I occasionally contribute to BusinessInsider.com and here is an excerpt from my new book ‘The SaaS Edge’ on how online tools can help you save money in times of a recession. Hope you like it! Do join us on the Facebook page for the book - www.facebook.com/thesaasedge

It explains software-as-a-service, commonly known as SaaS, and how companies can gain competitive advantage using online tools for marketing, building a brand and running their day-to-day business. Shaw runs a hypothetical company that is ready to take the SaaS plunge. At this point Shaw and his team are slowly falling in love with SaaS and are learning how online software can help their business even during a recession…

Recession Friendly

“What do you think of when the recession looms over you? Automatically, we start thinking of lowering costs first. With SaaS, you get access to powerful features, can get started immediately, pay a small monthly subscription fee, and you don’t need to invest in expensive hardware. Seems like Utopia!

So, then when you are looking to slash costs, why would you buy software, servers, and spend money setting them up?

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We wanted to formally blog about the release of Sahil Parikh’s book - The SaaS Edge (published by Tata Mcgraw-Hill, India). The main theme of the book revolves around how businesses can harness the power of Software As A Service, Web 2.0 and on-demand computing to lower cost, increase efficiency and productivity. Everything is moving to the Web and so should your business!

We believe that the book is in line with what we have been working on in the last 3 years - bringing a simple yet powerful tool (DeskAway) to businesses to help them work smarter.

If you are still not convinced about moving to online tools then here is an excerpt from Sahil’s book that you must read - SaaS Myths.

We have created a dedicated Facebook Fan page to talk about the book, post announcements and reviews. Do join us at www.facebook.com/thesaasedge

You can get in touch with Sahil Parikh via Twitter @sahilparikh or by visiting his blog sahilparikh.com.

Have a great weekend!

In my recent interview with K. Venkatesh of YourStory.in, I spoke about how I got started,  my journey, marketing SaaS in India, my new book and the challenges I faced in terms of customer acquisition, hiring etc. to get DeskAway off the ground.

Like most youth from India, I left for the US in 1998 in search for a business degree. Along the way, I bumped into a few dozen courses in computer science, and realized that it was my calling. With business acumen, and sound technical background, it wasn’t long before I joined the founding team of an entrepreneurship society in my university, hobnobbing with like-minded individuals, investors and spending a good deal of time around incubators.

Through college and post-graduation, I held multiple jobs in various verticals and industries (see details below) determined to get a feel of many business types, as I knew I would soon start my own Internet business. During the post-9/11 economic crunch, I survived on freelance jobs until I could land on my feet. In 2002, I co-started a web design and development consultancy with my wife, which I ran while holding down a full-time job in an e-healthcare firm. Our consultancy, after a bumpy start, began taking off and we had large publicly traded companies on our retainer in 3 years.

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Sahil Parikh’s interview is live on Zach Katkin’s Promana.net - a resource for project management related tips and software. Sahil talks about how he got started with DeskAway, what does he think about his competitors, surprising things running a web software company and future plans.

You can catch the entire interview here.

Pulse of Technology, is a blog for Tech enthusiasts. They recently featured DeskAway’s founder Sahil parikh talking  on Cloud Computing Services.

India aims to become the fastest growing economy in 2010. How can a growing small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) benefit with this new technology trend?

That is exactly the area my book will be addressing. Small businesses will now have the ability to use the same tools and techniques that larger companies enjoyed for years. They can leverage Web 2.0/ Social Media tools to connect with prospects / customers, build their brand, and use Enterprise 2.0 tools to automate systems within their workplace using free, inexpensive and simple tools.

Can Deskaway cater to the project management needs of small & mid size companies of non IT sector say manufacturing?

Absolutely. In fact, besides technology companies, DeskAway users are from manufacturing, healthcare, non-profits, accounting etc. We are seeing more and more teams move away from email as a primary form of collaboration (sharing files, delegating tasks, planning work etc.) and use a web-based application.

Read More.

Thanks Basant from Techno-Pulse!!