Discover Softletter's SaaS University: Marketing, Selling, Infrastructure and Financing Seminars, 2008

KILLINGWORTH, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Softletter, the company that disseminates business insights for software developers and publishers, is bringing its successful SaaS University: Marketing, Selling, Infrastructure and Financing Seminars, 2008 to the West Coast at the Embassy Suites San Francisco Airport hotel October 14, 15, and 16. The seminar features some of the software industry's leading companies and experts on the SaaS business model including: John Keagy, CEO of GoGrid, Peter Coffee, Vice President of Platform Intelligence at salesforce.com, and Jeff Kaplan, managing director of THINKstrategies. All seminar sessions focus on providing hard data and practical strategies and tactics for ensuring success in SaaS. The San Francisco installment follows sold out seminars in both Atlanta and Boston; future seminars are scheduled in Chicago, Seattle and London in 2009.

The “Meet the VCs” half day track session included in the SaaS University offers the unique opportunity for participants to spend one-on-one time with some of the industry’s leading VCs. Moderating the VC presentations will be Rebecca Buckman, senior editor, Forbes and former Wall Street Journal tech reporter. This session allows attendees to personally address all facets of the SaaS industry ranging anywhere from obtaining funding for SaaS startups to investigating alternatives to conventional venture capital, then meet one-on-one with the VCs in specially scheduled sessions.

“SaaS opens new markets and opportunities to grow that simply aren't available to on premise, client/server companies. New markets and opportunities await those publishers astute enough to make the move now to the SaaS model,” explained Rick Chapman, managing editor and publisher of Softletter. “This seminar is intended to provide attendees with the knowledge and the means to achieve their goals through SaaS.”

The comprehensive agenda includes:

• Critical data on the growth of SaaS, pricing, growth by market segments, and sector penetration information
• Successful SaaS business and pricing models
• Professional services and SaaS
• Case studies on successful and unsuccessful SaaS implementations
• Understanding and assuaging privacy and security concerns when dealing in markets where privacy and information security are paramount
• The role of channels in a SaaS sales world
• Compensating your sales force in a SaaS milieu
• Learning the importance of SLA and escrow issues and concerns when selling SaaS
• Transitioning from a licensed to a SaaS business model
• Understanding when and whether to build your SaaS infrastructure or rent it
• Tips and techniques for demonstrating, discussing, and publicizing SaaS products
• Valuable insights into the role of professional services in a SaaS sales environment

“As a leading advocate for the growth of the SaaS movement, THINKstrategies has been pleased to help Softletter build the SaaS University into an important forum for educating software developers and publishers about industry best practices,” stated Jeffrey M. Kaplan, Managing Director of THINKstrategies and Founder of the SaaS Showplace.

Registration for the two-day conferences is $1195 per attendee, with a $300 per person discount for group registrations. Attendees will receive a complete copy of the seminar's proceedings as well a complimentary copy of The Product Marketing Handbook for Software, 5th Edition, In Search of Stupidity: Over 20 Years of High-Tech Marketing Disasters, and a complimentary three-month subscription to Softletter. For more information on the seminar, or to register, visit www.softletter.com, www.saasuniversity.com, or call the company’s headquarters 860-663-0552.

About Softletter

Softletter disseminates business insights for software developers and publishers through newsletters and seminars. Its staff of industry experts keep senior level industry executives, product managers, and key industry consultants abreast of business issues and trends in software publishing via a twice-monthly industry newsletter, Softletter, that tracks new marketing and distribution tactics, company operations, finance, pricing models, product management, and emerging technologies in the desktop, enterprise, Open Source and software-as-a service (SaaS) market segments. Seminars, such as Softletter’s groundbreaking ‘Marketing and Selling Open Source Software 2005’ identify market shifts, new realities, and opportunities so that company executives can understand and profit from them. For more information about Softletter and its newsletters, seminars and other services, visit WWW.SOFTLETTER.COM and WWW.SAASUNIVERSITY.COM