Recently in SaaS Category

CrownPeak, the Web Content Management (WCM) Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solution provider, and Magus, the SaaS website quality and compliance monitoring provider, announced a partnership making the Magus ActiveStandards website governance platform available with the CrownPeak Cloud Web Content Management (WCM) System. The combined offering is a complete SaaS solution that gives the ability to allow more business users to publish content across multiple digital channels while protecting the brand by ensuring compliance with corporate, legal and regulatory standards. Online marketers are able to implement these initiatives in the cloud and receive the capability to quickly and easily deliver content to mobile devices, target content based on browsing behavior, integrate analytics into a content management environment and target content for authenticated site visitors and more when using the CrownPeak Cloud WCM System with the ActiveStandards compliance platform. The CrownPeak Cloud WCM System is a configurable solution that allows one to add, update and manage external content and make styling changes as quickly as eBusiness strategies demand. IT departments can maintain control of the infrastructure while giving Marketing the ability to serve visitors with the right content at the right time. The CrownPeak solution offers pre-integrated frameworks, the ability to deliver Cloud WCM globally without replicating IT infrastructure, a platform agnostic solution to import, export and publish data through standard protocols and formats. http://www.crownpeak.com/ http://www.magus.co.uk/

Enterprise Hive’s software-as-a-service (SaaS) collaboration platform HiveSocial has been upgraded to Microsoft’s .NET 4.0 Framework. This upgrade provides a technology infrastructure that allows customers more flexibility to connect to existing applications with their online communities. In addition, enhancements were developed to optimize user engagement. These enhancements include simplified content creation, ameliorated content search and navigation. Enterprise Hive also announced HiveSocial Now for Education. HiveSocial Now for Education has no software license fees, yet provides a social collaboration solution that can be fully implemented for customers within days. Running on the same platform as edu1world.org, HiveSocial and HiveSocial Now for Education are SaaS offerings that allow organizations to provide cross campus groups, multiple department teams and education user groups with branded public and private communities. These communities can be integrated with existing websites or internal applications. http://www.enterprisehive.com/

Microsoft announced Microsoft Office 365 is now available in 40 markets. Office 365 offers a range of service plans for a monthly price from $2 to $27 per user per month. With Office 365 for small businesses, customers can be up and running with Office Web Apps, Microsoft Exchange Online, Microsoft SharePoint Online, Microsoft Lync Online and an external website quickly, for $6 (U.S.) per user, per month. These tools put enterprise-grade email, shared documents, instant messaging, video and Web conferencing, portals and more at everyone's fingertips. Office 365 for enterprises has an array of choices, from simple email to comprehensive suites to meet the needs of midsize and large businesses, as well as government organizations. Customers can now get Microsoft Office Professional Plus on a pay-as-you-go basis with cloud-based versions of the business communications and collaborations services. Office 365 for small businesses and Office 365 for enterprises are available now. http://www.office365.com

North Plains, LLC announced version 9 of their Digital Asset Management (DAM) system TeleScope, a release focused on helping companies build and manage the digital asset platforms. TeleScope 9 securely connects everyone who needs to work on, distribute, or use digital content no matter where they are. The major enhancements to TeleScope 9 to achieve this include: An HTML5 user interface designed to be easily usable by anyone, at any point in the digital asset lifecycle. Drag and drop of files accessed in TeleScope via a browser directly into desktop applications, simplifying and speeding critical manual editorial or distribution tasks; TeleScope Orchestration, a user-friendly visual workflow engine; Multilingual enhancements to fully support left-to-right and right-to-left language presentations, as well as the ability to see asset metadata in two or more languages side-by-side for international distributed teams. TeleScope is available as either software-as-a-service (SaaS) or installed on premise. http://www.northplains.com/

SaaS content management system (CMS) Granite Horizon In The Cloud now provides enhanced mobile features as well as a new search engine (SEO) optimization tool. In The Cloud (ITC) subscribers now can easily deploy mobile apps to make use of their content in ways optimized for iPhone, iPad, and other mobile devices. Thanks to its new application programming interface (API), the information stored in the CMS can be consumed in attractive apps. A "canonical link" feature was introduced today as well. The CMS allows content to appear in multiple locations (for example, on the mobile version of the site as well as the main version). Other features deployed include an enhancement to the editorial interface and an improvement to the workflow system. http://granitehorizon.com

Lionbridge Technologies, Inc. announced general availability of GeoFluent, an on-demand, customized, SaaS-based automated translation technology that allows enterprises to improve engagement with global customers by providing real-time translation of content and communications. Following successful beta engagements with several large enterprises, GeoFluent is now generally available to support translation of enterprise communications such as sales and support chat sessions, online customer care forums, user reviews and other dynamic Web content. The GeoFluent platform is based on a partnership between Lionbridge and IBM. The two companies have partnered to develop and commercialize a powerful on-demand translation platform that integrates Lionbridge's cloud-based language customization solutions with a statistical machine translation engine developed in IBM's Watson Research Center. As a result, enterprises gain a unique, real-time, secure SaaS solution based on technology with large-scale commercial environments in mind. http://www.lionbridge.com/GeoFluent/GeoFluent.htm

Adobe has introduced Creative Suite 5.5, a bundled package that offers all of Adobe's designing and editing software in a single package. Adobe also planning to offer software rental options, allowing individuals to rent Adobe software, as well as plans for enterprise and student users. The Flash maker is considering offering its software to rent both on an annual basis, paid monthly, or a (more expensive) month-to-month payment plan. Rented software will check into Adobe servers every 30 days in order to check the credit card being used by the user is still valid and to make an automatic payment. If the card is not valid or has been removed by the user, the user gets a 5-day grace period for making the payments after which the software will cease to operate. http://www.adobe.com/

EndPlay, Inc., formerly Canvas Technology Inc., unveiled a new name and strategy to deliver a new WCM (Web Content Management) solution. The EndPlay platform currently powers the various websites of broadcast television stations in the U.S. The EndPlay platform is designed to handle large amounts of video content, text, social and other dynamic information. As its WCM solution evolves, EndPlay will partner with companies to manage the full spectrum of media publishing and monetization needs. EndPlay will be releasing its first major commercial product in Q4 of 2011. The EndPlay architecture is powered by Intelligent Rendering technology, which allows clients to create media-rich content, generate and distribute it on various devices, and put tools in place to easily monetize that content. Three key technology components make Intelligent Rendering possible: Intelligent Composition enables clients to generate media-rich content and generate and distribute it on virtually any device; Intelligent Monetization is EndPlay's combination of analytics, advertising modules and registration services, and partnerships in areas such as e-commerce, contextual advertising, ad serving, analytics and search; Intelligent Delivery ensures that this content is delivered in real-time, in a format that is customized to the receiving device; The EndPlay WCM platform is a transformational approach to the needs of today's demanding media and enterprise clients; EndPlay WCM utilizes a Software as a Service (SaaS) delivery model. http://www.endplay.com/

eZ Publish, a provider of enterprise content management solutions, now is available in a cloud version to meet the Web publishing needs of mid- and smaller-sized organizations. Called Granite Horizon In The Cloud, the eZ Publish content management system (CMS) is available on a software as a service (SaaS) basis through Granite Horizon LLC, a California-based web developer and implementer. GH In The Cloud is based on the eZ Publish platform with added extensions and custom features including a basic mobile site version, e-commerce and payment gateway, Google Analytics integration and RSS import/export. The service is hosted at a Tier IV data center with financial grade security and N+2 redundancy for complete reliability. GH In The Cloud is offered on two levels, determined by the need for custom workflows, storage and bandwidth. http://granitehorizon.com http://ez.no

Social networking site LinkedIn announced its first acquisition, a start-up called Mspoke that has software and engineering talent in semantic technology. LinkedIn officials said the technology would be used to recommend content, such as news, messages and what executives in similar jobs are reading and doing, to LinkedIn customers. Terms of the Mspoke deal were not disclosed. LinkedIn was launched in 2003, not long after social networking sites like Friendster and MySpace, and before the now-dominant Facebook. While smaller than any of those sites, LinkedIn has been operating cash flow positive over two years, thanks to features like premium subscriptions and enterprise licensing, as well as ad sales. The company is said to be readying an initial public offering. The Mspoke purchase is part of a strategy to get consumers to spend more inside LinkedIn, making it more about career development and work-related information, as opposed to just using it as a job search tool. http://www.linkedin.com http://www.mspoke.com/