Industry News

Online marketing is flexing its muscles. Every day, marketers move more of their budgets from traditional outlets to new, innovative online channels. Online marketing offers unheard-of control and access to marketing data, including the ability to track website visits, monitor traffic patterns, control costs, and target potential customers more effectively. In the software industry, that trend is especially relevant because customers are well acquainted with using the Internet to research new products and services. They expect instant gratification and easy access to information. An integrated online-marketing strategy provides a good conduit, but too many companies are underutilizing that approach.

This Quickbooks Point of Sale is just one of the many applications which you can try out online. To try out more of these applications online, you can check out Runaware.com It’s good that software vendors are now beginning to allow their potential customers to try out their applications online. I believe this move will make their application more transparent which would eventually lead to higher sales and revenue for these software makers. Hopefully more organizations will soon place their applications on Runaware.com so software buyers can make better decisions on which software vendor to go with.

Fort Lauderdale-based Runaware, which sells software marketing, says the company is jumping into Software as a Service with its recently-announced updated TestDrive platform. With the launch of the company’s updated online demo service, Runaware wants to sell cloud computing services to other software companies. Their TestDrive platform is geared for the Platform as a Service market.

Adobe now provides an online demo of all software components that are part of the Adobe Technical Communications suite. These working demos are exactly similar to the actual desktop software but here you get to try the software directly in a web browser without having to install anything on your machine

With 6 major Adobe software applications in Adobe Technical Communication Suite 2, plus 10 other smaller programs, evaluating the entire Suite has been a challenge for our customers because of the total file size of the software. Today our customers have to either order a shipped trial DVD, or wait for several Gigabytes to download before getting their hands on the software. In an effort to provide a better trial experience to our customers, we have been working with Runaware, who specializes in hosting full versions of software in a virtual environment, delivered via the browser. This means that you can now get your hands on our entire Suite in literally minutes and without having to download the trial version of the software.

Adobe announced yesterday the availability of a live demo of its Technical Communication Suite 2 product. The demo lets Adobe customers try the core products in the suite including Adobe FrameMaker 9, RoboHelp 8 and Captivate 4. Prior to the availability of this online demo, it was difficult for customers interested in trying before buying to get the software because of the sheer size of the package, says RJ Jacquez, senior product evangelist for Adobe Technical Communication Suite.

Author: Tim Keyes, Runaware CEO Do more with less. That is the challenge for software marketers today: to get better results from their marketing programs on increasingly smaller budgets. It's important for software marketers to analyze the effectiveness of their programs and determine their return on investment (ROI), because a careful look will reveal that some methods produce better returns than others.

The benefits of software-as-a-service may not be as clear cut as they seem, with the focus on the initial savings hiding issues that could reduce its advantage over packaged software in the longer term.

Gartner Inc. has ranked virtualization as the No. 1 strategic technology for next year, not for its "tremendously obvious" ability to virtualize servers, but for its increasing capability to virtualize just about everything else in a data center.

This Relationship Enhances ScriptLogic's Government Reseller Program as a Growing Number of Public Entities Implement ScriptLogic's Solution to Assist With Compliance

ScriptLogic® Corporation (www.scriptlogic.com), a leading provider of systems lifecycle management solutions for Microsoft® Windows®-based networks, today announced that DLT Solutions, Inc., a value-added reseller of industry-leading information technology products and services to government and business customers, is now reselling ScriptLogic products to help government organizations enforce Federal Desktop Core Configuration (FDCC) compliance. DLT's relationship with ScriptLogic addresses a growing demand among agencies for Desktop Authority, ScriptLogic's flagship desktop platform.

My search led to Intuit QuickBooks, which you can test-drive through a browser as well, using technology from a company called Runaware; the underlying services are from Citrix. I kicked off the test-drive, and it checked my browser, which was Firefox (no trouble); looked for Java, the universal language (no problem); and tested network speed (no trouble) -- we were off.

I can honestly say that I was very impressed with the quality of the interface. Granted, the Microsoft interface I test-drove was for Vista with Office 2007, and accessing a full OS and suite via the Web is less complex than accessing a single application. But the point is I had full functionality as though I was working with QuickBooks installed on my machine directly. It was fast and crisp.

Standards wars, such as the Blu-ray vs. HD-DVD battle, can keep many potential users on the sidelines until a winner is declared. Virtualization software vendors are trying to avoid just such a battle over the adoption of virtual appliances.

Citrix announces tools, based on OVF specification, for building virtual appliances Such appliances are software bundles containing an operating system and application that have been pre-configured and tuned to run in a virtualized environment. The idea is to ease and speed up deployment of new virtualized applications, but that's contingent on the virtual appliances being able to work with various virtualization technologies, such as VMware Inc.'s ESX Server, Citrix Systems Inc.'s XenServer and Microsoft Corp.'s new Hyper-V software.

Software companies have made strides in reducing their footprint of non-renewable resources by distributing their products through download or through the SaaS (Software as a Service) subscription model. Often overlooked, however, are the CDs, shipping boxes, and sales brochures (not to mention airplanes and delivery trucks) used to send out demo versions of software.

Runaware, a Fort Lauderdale-based company, has a uniquely “green” alternative to this process. TestDrive lets software vendors demonstrate their products to multiple users over the Web in a virtual “test drive” environment. The solution enables prospects to interact with the vendor’s fully-featured product, yet without ever loading the software onto their personal PC or workstation.

Mamut ASA Mamut has announced that a Letter of Intent has been signed with Germany's supplier of small business software, Lexware, a fully-owned subsidiary of Haufe Media Group.

Through a joint venture Mamut officials say, Mamut and Lexware will offer a co-branded edition of Mamut One with components from Mamut, Lexware and Haufe Group to the German SME segment. The two companies will also share and co-develop Software + Services platforms and components.

There's a product called TestDrive, launched by Runaware, which lets software vendors offer trials of CDs, downloads and hosted interactive online demos. Once a potential user tries the online demo, his profile is sent to the sales force through the CRM system. This gives a vendor a chance to see who is testing their software.

Software companies are increasingly making an effort to reduce their carbon footprint by making their products available to consumers through download or through the SaaS (Software as a Service) subscription model.

Runaware, a Fort Lauderdale-based company, has a uniquely “green” alternative to this process. TestDrive lets software vendors demonstrate their products to numerous users over the Web in a virtual “test drive” environment. The solution allows prospects to work with the vendor’s fully-featured product, yet without ever loading the software onto their personal PC or workstation.

Being tracked online is not, in itself, a bad thing, because it actually reduces the number of ads you are bombarded with online. "A lot of people in different empirical studies have emphatically said they prefer relevant advertising," said Greg Sterling, founding principal of Sterling Market Intelligence.

The company creates a formal partner program for its QuickBase platform, offering commissions of 20 to 35 percent. Looking to attract VARs and business domain experts as partners for its build-your-own SAAS offering, Intuit has introduced a formal channel program for its code-free application development and hosted platform, QuickBase.

Efter att ha kört på sparlåga sedan starten 1999, händer allt i snabb takt för svenska bolaget Runaware. Försäljning har kommit igång ordentligt, framför allt i Europa, och nu väntar en notering på Nordic MTF.

Efter att ha kört på sparlåga sedan starten 1999, händer allt i snabb takt för svenska bolaget Runaware. Försäljningen ökar i Europa och nu väntar en listning på Nordic MTF.

Hon ser ut som Carolina Klüfts svarta tvillingsyrra och kan bli Göteborgs nya stora musikexport. Läs också om finanskvinnan som gjorde sig omöjlig hos Mats Odell. Nu håller hon en prestigefylld föreläsning på Handelshögskolan.

VMware is taking a lot of money out of the current hardware environment with its virtualization product offerings, and Microsoft wants to participate in that value chain, according to Bob Kelly, Microsoft's corporate vice president of infrastructure server marketing.

It’s a telling comparison, but even I was taken aback at the conclusion Warfield draws from it in a side comment (my emphasis added): “I wonder sometimes whether the conventional software model has ever really flourished except during bubbles of one kind or another. Look at Big ERP. They had the benefit of several major bubble waves: the rush to switch to client server architectures, the Y2K debacle, and then right on the heels of Y2K was the Internet Bubble. Would these businesses have grown nearly so large without any of those bubbles? Maybe SaaS would’ve gotten here sooner. The choice between the two is a Tortoise (SaaS) versus the Hare (Old School ISV) race.”

SAP Business ByDesign automates a wide range of business processes and will cost companies $149 per user per month. Before several hundred people in a midtown Manhattan theater Wednesday, SAP (SAP) CEO Henning Kagermann said the company's new on-demand software is the start of a "new era" for SAP. "I'm now 25 years in this company, and I can say it's the most important announcement I've made in my career," Kagermann declared.

Did you hear the one about the VP of marketing who demanded budget and IT support for a $10 million enterprise application that he promised would revolutionize how his company did its marketing? Neither did we. The truth is marketers have as much chance of landing a large capital budget software implementation as they do securing a two-week vacation coinciding with a big new- product launch.

Free copies of some of Microsoft's office software will soon be available.

The biggest public software companies are increasingly relying on acquisitions for growth, as they pick off weaker competitors or startup companies that have decided not to go it alone. In addition to their desire to get bigger, those doing the acquiring say they are responding to a move on the part of enterprise customers to reduce the number of vendors with which they do business.

Internet display ad spending jumped 17% in the first quarter while total ad spending fell. No wonder Google stock's at a record high.

While the original plan for the RSS Diary blog was leaving on hiatus until the 2007 edition of the RSS Marketing e-book is done, the FeedBurner acquisition by Google is a story just to important to pass up ... especially all the implications it might bring into the world of RSS Advertising, and RSS Marketing as a whole as well.

Customer Total Quadruples in Three Years as Small Businesses Discover Anywhere, Anytime Accounting Made Easy

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., May 30 /PRNewswire/ -- Runaware(TM), the world leader in online software demonstration services, has announced that its TestDrive platform is the technology powering the online test drive experience for the 2007 Microsoft Office System. This technology has proven to be an essential strategic element for 2007 Office customer education efforts residing on Microsoft's Office Online Web site since June 2006.

Intuit posted revenue of $1.15 billion for its fiscal third quarter, a 21 percent increase when compared with the $952 it reported in the year-ago period. The company's third-quarter profit reached $367 million, a 23 percent increase when compared with $299 million last year.

Software pirates got a little busier in Canada in 2006, with a new study showing that Canada's software piracy rate rose by one percentage point to 34 per cent last year. The report by the Canadian Alliance Against Software Theft (CAAST) and the Business Software Alliance (BSA) said losses to the Canadian economy due to software piracy totalled $890 million in 2006.

Company allocates 60% of marketing budget for Office 2007 to Internet

As software-as-a-service gains ground, how will solution providers adapt?

Microsoft spent the first dozen years of Office’s life piling on new features. Over time, the humble word processor called Word became a photo editor, a Web-design program and a dessert topping. Not one person in a hundred used those extra features. Still, we kept buying the upgrades, thanks to our innate fondness for unnecessary power (see also: S.U.V.’s). Eventually, however, Microsoft Office developed a reputation for bloat and complexity. It was fully grown: tall, hairy and toothy.

Microsoft Corp. announces the completion of the 2007 Microsoft® Office system code and confirmed its release to manufacturing (RTM).

Testing Office 2007 through a browser eliminates the problem of incompatibility with earlier versions of Office.

Microsoft is trying to allow people to try out the next Office--without the hassle of installing beta software or replacing their current version.

Citrix Enables Microsoft Federal Government Customers to Take a Software Test Drive Agencies Can Now Test Application Functionality Online Before Purchase; Service Designed to Shorten Sales Cycle by More Than 25 Percent

Swedish company first in the world with medical instrument demonstrations