August 21, 2007

Three new ways to help ISVs expand your reach

by Gordon Graham, Editor, SoftwareCEO

This issue we've found two intriguing new services and a ready-made template to help software execs expand your reach.

The first is a new service that sponsors virtual trade shows, with a link where you can tour one yourself. And unlike most virtual worlds, you can visit without having to learn how to walk, talk, and dress yourself all over again (?!).

The next is a faster, less expensive way to convert existing Windows apps into web offerings that look and feel more like SaaS. This buys you time to do a real conversion — or maybe avoid those costs and headaches altogether.

And finally, we found a free one-page product marketing template that could save you hours of scribbling. With everything summed up on this one page, you can help orient new hires, and keep everyone in your software firm on the same wavelength.

A virtual tradeshow, with no flying required.
There's no doubt that people like to meet and talk. But there's also no doubt that slogging to trade shows is costly and time-consuming.

So why not a virtual trade show that business prospects can visit from the comfort of their desks?

Enter Menlo Park-Calif.-based Unisfair, which produces online trade shows, conferences, expos, and job fairs for corporate clients.

Their offerings combine the hot trends of collaboration, social networking, and virtual spaces. Think of an inspired mashup of WebEx + LinkedIn + Second Life, and you're getting there.

"What we do is simulate the complete event experience," explains marketing VP Brent Arslaner, "from the grand entranceway to multi-session conference tracks, an exhibitor floor with booths, a resource center, a lounge, and the ability to do professional networking throughout the event."

Founded in 2000, Unisfair has already organized more than 250 virtual events — mainly for big media firms — and they're now targeting technology firms as another likely adopter.

"We've done events for Avaya, IBM, Nortel, and Quest Software," says Arslaner, "and over half our pipeline is software companies."

To help you get your head around this concept, here are six pointers about virtual vs. real-world events.

Virtual event pointer #1: They save everyone money.
With no airplanes, hotels, taxis, or meals to shell out for, the cost savings can be immense, both for sponsors and for attendees.

For instance, National Instruments recently replaced an 18-city road show with a virtual event, shaved 80 percent off their costs, and still attracted more leads than with last year's real-world tour.

For sponsors, the costs from Unisfair start at $30K for a smaller event, and run up to $100,000+ for a larger event. That gives you a custom-branded virtual site, with booths you can rent and sponsorships you can sell — so you can recoup some of your costs from your channel partners.

Most virtual events offer free registration, so they cost nothing but a few hours of staff time for a company sending any visitors.

That means no approvals up the food chain, no travel receipts to collect and submit, no accounting: The whole process is effortless for visitors and their managers.

Virtual event pointer #2: They save everyone time.
A virtual event promises no travel, no airports, and no lineups. That saves both sponsors and visitors days of non-productive effort.

What's more, it broadens the reach of a virtual event.

Exhibitors find they can draw in busy prospects who would never book off days for a real-world event, but might well come in for an hour or two to look around its online equivalent.

"If an executive has a board meeting in an hour, they can still attend something in person, and it doesn't have to take two or three days of their lives going in and out of airports," says Arslaner.

Virtual event pointer #3: Designed right, a virtual event is simple and productive to visit.
Virtual worlds like Second Life have an intense learning curve, more suited for students and retirees than anyone with a job or a family.

It takes hours to master the intricate interface and learn how to get around. And you can't really get started until you buy some new clothes and tweak your avatar's appearance.

But when Arslaner showed me around one of Unisfair's virtual trade shows, it was an eye-opening experience.

Completely parallel to a real site, the online site is simple to navigate. The learning curve is less than 60 seconds, because it's pretty much point-and-click.

You can drop into presentations, pick up white papers and put them in your virtual briefcase, visit booths, pose questions to vendors, or chat with other attendees.

The whole system runs nimbly in Flash, and doesn't even call for a high-speed connection.

You can try it yourself at this link (registration required).

"We want the environment to be engaging and immersive, but we've learned that business professionals do not want to have to learn a bunch of special commands," says Arslaner.

"They don't want to have to figure out how to get dressed, and fly, and run around; they want to learn, and they want to network."

Virtual event pointer #4: Use a virtual event to replace a real event.
What could an ISV do with a virtual event?

You can use a virtual event to replace anything you do now in real space, such as:

• launch a new product with a road show,
• train a mass of employees or partners,
• sponsor a worldwide users group meeting,
• recruit fresh talent at a job fair.

That's not even counting any direct sales at a virtual show, where your reps can answer pre-sale questions and then refer prospects to a convenient "buy now" button on your website.

"Depending on the cost of the software you're selling, you can definitely push things further along the pipeline," says Arslaner.

He says for lower-priced software, a virtual trade show can generate a wave of sales. And for higher-priced software, it can generate good leads.

Virtual event pointer #5: Use a virtual site before and after a real event.
You can also use both types of events together.

"We are seeing a trend where the virtual event is highly commingled with the physical event," says Arslaner. "And there will be a point in the not-too-distant future where every physical event will have a virtual component."

For example, you can set up a virtual site in advance to help visitors pre-network and pre-plan before they get to your real-world event.

And you can leave it up so that people can watch presentations they missed, pick up white papers, and chat with colleagues for weeks after the real event is over.

After you build it and they come, why not leave it up for a while? They might come again, and even bring their friends.

Virtual event pointer #6: Keep this idea on your radar.
Arslaner says for 95 percent of the attendees, it's their first time at a virtual event.

"It almost feels where webinars were two or three years ago. We have to explain what's possible," he says.

It may be early on for this concept, and sponsoring your own event may not be in the cards for smaller ISVs. But any time soon, you could take part in a virtual event put on by a larger partner.

And any software company now sinking money into events should keep this alternative on their radar.

"I don't advocate that physical events are going away," says Arslaner, "but people will become more particular. A couple of years ago, they would go to five events; this year they may only go to two. But they still want to learn and network."

Virtual events can fill that gap with a cost-effective alternative. This sounds like a trend whose time has come.

A faster way to convert a Windows catalog to SaaS.
In today's era of fast-charging SaaS vendors, pity the poor software publisher holding a fistful of Windows apps that were never architected for the web.

Well, help is on the way, from Palo Alto, Calif.-based AppStream. The company just announced a faster, less expensive way to convert a portfolio of Windows apps to run over the web more like software-as-a-service (SaaS).

The company says AppStream 5.2.2 SaaS edition can transform any Windows application into a service-enabled package in a matter of days, instead of the months or years it would take to do a full rewrite.

How? By using streaming technology to feed blocks of software from a host to your customer's desktops.

Application streaming delivers application bits on demand across the web, where they run without waiting for the rest of the code to download. This makes the application behave as if it were installed with conventional methods, like a CD.

And thankfully AppStream works with Firefox, not just IE.

ISVs can use this service as a transitional strategy to get a SaaS offering up and running, while rewriting their Windows applications behind the scenes. Or maybe, they can use it to avoid doing a rewrite altogether. After all, some older applications may not be worth sinking any more development time into them.

How much does it cost?

AppStream execs say the costs vary widely, depending on what you need. Pricing is based on an array of factors, including your company size, business model, number of expected transactions, and the architecture of the original application.

There's also the question of named vs. pooled users (John Joe, Jane Doe, Joe Blow vs. any 100 people who work for Acme Novelties Inc.)

Another issue is whether you'll host your app(s) yourself, or want third-party hosting. AppStream works with well-known SaaS enabler OpSource to provide SaaS hosting if required.

So you'll have to negotiate your best deal, based on all these factors. But like most SaaS-enabling firms, AppStream is committed to "success-based pricing" to reduce the pain of the front-end costs and spread them out over time.

What do you get for your money?

AppStream 5.2.2 SaaS Edition includes APIs for integration into an ISV's website, client- and server-side SDKs, and automated subscription management to enforce license compliance and help prevent piracy.

"There are thousands of highly relevant Windows desktop applications that would better serve users by moving them to the cloud, and streaming technology is a solution to that problem," said Paul Valcheff, VP of business development for AppStream.

If you're sitting on a catalog of legacy Windows apps and you're not sure whether to convert them to SaaS, the AppStream approach is worth looking into.

Of course, you'll likely be stuck with your app's same old pre-web interface. This won't take advantage of any of the newer UI conventions of the web, as we discussed at length in a recent two-part feature. As noted above, this is more about squeezing some last dollars out of an older title, or buying some time while you do a proper port to the web.

Stream legacy consumer titles, don't convert them.
One big software firm has received great benefits from the new service, and it makes an interesting mini-case study.

Riverdeep, owners of the venerable Broderbund software brands, used AppStream earlier this year to roll out a new electronic software delivery and management system.

In all the company has more than 100 different software titles.

Built on AppStream's SaaS Edition, Riverdeep's new platform makes it easy and convenient for users to buy software like The Print Shop, PrintMaster, and KidPix over a broadband connection.

In fact, more than 25,000 consumers have used the Riverdeep service since January, 2007. And over that time, the project has saved the publisher an estimated one-third in software delivery costs.

The morale of the story: If you're sitting on a lot of legacy consumer software titles, consider streaming them over the web, not converting them for SaaS.

You will save money on distribution, reach out to new users through the web, and give your apps a certain face lift — all without committing to rewrite them.

Write the world's shortest product plan.
Are you struggling to write a product plan, and worried that you'll never get it done? Or is it taking way longer than you can afford?

Author, VC, and industry gadfly Guy Kawasaki has something for you: a one-page form where you can quickly capture the who, what, when, and how for each of the five Ps of marketing.

You can find this template here on his blog.

"I've seen a lot of marketing plans in my day — 99.9 percent of them were way too long," writes Kawasaki. "This length is perfect for most products and services."

Give it a try, and you'll save writing endless pages that won't say any more than this one sheet.

You'll still need to work hard to fill in this page with your best thinking. And you'll still need to develop the tactics to capture your market, and the budget to do it.

But having so much positioning captured on one page for each product in your portfolio will put you head and shoulders ahead of most software firms.

And it will serve as a valuable reference to help orient new hires, and keep existing employees and managers on the same wavelength.