2012 Software, Internet & IT Infrastructure M&A Report

By Peachtree Capital Advisors

Economic Backdrop – It was not the best of times, it was not the worst of times…2012. 

Not since the great depression has a sluggish economy and a stubborn unemployment number represented pretty good economic conditions for companies to chart their strategic courses. In 2012, the US economy experienced modest growth with real GDP growing 2.7% in the third‐quarter of 2012 versus 1.3% in the second quarter of 2012. More importantly, the unemployment rate decreased to 7.7% in December 2012. This muddy economic backdrop is the new normal and no one can argue against the fact that the economic scenario is much much better than it was just three years ago.

You can download and read the full Peachtree 2012 Software, Internet & IT Infrastructure M&A Report here.

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Infographic: The Rise of Women in tech

By MBAOnline.com

Why SaaS is Exploding: A whitepaper

Dave Key and Technology Council of Southern California

Virtually everyone agrees the SaaS market is growing incredibly quickly; Gartner predicted cloud growth would be 21% in 2011. IDC predicts SaaS growth at 25.3% CAGR through 2014. Forester predicts SaaS will account for 26% of the package software market by 2016, while Deloitte forecasts that only 4.3% of On-Premise software spending will be replaced by SaaS.

This white paper examines the converging forces driving the acceleration of SaaS resulting in an explosion of new SaaS applications and customers that will further accelerate the SaaS market. Nearly every product category will have a SaaS alternative providing heady competition to traditional software products, and those offerings are gaining market share over their on-premise competitors.

Top factors driving SaaS adoption by software vendors:
1) Customers are demanding SaaS applications
2) Client software is moving to a consumerized, HTML5 interface
3) Server software is moving to the Cloud
4) Software vendors are joining the stampede moving to SaaS
5) VARs and System Integrators are getting on board the SaaS movement
6) Most new software venture investments are concentrated in SaaS, mobile, big data, and social – others need not apply…
7) Software M&A is strongest for SaaS companies driving more software companies to become SaaS companies

You can download and view the whole whitepaper here for free: Technology Council – Why SaaS is Exploding

Online Masters: Infographic

Bottom Line Confidential – How to for Sales Growth: “A New Way to Increase Revenues”

By Bill Swanson, CEO Decisions

Revenue is down and so is profit. You listened to your customers, assessed the competitors, enlisted the brightest of your team, and sifted through the brains of the best external experts. You’re feeling good about your decision to signed-off on that five hundred thousand dollar Sales Improvement Program; you locked the door and made your way to the parking lot. It’s 6:30pm and you’re excited about a long holiday weekend with the family; a time to relax and renew. As you flip the steaks, cook the potatoes, and plan the weekend, the flames under the steaks bring to mind your hot new Sales plan. You begin to ponder… ponder if your market will alter their behavior and increase sales as promised by your team. Can we drive down the expense line using a new position in market strength? Will our up and down channels be convinced and ensure our new products will be supported by them? Will improving Field Sales capabilities and efficiencies do their share to increase revenues? Can marketing successfully define the improvement, and will the company become more profitable; or did I miss something…? The answer to these questions becomes personal. It’s my credibility with the Board, the Bank, and the sales force. Within the smoke of cooking beef lays two questions; questions that should have been asked at the beginning of the decision process: Was the decision making process fully correlated to the sales objective, and will the projects and programs produce recognizable value to the customer?

The Popularization of Analytics via the Cloud: Theme of Cloud Analytics Summit, April 25

By Jeffrey M. Kaplan

As a follow-up to Greg Sikes’ blogpost entitled, “Deep Analytics Become More Relevant In Daily Life”, on March 21, I’d like to suggest that the pervasive nature of today’s powerful new forms of analytics can be found everywhere in our day-to-day lives, ranging from fantasy sports teams to smartphone apps which can track our every move.

And, this ready access to data and statistics which is becoming an integral part of our personal lives is setting new standards for what we expect in our professional lives as well.

In the same way that the ‘consumerization of IT’ has transformed the way technology and business applications are being consumed in the corporate world, THINKstrategies believes a similar pattern is emerging in the BI, big data and data integration arena.

Deep analytics become more relevant in daily life

By Greg Sikes

If you have watched TV in the last two years, or walked through an airport, you have likely seen an IBM Smarter Planet advertisement.  At the core of this message is the idea that the world is becoming more Instrumented, Interconnected, and Intelligent.  Just take a look around your house, or at the communication device you regularly clutch in your hands, and you will see evidence of the first two points.  I looked up the word “intelligent” in the dictionary sitting on my desk; included in the definition was the text “the ability to learn or understand”.How does a device get the label “smart”?  Aside from good marketing intended to increase sales, smart products hold the promise of optimizing performance based on behavior patterns.  An example might be an energy consumption monitor that helps meter appliance usage such that it occurs during the lowest cost cycle within a given time frame.