SAN JOSE, Calif., March 14 -- The Software Development Forum (SDForum), Silicon Valley's leading source of information and education to the technology community for over 20 years, announced today that its upcoming landmark Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) Conference on March 22, 2005 will feature keynote speakers Marc Benioff from Salesforce.com and Gerry Mooney from IBM.
These industry leaders will join more than 20 CEOs in this one day conference which is the first of its kind. Other key names include Tim Chou, author and former president of Oracle's On Demand division, Brian Behlendorf the creator of Apache and Collabnet CTO, and Siebel's Ken Rudin, VP and GM of OnDemand CRM.
Laura Merling SDForum CEO said the conference, which focuses on business applications, will be a landmark event for the sector which is projected to grow at 26 percent annually and hit $8.1 billion by 2007 according to industry analyst IDC.
Amy Konary, program director for Software Pricing, Licensing, and Delivery at IDC, who will be a moderator at the Conference, said SDForum had rightly recognized that this was a huge growth area and had secured an impressive line up of speakers from SaaS firms and the investment community.
"This high level gathering will shed new light on the opportunities and challenges associated with SaaS delivery, and provide a forum for seasoned SaaS executives to share best practices," said Konary.
Merling said they will have most of the SaaS vendors who have IPO'd in recent months including, RightNow Technologies, WebSideStory, Salesforce.com, and Webex.
"SaaS is rapidly changing the IT landscape and investors are keen to explore opportunities in the sector as demonstrated by the formation of the recent $100 million emerging technologies fund by Emergence Capital.
"Indeed this Conference topic was largely driven by our investor sponsors and Board Members who believe there is considerable investment value in this space," said Merling.
"The audience will come away with practical and strategic advice on developing SaaS applications, driving adoption and managing a sound business model, as well as engineering best practices. Additionally, experts from key SaaS companies will discuss their differentiators, viability, and growth prospects"
SaaS Conference sponsors include BA Venture Partners, IBM, Deloitte, OpSource, RightNow Technologies, Demandware, BlueRoads, and Qualys.
Register at: www.sdforum.org/saas2005
About SDForum
SDForum is the leading Silicon Valley not-for-profit organization providing an unbiased source of information, insight, and expertise to the technology community for 20 years. SDForum reaches 12,000 software professionals annually through more than 20 programs a month that promote emerging technologies and best practices. Long-standing relationships in Silicon Valley include software companies such as BEA, IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, and Sun Microsystems. In addition, SDForum has support from the City of San Jose, and sponsorship from over 30 venture capital firms and service providers. http://www.sdforumorg/
