I was recently reading Phil Wainewright's excellent blog on SaaS Applications on demand where he wrote that SaaS vendors like VCSonline.com need to use scalable SaaS services and architecture themselves, or die.  

Well, I am here to attest that when it comes to infrastructure, we are eating our own dog food, and loving it!  As for Phil's second point of building SaaS software on SaaS software, we see that as a medium to longer term trend but the more immediate need is a hybrid deployment model between open source and on-demand.

I believe SaaS is going to see dramatic growth based on our many CIO contacts and the over 300% increase in SaaS customers we have seen in the last 6 months.  That said ... Read More »

SEATTLE - Recently the InfoWorld published their list of "Tech's all-time top 25 flops".  When the bodies were counted, the worst software flop of all time went to Vista.  There to accept the InfoWorld Golden Floppy award was Microsoft's very own Bill Gates, who gave all the credit to Microsoft Project EPM Server 2007. 

"With Vista the slogan right from the start was 'we brought the personal computer into this world, and we can take it out.'" stated Gates fighting back tears during his acceptance speech.  "When it comes to project management we couldn't find our way out of an empty room but we couldn't take Vista's failure for granted.  We looked at ... Read More »

I was asked recently in a networking event to talk about the hardest and the easiest challenges we faced starting VCSonline.com 10 years ago this summer.  The question caught me a little off guard and I starting thinking back to those early days (queue stereotypical harp music soap operas use!).

Back in 1998 I had a lot more hair up top and lot less wrinkles around my eyes.  What we lacked in startup funding, customers, and employees we more then made up in hope, desire, and pure potential.  There was no doubt we would set the world on fire.  It was a magical time of creative ingenuity.  The web-based software was an embarrassment by today's standards but back then anything data driven over the web that helped teams manage projects and report to management got ... Read More »

Software as a Service (SaaS) is a relatively new concept in software delivery and one poised to change project management delivery in the immediate future. Instead of buying a server, buying server software, configuring said software, and keeping up with maintenance you simply pay a software service provider a monthly fee to deliver the benefit of the software over the Internet.

The advantages of this approach are:

• No large capital outlay (servers, enterprise software)
   
• No resource management issues (training staff to install and support software)
   
• No footprint on existing hardware (no software to install on desktops and no storage issues)
   
• Pay as y ... Read More »
  Comments (0)

CHICAGO – While blogs and discussion boards were filling up with complaints of the availability of their 37Signals Basecamp accounts the management team at 37Signals launched a publicity campaign to head of the criticisms by touting the vaulted "six 9’s" availability of their book Getting Real.
 

"Sure we have a few days when the application is unavailable" said 37Signals and Basecamp CEO Stan Wilson "but you have to look at the big picture.  We also sell millions of copies of Getting Real which is available 99.999999% of the time!  Accept for the time we couldn't find it when someone ... Read More »

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA - In recent months, an alarming number of Intuit Quickbase project management software users have become frustrated.  Apparently during typical use the software stops allowing new records and locks accounts until they contact customer support and beg for more records.  Initially, Quickbase apologists explained the locks were in order to keep the "Quick" in Quickbase.  Now, in a stunning turn of events Quickbase has adopted the stance they are the first project management software company to go Green.
 

"This year we cranked up our marketing engine to position Quickbase as enterprise ready" explained Quickbase President Brad Conner while on board the company Lear Jet, "well as luck would have it some people actually believed us and ... Read More »

DETROIT --Industry watchers have learned that after 10 years in the enterprise project management software business the independent research firm Forrester will recognize the VCSOnline VPMi as a leader in the Project Portfolio Management software market, just as soon as their check clears the bank.  The move is not a moment too soon as research firms have seen sagging revenues and perceptions of favoritism to the software companies that spend the most advertising with them.

"This looked to be a validating moment" said VCSOnline Partner and Co-Founder Nick Matteucci.  "I mean, we were implementing web-based project portfolio management solutions in 1998, long before their was even a perceived market.  ... Read More »

Seattle -- In a stunning move that caught many industry analysts and customers off guard, eProject announced last week they are changing their name to f-Project in a an apparent bid to increase the overall project management software experance.  The move is part of an international strategy to position the company for dramatic growth.

"We really went back to the blackboard to get the idea" said eProject President, Brad Fisher who is heading up the communications campaign.  "We knew we had gone as far as we could go with the 'e' and apparently someone else is using the 'i' so we figured that the next step in our evolution was an 'f', and there you have it!  Take that Microsoft!  By the way thanks for the blackboard chum ... Read More »

Question:  What is consuming 30% of your time that isn't even being tracked in your project management software?

I know you are probably thinking this is related to planning.  People are always telling me how important project planning is ( and I don't disagree with them).  Many top organizations spend a reasonable amount of time studying workplans, building methodologies, and standardizing on planning templates.  Yet they report they are still regularly running over budget on their IT projects and can't figure out why? 

The issue is issue management. Read More »

You have come to the conclusion that improved project management, resource management, and metrics are key to reducing overhead costs and improving revenue.  

You have created a prioritized list of benefits you need from project management software and you have contacted the vendors you are interested in while avoiding the 5 things you should never say to a project management software salesperson.