"Software as a service" news, interviews, and features

News about Software as a service

• Kiwi SaaS company Cin7 bulks up with Aussie, US buyouts

  Sydney-based DEAR Systems and US company Orderhive acquired

• EXCLUSIVE: Seera increases channel play

  Launches new channel program and seeks partners

• LogMeIn to acquire LastPass

  Accelerates strategic growth initiative focused on identity and access management

• Slack cofounder: 'We didn't have a sense of the scale it could grow to'

  In the two years since its beta launch, Slack has juggled explosive growth, formidable competition and the need to cater to CIOs

• GitHub launches desktop client to lure more developers

  The GitHib desktop can branch copies of a software project and then merge user changes back into the project

• IBM's new US$1B acquisition will help Watson 'see'

  The addition of Merge's imaging data could advance personalized medicine, IBM says

Features about Software as a service

• Use software license optimization tools to get your money's worth out of SaaS

  Many organizations fail to adequately monitor SaaS product use, resulting in over-licensed situations

• Review: Microsoft Office Online vs. Apple iWork for iCloud vs. Google Drive

  Online word processors, spreadsheets, and presentation apps can be surprisingly useful, or surprisingly lame, and not even Microsoft aces Office document compatibility

• Review: Microsoft Office 365 vs. Google Apps

  Web browser or Office suite? Microsoft's and Google's office productivity and collaboration clouds pit rich and complex against simple and lean

• 4 ideas to steal from IT upstarts

  When startups grow up, their IT must mature as well. Here's how four hot companies are choosing tech that's serious but not stodgy.

• 8 sure-fire ways to screw up a cloud contract

  Read these tips before you sign anything

• Google Apps, once a leader, faces growing Cloud app rivals

  Analysts say it needs to improve its unified communications and enterprise social efforts or risk being left behind