SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 3, 2008 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Navatar Group, a global SaaS consulting firm, today announced their SaaSCase initiative, a proof-of concept service to help ISVs understand the demand, benefits, cost and effort required before building a SaaS version of their product on the Force.com platform. SaasCase helps an organization determine the feasibility of launching their Force.com SaaS offering before it is developed, through proven metrics and tools and development of a prototype application. It also includes an organizational readiness assessment to help determine the change required to become a SaaS company.
The announcement was made today at Dreamforce '08, salesforce.com's user and developer conference.
"Salesforce.com, with the Force.com platform, has made it easy for ISVs to get the benefits of SaaS without investing in infrastructure," said Alok Misra, Principal, Navatar Group. "Navatar Group has been helping large software companies build on-demand products, develop business models and realize the benefits of SaaS with less investment. With SaasCase, we have now provided an easy mechanism to assess the feasibility, get the commitment and create a solid plan to build a SaaS business on Force.com."
"Software as a service has clearly become the preferred choice for companies looking to deploy new business applications," said Clarence So, chief marketing officer at salesforce.com. "Navatar's SaasCase is designed to help software companies fully understand the business impact of moving to SaaS delivery on the Force.com platform by giving them a clear set of cost and benefit expectations."
Free Scoping and Planning for SaaS Proof-of-Concept
Navatar Group provides the initial scoping and planning phase of SaasCase free of cost. As part of the scoping and planning phase Navatar, after conducting a 90-minute executive discussion and a 90-minute assessment of their existing product, provides:
* Initial feasibility recommendation on the SaaS transition
* Recommended functional scope of a prototype application on
Force.com that can elicit meaningful feedback from prospects
and customers
* Proposed objectives, plan and metrics for SaaS proof-of-concept
Please visit http://www.navatargroup.com or call 212 461 2140 for more information.
Whitepaper from Navatar Group Provides Established ISVs the Dos and Don'ts of Making the Transition to Cloud Computing
Navatar Group's whitepaper "On-Premise to On-Demand: Product Migration or Business Transformation" provides, for the first time, the "dos and don'ts" of making the transition to cloud computing using salesforce.com's Force.com platform.
The whitepaper is a result of Navatar Group's extensive experience helping organizations with the business and technical aspects of moving to an on-demand model. It establishes why established ISVs with on-premise software products need to approach their move to the SaaS model as a transformation of their business, as opposed to a technical product migration exercise. It highlights the challenges ISVs face and examines the most common missteps during various stages and areas of this transformation. The SaaS whitepaper also provides strategies for success, including advice from companies such as CODA, Intralinks and ThomsonReuters that have already developed and delivered applications on the Force.com platform.
"Navatar Group's whitepaper provides a comprehensive analysis of the issues that businesses of various sizes face when transitioning to SaaS, as well as a roadmap to achieving SaaS success," according to Ross Inglis, Vice President, Thomson Reuters.
"As a leading financial management software provider and the first to successfully develop a SaaS accounting application on the Force.com platform, we highly recommend Navatar Group's whitepaper for on-premise software companies thinking of moving to the SaaS model," said David Turner, Group Marketing Director, CODA.
The author of the whitepaper, Alok Misra, is a Principal at Navatar Group and a leading expert in SaaS business transformation. He will be leading a panel discussion on Wednesday, Nov 5th, at 4:45PM at Dreamforce '08, titled:
Building the SaaS strategy for your On Premise business
Please visit http://www.navatargroup.com or call 212 461 2140 for more information.
About the Force.com Platform and AppExchange
Force.com is the only proven Platform as a Service for building and running business applications in the cloud. The Force.com platform powers the Salesforce CRM applications, more than 800 ISV partner applications like those from CODA and Fujitsu, and more than 85,000 custom applications used by salesforce.com's 47,700 customers such as Japan Post, Kaiser Permanente, KONE and Sprint Nextel.
Force.com is the fastest platform for building and deploying complex business applications. Unlike a stack of disparate client/server hardware and software products, Force.com unifies the development and deployment model from the database to the device, allowing developers to easily assemble applications with clicks, components and code, and then instantly deploy them on salesforce.com's trusted global infrastructure. Customers and partners are using Force.com to build all kinds of business applications from supply chain management to compliance tracking, brand management, accounts receivable, claims processing applications and much more.
Applications built on the Force.com platform can be easily distributed to the entire SaaS community through the Force.com AppExchange marketplace at http://www.salesforce.com/appexchange/.
About Navatar Group
Navatar Group (http://www.navatargroup.com), a premier salesforce.com partner, is a global firm providing SaaS advisory and implementation services and products. Founded by veterans of Deloitte Consulting, Navatar Group has enabled several large companies develop and launch SaaS products and helped hundreds of organizations successfully implement On-Demand solutions on the Force.com platform.
One of the first to bring Wall Street experience to Cloud Computing, Navatar Group also has first-hand experience in launching SaaS products, being a leading provider of Force.com solutions for the financial sector. We are the only firm with a comprehensive SaaS Transformation methodology designed to help On-Premise software companies move to an On-Demand business model using Force.com.
Navatar Group is headquartered in New York with offices in Washington DC, London and New Delhi, India.