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Thursday February 23, 2012





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The Role of the Channel in SaaS Customer Retention

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The HotLine Update

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A Conversation About Customer Retention

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SaaS/Cloud Success and the Customerium

While their Marketing and Support professionals continue to explore the usage and management of social media, there is a much larger challenge to be faced by SaaS/Cloud firms -- and all other technology players as well.  The implications of the changes in our general culture over the last 25 years are not limited to those two disciplines in the technology industry.  All around us, corporate logos are proudly blazoned across t-shirts, jackets, bags, bumper stickers and everything else across the

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    By Mikael Blaisdell

    As the SaaS tsunami continues to roll out at a dizzying pace, staying current on developments is a considerable challenge for people in all sectors of the SaaS/Cloud community.  One of the best sources I’ve found for vision, information and ideas throughout my career has been the conversations that happen at well-run industry conferences.  Yes, travel budgets are tight and the time is a concern — but you hear things at those events long before they appear on the web or in other news outlets.  For the past several years, there have been a handful of such gatherings on my personal “must attend” list.

    Design and Value

    audience 01 VSM 300x218 The Must Attend SaaS/Cloud Conference ListThere are several aspects that make for good value in a professional conference.  One is the design of presentations and panel discussions, especially if they are carefully crafted for the audience and not merely done as marketing or advertising exercises for some vendor.  Another is the array of pre and post conference workshops or seminars that may be offered.  The content of the formal sessions can do a great deal to set the tone of the event and to suggest strategic and tactical concepts, ideas, approaches and possibilities.

    handshake business sm 300x225 The Must Attend SaaS/Cloud Conference ListThe most important source of value, to me, however, is in the attendees of the conference.  The content of the presentations is only a beginning.  The real impact comes from interacting one on one or in small groups gathered informally around the table or bar during the day or after hours, and conference organizers should keep this firmly in mind.  Receptions need to be held in rooms where you can hear what others are saying without having to shout.  Networking breaks should be frequent.

    The Conference List

    The Cloud Channel Summit.  CCS Logo 300x133 The Must Attend SaaS/Cloud Conference ListCCS is a new conference, created by noted SaaS/Cloud analyst & consultant Jeff Kaplan of THINKstrategies and Marc Sternberg of Rising Tide Media. The first event was held in Mountain View, California on November 7th, 2011.  The HotLine Magazine was a media sponsor for this event, and I also was a moderator for a panel discussion.  If you go to the CCS website (the logo to the right is an active link), and click on the Agenda tab, you can see the videos of the various sessions and keynotes.  I was intereviewed just before the event, and the video for that session may be seen here.

    Dreamforce.  DF11 logo The Must Attend SaaS/Cloud Conference ListThe annual event for the Salesforce.com community is the largest conference in the SaaS/Cloud sector, and offers a tremendous value in its sessions and presentations.

    All About The Cloud.  AATC Conference graphic 300x89 The Must Attend SaaS/Cloud Conference ListOpSource began this conference in Napa, California in early 2006 as the SaaS Summit.  It was later acquired by the Software & Information Industry Association, SIIA, and the venue changed to San Francisco. For 2012, the conference will be held on May 8-10.  For more information, visit www.siia.net

    [This article was originally published in April of 2010.  It has since been updated and revised.]