Israel Innovation 2.0

During the week of January 18, 2009, business was back to normal for better and for worse. Announcements were made that Israel is planning the largest desal plant and Varonis and SAManage received funding. On the other end, the Israel Venture Capital Research Center released VC funding numbers for the fourth quarter of 2008 that were expectedly very low and promising social search engine, Delver announced that unless it receives more funding or gets acquired in the next few weeks it will cease its operations. For these and the rest of the 18 Israel-related headlines from the week of January 18, check below. 

Cleantech

1. Israel plans largest desal plant in $513M deal

2. Cleantech Expert: “In Financial Crisis Context, Israeli Solar Energy Companies Could be Shining Stars”

Investments and Economy

3. Aviv VC raises half of what it hoped

4. EMC leads $15m round for Varonis

5. Global crisis hits local venture capital industry

6. Nokia, Intel Slump Torpedoes Israel Economy as Rockets Grounded 

7. SAManage Secures Series A Funding from Xenia Venture Capital

Information Technology

8. BPM VIEWPOINT: The Opportunity in Unstructured Business Process Management (ActionBase)

9. Cordys Process Factorytrade; Wins Best Cloud Management Solution

10. Leading Industry Analyst Positions Magic Software in Three Quadrant Reports on Application Infrastructure

11. ClickSoftware launches new system for customer interaction management

12. Kontera and Advertising

Telecom

13. Which companies will Nortel take down in its crash?

14. Skuku Embeds GIPS VoiceEngine

15. AudioCodes Announces Availability of VoIPerfect and High Definition VoIP on MIPS Technologies’ Cores

Miscellaneous

16. Michigan, Israeli companies share business growth ideas

17. Peres invites new envoys to join science and tech R&D council

18. Social Search Engine Delver On Death Watch

SAManage, a provider of on-demand (SaaS) IT Management services with an R&D office in Israel, announced today that it has secured an undisclosed amount of Series A Funding from Xenia Venture Capital and existing investors to help support its growth and development of new SaaS-based services.

The company, which was was founded in 2007 by Doron Gordon, offers solutions for IT Asset Management, IT Risks Management, License Management and more. In September 2008, SAManage made its IT Contract Management software available for Salesforce.com users as a free AppExchange application. The software enables users to manage the organization and tracking of IT contracts, software licenses and subscriptions. 

SaaS Industry outlook

According to an InformationWeek article by Andrew Conry-Murray in November 2008, a Forrester Research report released at the time predicts that while SaaS-based IT management currently accounts for 1% of IT management software, it is expected to grow to 10% of the market by 2013 because it offers cheaper and faster deployments. The report also predicts that enterprises with 1,000 or more employees will account for 50% of SaaS installations in 2009 and that while the Big Four (BMC, IBM, HP and CA) are active in the cloud, “complex applications can’t quickly be retooled for SaaS, giving upstarts time to secure enough customers to flourish.”

Additional SaaS Information

• An Aberdeen Group survey of over 130 enterprises found that top companies are implementing SaaS successfully and “view their use or planned migration to SaaS as a long-term solution.”
• Research from Gartner analyst Michael Maoz predicts that by the year 2012, 30 percent of investments in CRM will be via software-as-a-service (SaaS). (via Lauren McKay of DestinationCRM.com) 
• Interest in SaaS has lead to several acquisitions by vendors, including Cisco’s acquisition of WebEx, Dell’s purchase of MessageOne and Google’s purchase of Postini among others.
• Other Israeli SaaS companies include: Clarizen, G.ho.st, Magic Software, PNMsoft, Confidela and Nolio Ltd. 

SAManage, a provider of on-demand (SaaS) IT Management services, recently made its SAManage IT Contract Management software available for Salesforce.com users as a free AppExchange application.

According to the news release, the free software addition allows Salesforce.com users,

“to incorporate the management of IT contracts, software licenses, and subscriptions into the Salesforce.com environment. Built on Salesforce.com’s Force.com platform, the application provides an easy-to-use, innovative way to organize and track IT contracts, including software licenses, SaaS subscriptions, and ISP and hosting services.”

SAManage has been around since April 2007 and in the words of its founder and CEO, Doron Gordon,

“Helps companies manage their PC and software assets, organize software licenses and IT
contracts, and detect risks to their assets (such as illegal software, games or file sharing applications as well as license compliance issues).”

The company also offers solutions for IT Asset Management, IT Risks Management, License Management and more.

If you’re looking to understand IT governance and compliance better, ebizQ.net (ITGumbo’s parent site) is holding an SOA Governance virtual conference next Wednesday (Sept. 24, 2008) that will also cover IT governance.

Company Facts
Founded in April 2007.

Doron Gordon, Founder & CEO.

Headquarters in Redmond, Washington. R&D in Israel.

Products: Solutions for IT Asset Management, IT Risks Management, License Management and more.

Website: www.samanage.com.

About the author: Lisa Damast currently resides in Israel. Any questions or inquiries regarding this blog can be directed to her via email at lisa (at) israelinnovation20 (dot) com. She can also be followed on Twitter, where she covers additional Israeli technology companies and headlines among other topics.