m sure it doesn’t mean “Foldera Launches in March”.

I’ve been trying to stay on this because I know many of you visit looking for this information. Anyway, I can’t be bothered talking about this any more. No more posts on Foldera until such time as a viable product is actually launched. I’m Done for now.

Finally, just to make sure to repeat the disclosure,  I work for what might be considered a Foldera competitor, if Foldera actually had a product that is.

BlueTie has added more than 15,000 new small businesses to its’ customer base in the first 90 days of launching it’s free version. The free version, as we’ve noted before, will be monetized via Featuretisements which are tightly integrated, relevant services for small business owners and employees. It’s a level of integration that hasn’t been seen before and it is going to be the monetization model for the future for many SaaS offerings. The days of trying to monetize web-based software by just putting in banner ads are numbered.

If you’re a small business looking for online (web-based) tools IT/Redux provides a good summary. I’m not sure why BlueTie is not included in a number of these categories. Also, there does not seem to be any ‘bundling’ information, i.e. you probably don’t get - or want to get - your email, calendar and contacts from three different places in three different browser windows/tabs, you want to those integrated together. Either way it’s an interesting summary and can provide a good list of options for you to investigate.

I’m trying not to post on Foldera too often but but I know a lot of you are searching for information and ending up here. If you haven’t heard, Michael Sampson has left Foldera (previously the Global VP of Word-of-Mouth Marketing). I don’t know Michael personally but I know many respect his insights within the industry and hope that this does mean he’ll be able to contribute more to the general dialogue and wish him the best of luck in whatever he pursues next.

As for Foldera, how could they hire a VP of WOM Marketing? They don’t have any customers. And what exactly is being marketed? Maybe this was a bit of the issue, how can you measure success in marketing when you can’t give prospects a call to action? In the end Brand awareness has to result in customers.