March 21
Hoster Spotlight - OpSource
Richard Dym, SVP, marketing and business development
OpSource
Santa Clara, CA
Q: Who are your customers and what do you do for them?
We help ISVs take their applications to market via the SaaS distribution model. We provide the infrastructure, including both hardware and software, application management and 24/7 support for our customers’ customers. We allow our customers to focus on their customers instead of worrying about distribution.
Q: What’s your relationship with Microsoft?
We’ve had a strong relationship with Microsoft going back to our company’s founding in 2002. At that time we actually managed a Microsoft datacenter. Since we began to focus two years ago on the SaaS market and on enabling ISVs, our relationship has grown as Microsoft’s goals have followed a similar path.
We were involved in the beginning stages of the SPLA, which has really been the defining differentiator for our business. We’ve been able to charge our customers exactly the same as they charge their customers. Microsoft has also been heavily involved in our incubation program that provides a testing environment for ISVs evaluating the move to SaaS.
Q: What are the pain points for ISVs?
We’re seeing interest from two distinct sets of ISVs, those that have established packaged software businesses and startups. The pain points for each are quite different.
For the startup ISV whose business is built with an On Demand model in mind, they’re focus is on acquiring customers and establishing a business. They don’t want to have to worry about managing the infrastructure; they just want the customer to have a positive experience without any technical glitches.
For the established ISV with a well-defined and happy customer base the pain points are primarily centered on “how” to become an On Demand business. How do I re-architect my application? How do I test and conduct quality assurance? How do I restructure my organization, from software development all the way across the spectrum to finance?
Q: What progress are you seeing in the SaaS market?
We’ve grown from essentially scratch to 100 ISVs in two years with two-thirds of those being startup firms and the other third more established ISVs making their way into the SaaS market. We just recently announced a new solution called Optimal On Demand 2.0 that we’re very excited about. Through our Optimal Service Bus, we’re enabling ISVs to integrate a list of mission-critical but non-strategic application components provided by OpSource and its partners. The first of these components include business analytics and billing.
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