Quick Q1 Recap with Insight into Cloud App Results and Direction

Software Advice, which provides reviews and comparisons of online enterprise software systems, has taken a crack at analyzing the financial state of cloud application companies. Don Fornes analyzes the Q1 financial results for ten publicly traded cloud app companies in, “Q1 2011 Cloud Apps Financial Results Roundup.”

Cloud apps are one of the hot topics for enterprise software, and the financial results are starting to back it up. When comparing CY Q1 2011 to CY Q1 2010, Salesforce.com showed 35% year-over-year growth, Kenexa grew 54%, and SuccessFactors grew 51%.

And while many of these companies are growing, many are still profitable. Though this is a deliberate strategy to invest in growth and shy away from focusing on near-term margins.
Though publicly traded Saas companies have over 160,000 users, many are focused in the customer relationship management (CRM) industry (approximately 57%), mostly partnering with Salesforce (97,000 customers). Look for the population to shift more toward enterprise resource planning (ERP), supply chain management (SCM), and business intelligence (BI) as more vendors begin to shift to the cloud. Also, look for NetSuite to become a bigger factor, as shown by its 126%+ change in share price appreciation.

This summary provided by SoftwareAdvice.com at the request of the SaaS Newswire staff.

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Tags: BI ERP, crm, kenexa, near-term margins, q1 2011 cloud apps, SaaS accounting, salesforce, scm, software advice