Newsletter

November, 2012

Greetings!

Welcome to the November Cirrostratus Group Newsletter.

 

This is the time of year for predictions for 2013 so check out my thoughts on software vendors to watch in 2013. I believe that one of the software vendors to watch is Cisco and with their strategy changes we will start to think of them as a software provider.

 

What's the value of your SaaS company? This has been closely held information but I've provided some resources on how to judge the value of your SaaS company and how to make improvements in the value.

 

It's very disappointing to see another major issue and controversy at HP. HP is accusing Autonomy of misleading them during the acquisition process and made a major writeoff resulting in a major stock market loss. I'm sure we'll be hearing plenty about this issue in the news and courts as it gets sorted out. It would be nice to see HP concentrate on how they are going to compete in a cloud based world.

 

Please contact me if I can be of assistance to you or your organization. I would be very interested in hearing about your plans for the Cloud.


Paul Ressler
The Cirrostratus Group

 

 

Software Predictions for 2013
 
    Crystal Ball 
In addition to my thoughts on software vendors to watch in 2013 you can also see my views on 2013 software industry predictions and 2013 software game changers. My perspectives on 2012 includes why I believe that Microsoft deserves an award.
What is your SaaS Company Worth?
 
Money weathervane
I recently had the oppportunity to hear Todd Gardner from SaaS Capital talk about valuing your SaaS company. SaaS Capital provides credit line financing to SaaS companies. Some key takeaways were that recurring revenue is the major valuation criteria and that reducing churn increases the value of your SaaS business in several ways. A white paper from SaaS Capital is available here. There is also a webinar and a set of slides that you may be interested in.
  
There are several financial reasons to reduce churn in a SaaS business but increasing the valuation is an excellent reason why CEOs and CFOs should understand how churn is measured and what improvement plans are in place. Here are some resources on how to reduce churn and increase upselling:
 
Paul Ressler
 
Paul Ressler
 
David Skok
 
SaaS Capital
Cisco Acquisitions: Software, Services & the Cloud
Meraki logo    Cloupia Logo      
Cisco CEO John Chambers has indicated that Cisco will be focusing more on software and services. During November Cisco announced two acquisitions, Cloupia and Meraki and the Meraki acquisition was of considerable size, $1.2B. Cisco's new strategy is one reason why I believe that they are one of the software vendors to watch in 2013.

 

I've looked particularly at the Meraki products and although they do make hardware products the cloud based management software is much more interesting.

 

Bloomberg has a good article on the Meraki acquisition. It's also interesting to see what Cisco says about the Cloupia acquisition and the Meraki aquisition.

 

 

Contact Paul Ressler at the The Cirrostratus Group

In This Issue
Software Predictions
What is Your SaaS Company Worth?
Cisco Aquisitions
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