On-Demand: Soaring with the Cloud Virtual Summit 2010 (Sept. 28th)

About the Summit

Join Netflix, Misys, Crowd Fusion, Drugstore.com, IntelePeer, HubSpot, eMeter, Union Square Ventures on September 28th at 11am Eastern

Cloud computing, or software services delivered on demand, is one of the most striking innovations in technology so far this century. What growing company wouldn't want to forgo up-front capital costs and get right to market? The greater flexibility of Internet-based delivery of services has created whole new business models for startups.

But as with any new technology, you probably have questions about how it works in the real world --about interoperability, security and vendor stability. Maybe in the past companies had the luxury of acceptable downtimes or work-arounds. But today's high-growth enterprise, with technology at its core, requires total availability and continuing innovation.

So how does software-as-a-service hold up? How do you select the right version for your business and integrate it with your existing systems? Can cloud and SaaS help me gain and keep a competitive advantage? What's the ROI? Is cloud a sustainable business initiative – or not? These issues concern not only IT professionals, but senior management, investors and other important stakeholders.

» Register now to get the answers to these questions and more

To address these issues, and to provide business leaders with an opportunity to directly interact with top thought leaders, MyVenturePad, with the collaboration of SAP, is proud to present "On-Demand Computing: Soaring with the Cloud," a four-and-half hour global summit on cloud computing and software-as-a-service technology, specifically tailored to the concerns of high-growth enterprises.

On September 28, members registered for this virtual event will be able to view interviews and panels with some of the smartest experts on cloud, as well as a host of top managers of hot companies that are in the trenches with on-demand technologies. Following these discussions, the participants will respond to registrants' questions in a Q&A session. Further, as members of MyVenturePad, you will be able to connect on the site with these leaders for ongoing networking.

These are just a few of the topics to be discussed:

1. Understanding SaaS: What works best for you?
2. On-demand and its evolution: terms and techniques of deployment
3. What to consider when going on-demand: choosing a vendor
4. Unlocking collaboration and enhancing productivity
5. Costs and other real-world concerns
6. On-demand success stories at different stages

Whether you can attend all or only part of the summit, or if you wish to later view the archive, register today for this significant event – a rare opportunity to learn from both tech experts and business leaders who have already committed to this technology breakthrough.

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Speakers and Participants

Reed Hastings

Reed Hastings founded Netflix in 1997 and launched the subscription service in 1999. Netflix grew to one million subscribers in less than four years and reached 9.4 million subscribers by the end of 2008. In eight consecutive surveys since 2005, Netflix has been ranked number one in customer satisfaction across all of e-commerce by independent researcher ForeSee Results. In the fall of 2005, Netflix was the winner of Fast Company's national Customers First Award, with Reed appearing on the cover of the October issue. Also in 2005, Time magazine added Reed to its "Time 100" list of the 100 most influential global citizens. Newsweek wrote that "Netflix revolutionized the way we watch movies." Reed received a BA from Bowdoin College in 1983 and an MSCS degree from Stanford University in 1988. He holds several patents. Between Bowdoin and Stanford, Reed served in the US Peace Corps as a high school math teacher in Swaziland.

John A. Byrne

John A. Byrne is chairman and editor-in-chief of C-Change Media Inc., a digital media company that is about to launch a network of business websites. He was executive editor and editor-in-chief of BusinessWeek.com. He led BusinessWeek.com to record levels of reader engagement and traffic, oversaw the redesign of the site, and launched extensive new areas of coverage on management and lifestyle. John initiated the site's twice-daily executive news summary, weekly interactive case studies, and multimedia classroom videos, as well as new blogs and podcasts. He helped to develop and launch a major Web 2.0 initiative called the Business Exchange, an innovative product utilizing social media and news aggregation. Previously, John was editor-in-chief of Fast Company magazine. John is the author or co-author of eight books on business, leadership, and management, including two national bestsellers.

Albert Wenger

Albert Wenger combines more than 10 years of entrepreneurial experience with an in-depth technology background. As an entrepreneur, he has founded or co-founded five companies, including a management consulting firm (in Germany), a hosted data analytics company, a technology subsidiary for Telebanc (now E*Tradebank), an early stage investment firm, and most recently (with his wife), DailyLit, a service for reading books by e-mail or RSS. Albert also served as the president of del.icio.us through the company's sale to Yahoo. His technology background goes back to winning the German national computer science competition at age 18. Albert graduated summa cum laude from Harvard College in economics and computer science and holds a PhD in Information Technology from MIT. He has managed technology projects for organizations as diverse as Tacoda (startup) and Telebanc (leading Internet bank).

Brent Leary

Brent Leary is co-founder and partner of CRM Essentials LLC, a CRM consulting and advisory firm focused on small and mid-size enterprises. CRM Essentials has trained thousands of business people on the benefits and best practices of implementing CRM strategies and technologies. CRM Essentials also works with corporate enterprises and government agencies to build programs aimed at informing minority- and women-owned businesses of the importance of understanding the positive impact of CRM. Its client list includes Microsoft, Salesforce.com, and the State of Georgia. Using the term community relationship management as the "other CRM," CRM Essentials is the creator of the CRM2 Index, a quarterly survey of women- and minority-owned businesses gauging CRM awareness and adoption.

Brian Alvey

In 1995, Brian Alvey designed the first TV Guide website and helped BusinessWeek leap from AOL to the Web. In 2002, Brian was the creator and host of the Meet The Makers conference, a series of talk-show-style events. In 2003, he invented and launched Blogstakes, a sweepstakes application for the blogging community. Brian partnered with Web design guru Jeffrey Zeldman in Happy Cog to build content management systems for customers including Capgemini, A List Apart, and the Kansas City Chiefs. In 2004, Brian and Jason Calacanis created the publishing company Weblogs Inc. – home to such category-leading blogs as Engadget, Autoblog, Joystiq, TUAW, TV Squad, and several others. Brian graduated from Texas Christian University with a degree in physics and astronomy and minors in art and mathematics.

Deborah A. Farrington

Deborah Farrington is a founder and general partner of StarVest Partners, a venture capital firm investing in technology-enabled business services companies with a focus on software-as-a-service, e-commerce, and Internet marketing. Prior to founding StarVest, Deborah was president and CEO of Victory Ventures, managing director of Asian Oceanic Group, and an investment banker/securities analyst with Merrill Lynch in New York, Hong Kong, and Tokyo. She is a graduate of Smith College and holds an MBA from Harvard Business School. In 2009, she was again named to the Forbes Midas 100 List of top venture capitalists in the US.

Doug Merritt

Doug Merritt is executive vice president of the SAP OnDemand Solutions organization, responsible for all sales and Go-To-Market (GTM) activities related to the entire range of SAP's cloud offerings. This includes the SAP Business ByDesign suite of applications as well as applications for other lines of business ranging from sourcing and supply chain, to sales, finance, sustainability, IT, and others. In this role, Merritt is responsible for all revenues and P&L activities associated with the GTM activities of the OnDemand organization. He reports jointly to Bill McDermott and Jim Hagemann Snabe, co-CEOs of SAP. Doug holds a bachelor's degree in business from the University of the Pacific in California.

Jeffrey M. Kaplan

Jeff Kaplan is the founder and managing director of THINKstrategies, the only strategic consulting firm focused entirely on the business implications of the transition of the technology industry from product-centric to services-driven solutions. THINKstrategies helps IT/business decision-makers with their sourcing strategies, solution providers with their marketing strategies, and venture firms with their investment strategies. Jeff is also the founder of the Managed Service Showplace (www.thinkmsp.com) and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) Showplace (www.thinksaas.com), the highest-ranked, vendor-independent, online directories and best-practice resource centers focused on SaaS and managed services. He has a BA in urban planning from Rutgers University and an MBA from Boston College.

Jeff Stiles

Jeff Stiles is the senior vice president, SME, Volume and Ecosystem Marketing, SAP AG. Jeff leads the global solution marketing, customer insight, programs, and channel marketing teams and is responsible for driving the expansion of the complete portfolio of SAP solutions for small businesses and midsize companies across channels. In addition, Jeff holds responsibility for merchandising and offer management across segments of SAP's business. Jeff holds a BS in business administration from California State University, Chico, majoring in finance with a concentration in economics. With more than 20 years experience with business management, business intelligence, and performance management solutions, he is a frequent panelist and presenter at corporate and industry events.

Jim O'Neill

Jim O'Neill is responsible for the infrastructure for HubSpot, which includes both the production systems for the HubSpot.com line of products, as well as HubSpot's corporate backbone. As HubSpot is a Web-scale SaaS company, a near-zero internal footprint is operated and Jim spends a majority of his time on system optimization and the integration of SaaS and cloud-based infrastructures. Prior to HubSpot Jim spent 15 years in the financial services software industry creating and selling enterprise software. Jim held various roles before joining HubSpot, and most recently was the president and CTO of Pyramid Digital Systems, an enterprise software company, which was sold to SunGard in 2005. Jim has a BSEE from Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

Jon Shore

Jon Shore brings more than 20 years of experience in accounting, finance, and strategic management to Living Proof. He has experience in raising venture equity in both the high tech and biotech industries and has led efforts to secure several debt facilities at prior organizations. Most recently, he has served as vice president of finance and operations for Rhytec, a medical device manufacturer. Prior to this position, he also held senior finance and operations positions at several startup organizations. Jon began his career in public accounting at Deloitte & Touche and is a CPA. At Living Proof, he is responsible for all financial, administrative, and logistical operations.

Kamesh Pemmaraju

Kamesh Pemmaraju is leading cloud research at the SandHill Group, where he delivers analysis, research, and news around customers, vendors, people, solutions, and trends that are shaping the cloud computing market. Recently he completed a comprehensive industry report, "Leaders in the Cloud," which is the result of four months of intensive research and in-depth interviews with 40 executives in 30 companies (SMB, Fortune 500, top cloud vendors, and government) across 11 industries. Kamesh has consulted on technology, security, and quality strategies at Fortune 1000 companies, including GE, GM, Motorola, HP, Microsoft, NASD, Sun Microsystems, and Siemens. He holds an MS in computer science and automation from the Indian Institute of Science.

Lisa Larson

Lisa Larson has more than 25 years of retail and Internet experience, with a strong background in customer service management, strategic deployment, and call center operations. She manages drugstore.com's full-service customer-care call centers that specialize in improving the quality of customer service, sales, and operational performance. She has comprehensive experience in sales, implementation of service strategies, and call center management. Lisa utilizes innovative ways to serve customers, such as social media, live chat, and other cutting-edge practices to connect with customers. She embodies drugstore.com's mission statement, and lives and breathes its 'health and wellness' values while encouraging others to do the same.

Robert Barthelmes

Robert Barthelmes joined Misys from IBM in 2007 to set up the Open Source division. This division was created to revitalize the Misys brand using an open source approach. Bob and his team are sharing knowledge of open source technology to lead in the development of innovative customer solutions for healthcare and the environment. During his last position at IBM, Bob was the vice president of global education industry for the company's Global Business Service. His career at IBM spanned more than two decades, during which he held leadership roles in sales and business development. Bob serves on Dean College's board of trustees and Hibernia College's board of overseers.

Todd Smith

Todd Smith is the vice president, corporate controller, for IntelePeer, a provider of fully managed, hosted, on-demand peering infrastructure to directly exchange voice traffic over IP or legacy TDM networks between any application and any telephony device. The company has more than $100 million in annualized revenue. Todd's career began as a senior auditor at Price Waterhouse. He then moved to Silicon Valley where he was international controller at tech powerhouse Borland International. Todd's career in high-tech industries includes controller roles at Applied Materials as well as at Web 2.0 startup eMusic. He was also a finance director at SAP, reporting to former co-CEO Shai Agassi. He brings a breadth of knowledge running finance and accounting for companies of all sizes, and his responsibilities have been global.

Uri Sarid

Uri Sarid leads eMeter's engineering team to deliver world-class and industry-leading software and solutions for the Smart Grid. Uri's team is responsible for technology direction, architecture, development, testing, and deployment systems, working closely with product marketing, professional services, and support to translate industry thought leadership to real-world solutions and to delighted, referenceable customers. Uri brings an extensive record of hands-on software engineering leadership to eMeter. In his previous life, Uri was on the physics faculty at the University of Notre Dame. He served as a postdoctoral fellow at Lawrence Berkeley Lab and Stanford University after receiving his PhD from Harvard University and his BS in physics and mathematics from the University of Arizona.

William S. McNee

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Agenda

Attend the whole summit or just the parts you want to!

Keynote Session - On-Demand: Soaring with the Cloud (11:00am Eastern)

John Byrne (CEO, C-Change Media; former top editor of Fast Company, BusinessWeek) interviews Reed Hastings (Netflix). Followed by a Q&A.

Session One - The On-Demand Revolution: What it Means for your Business

Jeffrey Kaplan (THINK Strategies)

Session Two - Choosing the Right Vendor

Moderator: Jeffrey Kaplan

• Jim O'Neill - HubSpot
• Jon Shore - Living Proof
• Bob Barthelmes - Misys

Once you've established that the application and the data are going to be hosted outside your premise and managed by others, your primary considerations are data security, scalability, and vendor lock-in. In addition, moving to a SaaS application does not preclude tax, governance, and privacy concerns – but prudent planning will win over even the most cautious CFO. Followed by a Q&A.

Session Three - Collaborating on a Cloud: How SaaS Can Enhance Productivity

Brent Leary (CRM Essentials)

Social and SaaS-based tools can facilitate and enhance collaboration across functions and regions. Web-based tools and a more open operations strategy, combined with social data and analysis, are proven productivity-boosters. Followed by Q&A.

Session Four - CRM and SaaS: A Panel Discussion

Moderators: Brent Leary (CRM Essentials) with Lisa Larson (Drugstore.com)

A survivor of the early-2000s Internet bust discusses the role of CRM within her organization, the factors that led to the selection of an On-Demand Solution, and the effect on Drugstore.com's business and customers. Followed by a Q&A.

Session Five - Check, Please: Maximizing Your IT Savings

Moderator: William McNee (Saugatech Research)

• Brian Alvey - Crowd Fusion
• Deborah Farrington - Starvest Partners
• Albert Wenger - Union Square Ventures

One great advantage of On-Demand is that it allows SMEs to focus their budgets on competitive advantage rather than infrastructure. What are the downsides, if any? Followed by a Q&A.

Session Six - Been There, Doing That: Tales from the Cloud

Moderator: Jeffrey Stiles (SAP)

• Uri Sarid - eMeter
• Todd Smith - IntelePeer
• Kamesh Pemmaraju – Sand Hill Group

On-Demand delivers demonstrably lower costs both up front and over the long term because of its inherent flexibility in meeting an SME's needs. In this session, panelists zero in on illustrative case studies. Followed by a Q&A.

Summary Session and Closing Comments (ends at 3:30pm Eastern)

John Byrne interviews Doug Merritt, EVP and General Manager, SAP. Followed by a Q&A.