www.appirio.com
February 4, 2007

In this Edition

• Appirio Highlights Services 2.0 - In-depth analysis questioning if traditional SIs can rise to the challenge of enabling SaaS and Web 2.0 to impact enterprise customers
• An Insiders Look at the salesforce.com Incubator
• Appirio Adds Ex-Enterprise Software Execs to Leadership
• Appirio Productivity Widgets
• Subscribe to our Blog Now
• Don't miss Appirio at the CSFB Disruptive Technologies Conference

“Services 2.0” – A New World for System Integrators

Specialty Solution Providers & Social Networks Will Dramatically Alter the SI Landscape, Gearing Up the Enterprise for Web 2.0 and SaaS 2.0

The internet is the computing platform of the present and future.  As a “cloud” of services, its performance, reliability and rate of innovation far exceeds every “platform” deployed in any large enterprise.  Vendors offering software-as-a-service (SaaS), as an alternative to on-premise software licenses, use the internet and a more customer-centric process to profoundly disrupt the enterprise software landscape. 

Similarly, a new breed of specialized “Services 2.0” firms that fully embrace SaaS with complementary business and technology consulting, productized intellectual property, and support services via flexible social networks will be disruptive to traditional Global Systems Integrators (GSI). 

GSIs such as Accenture, IBM, Cap Gemini, and Infosys rely on revenue streams based on the on-premise install base.  Just as on-premise software vendors cannot shift completely to on-demand because of its disruption to their business models, GSIs will not be able to help customers embrace on-demand because of their own reliance on on-premise software services revenue.  [Read the Full Article]

Why the salesforce.com Incubator Should Excite You - An Early Peek from the Initial Occupant

Recently Appirio added an office in salesforce.com's Incubator in San Mateo and became one of its anchor tenants. In fact, we had several historic firsts - we were the first ones in the door when it opened, we made the first pot of coffee, and we held our first management team offsite in one of the many conference rooms. We have already established links to some excellent AppExchange partners located in the building!

For Appirio, a salesforce.com partner and a true believer in the power of on-demand, the benefits are clear. We accelerate the rate of innovation of our own work and salesforce.com. By easily chatting about what customers are doing, their future needs, and where the market is headed, partners can collectively find ideas that will change the industry. Savvy partners can establish networks of complementary firms that allow the group to compete with any ecosystem or firm in the industry.

First pot of Incubator Coffee accompanied by a stylish Appirio mug

We also believe that the incubator represents a much broader trend. Collaboration among customers, partners (SI/ISVs), and software firms will become the key to success. Customers will add to the synergy via extended value chains; software mashups will become as prevalent and valuable as hyperlinking; and complementary partners will come together "on demand" to provide what customers need. This is far more powerful than a single firm's marketing department independently trying to determine what customers want.

Whether you believe the salesforce.com Incubator will change Appirio and the industry, or you just want to try variants of the morning coffee, we welcome you to come over and see what all the excitement is about. We'll have more firsts in the next few months, including training sessions, customer roundtables, and thought leadership seminars. We're also hoping to be the first to break in the Nintendo Wii, XBox and PS3 when they arrive! And rest assured, we've cleared out this tower of all the Siebel on-premise demons...

Former Enterprise Software Executives Join Appirio to Accelerate the Shift to On-Demand Business Applications

San Francisco, Calif., - January 16, 2007 -- Appirio, a services and product firm focused on accelerating the adoption of on-demand applications in the enterprise, today announced the addition of senior enterprise software executives and several major enterprise customer wins.  Recognizing the paradigm shift from on-premise to on-demand for packaged and custom applications, Appirio helps enterprise customers unlock business value and reduce IT costs by accelerating their adoption of salesforce.com’s suite of on-demand CRM applications and building on salesforce.com’s Apex, the leading platform for developing custom on-demand applications.

Recent Appirio customer acquisitions include CRC Health Group, Borland Software Corporation, and ServiceSource.

CRC Health Group, the nation's largest provider of drug and alcohol treatment services, has engaged Appirio to deliver an on-demand application strategy and design a new platform to support their client pre-admissions process.  Howard Brown, CRC’s vice president of marketing, said that “Appirio’s ability to understand our business has allowed us to push forward with our on-demand strategy in a manner completely consistent with our business strategy.”  [More]

About Appirio

Appirio, Inc. delivers services and products to help medium to large enterprises accelerate on-demand adoption.  With a differentiated business model that blends strategy, services, custom application development, integration and products, Appirio is a thought leader in on-demand solutions delivery.