Response from: CRMHero    (10/09/08 1:16pm)

Entellium is not going under and has kept a certain amount of employees to ensure constant customer satisfaction for their already existing customer base. The customer data is safe and housed via 3rd party, which in this day and age is crucial for a Saas company. My guess is whoever wrote this article only has a "outside" world view looking in the Saas industry. Your speculation and judgement do not play to your strengths in this article my friend, too liberal, too judgemental and just plain bad points of view. Know what you are talking about prior to engaging in what you may consider a conversation.

Response from: Josh Whiting    (10/09/08 1:32pm)

I agree with this stance and I like the use of "boogeyman" in this post. For years traditional software has spoke of On Demand being risky yet traditional software is as risky if not more the web based. I may ask whose servers are more secure, those stored in their own data center or room chewing up resources most likly causing organizations to invest the least amount possible in maintenance. Or the servers hosted in Web Based CRM vendors high tech datacenters who have the dollers to spend on ensuring the highest standards are upkept since each user pays a little towards this.

The tranisition from one traditional vendor to another can also be rather costly since these platforms were not built using any industry standards. In contrast the migratin of data from say Entellium to those showing interest like Avidian or Salesboom.com is much easier since web based crm is built using set standards. Some like Salesboom.com even have a web services api which allows the backend to open up for simple integration and migration. So considering these points I think the boogyman will remain a fictional character in the closet and SaaS will once again prove werthy at the enterprise level.

Response from: Scott Wilson    (10/09/08 4:08pm)

@CRMHero... Time will tell. We've heard a lot of "inside" people telling us how strong their businesses and industries are lately, and I think we can all see how accurate they were. It's my job to offer outside perspective; outside is where the customers are, and they, as I am, are rightly suspicious of people at these companies who poke their noses out and claim that all is well. It doesn't take a CRM expert to tell you that a company that lets go its sales and marketing staff in a down market is on its death bed... you build your business to get through problems like these; you don't hunker down with the support crew and hope it gets better.

You should consider that your position with Entellium (and the fact you didn't bother to disclose it in your statements) weighs heavily against the positions taken in your comment to most of us "outsiders."

@Josh... I agree. I have actually done something similar with the Salesboom platform and it was strikingly easy compared to similar tasks with more traditional applications. I think it may take the failure of Entellium, or similar, to demonstrate that to the mainstream buyer, though, and while it may be painful for whichever SaaS company is the first to implode, it's probably ultimately a good thing for the industry.