Scheduling Chronicles

Four Factors Affecting the Climate Change of Cloud Computing

Chris Murphy of InformationWeek recently posted an interesting article about SaaS and some of the key factors that are changing the climate of Cloud computing.  He notes four specific areas as primary factors for the changes.

First, upper management is now supporting the idea of Software-as-a-Service.  Where board members once asked what SaaS is, they are now asking why it hasn't been implemented yet.

Second, SaaS has spawned a number of new and innovative solutions that otherwise wouldn't be available.  This is especially true for smaller organizations who are able to develop niche applications that some of the traditional industry giants won't touch.

Third, there is a mental shift of on-premise versus on-demand applications. As SaaS solutions become more prevalent, on-premise applications take on the "legacy" connotation.  Or, as Workday CTO Stan Swete says, on-premise is limited to what is "written by you, unique to you, owned by you.”

Lastly, the recession.  The recession has boosted the success of SaaS because of the short and long term cost benefits.  Not only can SaaS applications be deployed quickly and easily, they also require less up front capitol and are easier to adopt and administer internally.

PeopleCube Named to Software Magazine’s 27th Annual Software 500

PeopleCube recently announced its inclusion in Software Magazine’s Software 500 ranking of the world’s largest software and service providers, now in its 27th year.

“Being named to the Software 500 is an honor that reflects PeopleCube’s success in providing innovative on-demand workspace, resource, and facility management software solutions,” said John T. Anderson, CEO of PeopleCube. “Organizations around the world rely on PeopleCube to help them manage alternative workspace, maximize real-estate space and asset utilization, schedule meeting rooms and other corporate resources, and manage energy consumption.”

“The 2009 Software 500 results show that revenue growth in the software and services industry was healthy, with total Software 500 revenue of $491.3 billion worldwide for 2008 representing 8.8 percent growth from the previous year,” says John P. Desmond, editor of Software Magazine and Softwaremag.com. “The Software 500 helps CIOs, senior IT managers and IT staff research and create the short list of business partners.”

Tracking the Largest Software and Service Companies in the World 
The Software 500 is a revenue-based ranking of the world’s largest software and services suppliers targeting medium to large enterprises, their IT professionals, software developers, and business managers involved in software and services purchasing. “It is a quick reference of vendor viability,” said Desmond. “And the online version to be posted soon at www.Softwaremag.com is searchable by category, making it what we call the online catalog to enterprise software.”

The ranking is based on total worldwide software and services revenue for 2008, which includes revenues from software licenses, maintenance and support, training and software-related services, and consulting. The financial information was gathered by a survey prepared by King Content Co. and posted at www.softwaremag.com, as well as from public documents.

To view the list when it becomes available, go to www.softwaremag.com and click on Subscribe.

CalConnect Appoints New Roster of Officers

The Calendaring and Scheduling Consortium (CalConnect) has announced a new roster of officers. Their first meeting, as part of the upcoming Roundtable XVI, will be at Apple, Inc. headquarters in Cupertino, California from October 7-9.

Gary Schwartz, Director of Communications & Middleware Technologies at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, assumes the role of President. A 25-year veteran of higher education IT, he also chairs CalConnect’s Freebusy Technical Committee and co-authored “CalConnect EDST Reflections and Recommendations.”

Pat Egen continues as Chairman of the Board. She has been in the field of computers for over 28 years, working in IT Management for Ryder System in Miami and Unum Provident in Chattanooga. In 1997 she started Patricia Egen Consulting, an IBM Business partner.

Kellie Hunter was appointed Chief Financial Officer. Her career spans nearly 20 years in the high tech industry with a focus on developing innovative, dynamic software for large-scale enterprise deployments. As the Director of Product Management at PeopleCube, she manages the development of all product lines. 

Dave Thewlis, executive director of CalConnect, continues as secretary. He has been involved in computing and information technology for 40 years.  Though his consulting firm, he has served a number of large vendors and customer organizations. His positions with SHARE, the oldest computer user organization, have included Director, Vice President and Chief Standards Officer.

The Calendaring and Scheduling Consortium is a partnership among vendors, developers, and customers to advance calendaring and scheduling standards and implementations. The mission is to provide mechanisms to allow calendaring and scheduling methodologies to interoperate, and to promote broad understanding of these methodologies so that calendaring and scheduling tools and applications can enter the mainstream of computing. The Consortium develops recommendations for improvement and extension of relevant standards, develops requirements and use cases for calendaring and scheduling specifications, conducts interoperability testing for calendaring and scheduling implementations, and promotes calendaring and scheduling. Organizational members are Apple, Cabo Communications, Carnegie Mellon, Dartmouth, Duke University, Eventful, Fresno State, Google, IBM, IceWarp, Intand, Kerio Technologies, MailSafe, Microsoft, Mozilla Foundation, NASA, neutralSpace, New York University, Notify Technology, Oracle, Patricia Egen Consulting, PeopleCube, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Scalix, Sony Ericsson, Stanford University, Stockholm University, Sun Microsystems, SWAMI (Swedish Alliance for Middleware Infrastructure), Symbian, Synchronica, TimeBridge, University of California, University of Michigan, University of Pennsylvania, University of Wisconsin, Yahoo!/Zimbra, and ZideOne.

Industry Titans Choose PeopleCube’s Resource Scheduler To Manage Alternative Workspace and Corporate Resources

PeopleCube today announced that five global Fortune 500 corporations have recently chosen PeopleCube as their workplace management software vendor of choice. These leaders of their respective industry segments are leveraging PeopleCube’s technology to manage alternative workspace, gain a greater understanding of their operations through workplace business intelligence, and facilitate their employees’ efficient and cost-effective use of shared workspace.

“Savvy enterprises know they can reduce real-estate and energy costs with PeopleCube’s on-demand alternative workspace, resource, and facility management software solutions,” said John T. Anderson, CEO of PeopleCube. “Recently five major corporations independently evaluated PeopleCube’s technology and selected our products because of their ground-breaking capabilities in workspace management and workplace business intelligence. It’s an honor to have our innovative, cost-saving solutions validated by these stellar organizations.”

Great Minds Think Alike
Following are descriptions of the Fortune 500 companies, their considerations when evaluating workspace management solutions, and their plans for leveraging the PeopleCube technology selected:

• An electronics giant that is a market leader in professional and home healthcare applications, energy-efficient lighting solutions, and lifestyle products for personal well-being and entertainment sought a resource-management system to support its employee-friendly, cost-effective alternative workspace environment. Alternative workspace, also known as office hoteling, is the practice of enabling employees to book shared workspace as needed, rather than having permanent, assigned spaces. The corporation recognized that PeopleCube’s Resource Scheduler, which was designed to support alternative workspace programs, was a natural fit in facilitating their alternative workspace needs.
• A Fortune 100 international developer, manufacturer, and distributor of pharmaceuticals chose Resource Scheduler because of PeopleCube’s experience implementing alternative workspace programs across entire enterprises and integrating the software with existing workplace management systems. Further, the corporation was intrigued by PeopleCube’s Workplace Business Intelligence offering, which helps organizations gain an accurate view of current and future real-estate needs based on utilization trending data and analysis, potentially saving corporate customers millions of dollars in direct operating costs by helping them to reduce their real-estate portfolio.
• A Fortune 500 financial data and business news corporation that serves the legal, financial-services, tax and accounting, scientific, healthcare, and media markets was looking for a global solution to solve its conference-room booking issues. With up to 40,000 employees worldwide potentially relying on the system, the solution had to be intuitive to use, accessible via Microsoft Outlook, and flexible enough to work with the various security systems in place at different company locations. The customer selected PeopleCube after running two successful “try before you buy” pilots, which demonstrated that Resource Scheduler fully met the corporation’s scheduling needs.
• A major consumer goods company, which ranks in the top 10 of the global Fortune 500, chose the software-as-a-service (SaaS) version of PeopleCube’s Resource Scheduler to manage its conference rooms. The corporation needed to roll out the project very quickly because it was merging staff into a new building. Ease of use and comprehensive reporting were critical criteria in the selection process.
• A financial-services firm that provides a range of banking and financial products and services to six million retail, small-business, corporate, and institutional customers worldwide chose Resource Scheduler for its ability to scale to hundreds of thousands of users and its seamless integration with Microsoft Exchange, which enables users to schedule resources from within Outlook. The financial institution, which will use Resource Scheduler to manage the use of conference rooms and other shared assets, also placed great importance on PeopleCube’s expansive worldwide support hours and its ability to remotely—and therefore cost-effectively—provide professional services.

Five major corporations in five very different industry segments all recognized that they could benefit from PeopleCube’s Resource Scheduler and associated solutions and services. To see how your company might take advantage of PeopleCube’s solutions for managing alternative workspace, real-estate utilization, energy, and other resources, go to www.peoplecube.com.