China Martens of the 451 Group provided an in-depth Market Insight Service report discussing LongJump and its potential as a PaaS provider inside and outside the corporate firewall. The 451 Group also provided a comprehensive look at where LongJump is in relation to other cloud computing companies and a fairly complete review of the company’s history and trajectory from SaaS provider to offering a multi-tenant application platform for service providers.

LongJump is keenly aware of the challenges it faces in attracting enterprises and ISVs to opt for its PaaS as they take a leap away from Java and .NET and into cloud app development. It’s at the start of what is likely to be a lengthy wooing process and points to its first five ISV customers as a good start in a matter of months. We see LongJump having more stability than some of its pure-play rivals, given its steady-as-it-goes CRM business, and expect it to successfully weather the likely approaching consolidation of small PaaS providers.

In addition, the report states the value opportunity for ISVs:

Companies of all sizes are eager to develop their own SaaS/cloud applications, and some will be particularly interested in the levels of control over branding and deployment that LongJump offers in some of the versions of its platform.

If you are a subscriber to The 451 Group’s research, you can view the complete report here. Access is also available as a trial, or if you would like to receive a copy of the report, leave a comment on this post or on our Twitter feed and we’ll contact you.

Technorati Tags: application development, cloud computing, customer relationship management, isv, PaaS, Platform-as-a-Service, private cloud, saas, software-as-a-service, the 451 group

Company Appoints Vice President of Business Development to Lead Newly Unveiled Partner Program and Drive Channel Strategy

Sunnyvale, CA May 19, 2008 — LongJump, a platform for highly customizable, interconnected on-demand business applications, announced today that it has appointed Jay Noble as its new Vice President of Business Development. Noble brings with him more than 20 years of enterprise-level consulting and implementation experience as well as a solid track record of sales and marketing successes, overseeing CRM-focused project implementations and teams. In his new role, Noble will spearhead the company’s sales and partner channel strategy.

Noble’s appointment follows closely on LongJump’s recently unveiled Jumpstart Partner Program, which was developed for resellers who want to leverage a true enterprise-grade, multi-tenant, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform and deliver database-driven custom applications that meet their customers’ needs. The program provides partners with an exceptionally attractive incremental revenue channel where they can monetize LongJump’s application platform with their own premium services, while benefiting from LongJump’s support of lead generation campaigns, business opportunity referrals, and generous multi-year commission plans.

“Until now, there has not been a SaaS provider that has developed a compelling channel proposition for partners, which is absolutely essential to bring SaaS to more businesses,” noted LongJump’s founder and CEO, Pankaj Malviya. “Jay’s experience and success on the reseller side provides LongJump with an important perspective into what the VAR and developer partners need from SaaS vendors to expand their revenue opportunities.”

Noble has a wealth of knowledge in sales, marketing, and customer support, and has led numerous implementations of enterprise CRM software at global companies, including Apple, Sybase and Hawaiian Telecom. Prior to joining LongJump, Noble served as President of North American Operations for saaspoint, a leading Salesforce.com implementation partner, where he helped deliver several major projects at Fortune 1,000 companies. Previously, Noble spent four years as a top senior manager and CRM practice leader at BearingPoint. In this role, Noble spearheaded several multi-million dollar systems integration projects within Fortune 500 companies and was a key member of the PeopleSoft and Salesforce.com alliance teams.

“LongJump’s on-demand platform is trailblazing how enterprises of all sizes can collaborate, manage information, and simplify business process optimization,” stated Noble. “The LongJump team demonstrates a focus and commitment to truly help our channel partners maximize their revenue potential with LongJump’s suite of interconnected applications.”

Noble holds a Bachelor’s degree in Management from Oral Roberts University. He currently resides in San Jose, California.

Technorati Tags: customer relationship management, on-demand, PaaS, saas, Sales and CRM

Recently, there was a news report on how a lot of families are dealing with the (possible) recession by growing their own fruits and vegetables. Makes perfect sense. It cuts down on expensive gas, its self-replenishing, and you can grow what you need. It also is tasty and satisifying. What’s the point?

There is a term in sales called “low-hanging fruit,” identifying prospects and customers that you can capture and sell to quickly without a lot of background work or negotiation. In sales, being able to identify which businesses are due for some type of re-marketing or outreach, can reduce the chances of existing easy revenue slipping through the cracks. Its easier to sell repeat business than it is to start from scratch.

Here’s an example. Let’s say you’re a restaurateur and you keep contact with your frequent patrons that come to your restaurant. CRM Solutions like LongJump’s Sales Force Automation suite would enable you to pull data from your cash registers and let you analyze across both data sets when one of your regulars hasn’t paid a visit in a few weeks.

How can you use this valuable customer information? Add an email marketing campaign with LongJump Campaign Manager to repeat each week for all your missing regulars with a “we miss you” type message, a coupon for something unique like a free bottle of house wine with dinner for two, and a tantalizing list of new menu items.

If they come, again push that register data back into LongJump, and send that customer a thank you, with the same offer that they can pass along to one of their friends.

You’ve now created a low-cost, self-replenishing, referral-driven campaign.

Technorati Tags: customer relationship management, on-demand, saas, Sales and CRM