Deal Radar 2009: Collaborative Software Initiative

I continue coverage of commercial open source with Collaborative Software Initiative (CSI). Founded in April 2007 by Stuart Cohen, the company applies open source methodologies to software development and business communities. >>>

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Deal Radar 2009: Shipwire

Shipwire offers outsourced warehousing and shipping services for online retailers and small business clients. Businesses use Shipwire for on-demand e-commerce order fulfillment services through a global warehouse network. With warehouses in Los Angeles, Nevada, Chicago, Toronto, Vancouver and the UK, Shipwire allows merchants to reduce shipping costs by locating inventory closer to buyers. This shipping solution integrates and adds order fulfillment and shipping for online shopping carts and inventory management systems. >>>

Deal Radar 2009: Plain Black

There can be little doubt that this earnings season is one of the bleakest in living memory for companies of all sizes and in all sectors. But as I have pointed out, open source continues to be a bright spot of hope. This blog has featured a diverse group of companies that all use open source to solve problems while challenging the traditional software business model. Today’s Deal Radar company, Plain Black Corporation, offers an open source content management system (CMS) that helps companies and other institutions build and manage advanced websites. The international software company develops the WebGUI system, an open source platform for managing web content. Plain Black also offers a variety of services such as hosting, training, design, custom development and support. >>>

Deal Radar 2009: Service-now.com

San Diego-based Service-now.com was founded in 2003 out of the ashes of Peregrine Systems, which was purchased by Hewlett-Packard (and is now that company’s competitor) in a fire sale. Fred Luddy, who was the CTO of Peregrine Systems, believed that legacy enterprise IT software is akin to “customer abuse” and set out to build a different kind of software company. He started Service-now.com, which is still the only enterprise IT service management solution delivered via SaaS. >>>

Deal Radar 2009: CrossLoop

Online tech help is plentiful, but solving a problem or getting a direct answer to a question can be cumbersome: describing what is going wrong with your computer or application is not always easy and frequently involves a long chain of emails or chats among users who can’t see one another’s screens. The desktop sharing company CrossLoop tries to solve this problem by connecting computer users with service providers and friends who can offer the technical help users require easily and quickly. This is achieved through a free software application that is designed to be easy to use. The software puts users in touch with over 15,000 computer expert Helpers who can provide immediate support and training remotely. >>>

Deal Radar 2009: OrecX

In this installment of Deal Radar, we follow a company that is working in line with a theme I addressed in a recent Forbes Column, commercializing open source. Chicago-based OrecX helps businesses record phone conversations using open source software. Founded by Bruce Kaskey and Bruno Haas in 2005, the company is focused on making call recording common in the commercial and public sector markets. >>>

Deal Radar 2009: Vontoo

Vontoo, the world’s first permission-based, on-demand voice messaging system, was founded in 2005 by Dustin Sapp and Bob Compton. Headquartered in Indianapolis, the company was created because the founders felt there was a lack of personalization in telemarketing. Accessible from any web browser, Vontoo offers a unique service: people who receive calls actually want to receive them. There are no cold calls. This makes for a more receptive audience than if a firm had employed the usual telemarketing or blast-calling methods. >>>

Deal Radar 2009: Adayana

One of the recent aims of Deal Radar 2009 is to feature entrepreneurs who, undeterred by job losses, a consumption slowdown and a faltering global economy, are bravely moving forward with plans to start their own companies. Adayana, which develops interactive training programs delivered through web sites and software as well as classroom-based courses, was founded at what many considered an inopportune time at best, shows that entrepreneurship thrives in any market.

Adayana was born when a group of former Learning Byte (LBI) executives looked at what could be done differently based on their vantage point after LBI’s sale to DigitalThink. Co-founders Rajiv Tandon, Michael A. Jackson, and Steve Shambolett had to ensure that the new venture was substantially different from LBI to steer clear of non-compete provisions. The team committed their gains from the sale of LBI to the new venture, which was formed on September 11, 2001. >>>

Deal Radar 2009: Talend

Talend provides open source data integration software with data quality solutions that complement the data integration. Through the open source model, the company aims to make data integration available to all types of organizations regardless their size, level of expertise or budget, using the company’s flagship product, Talend Open Studio. >>>

Deal Radar 2009: SnapMyLife

SnapMyLife, a mobile social media site, was founded in April 2008 by George Grey and David Chang. The company was initially a side ‘project’ on their first venture, mobile content directory Mobicious.com, when they noticed that many users were submitting their own user-generated content to the site. The ‘project’ took off immediately and soon became the pair’s primary focus. SnapMyLife, based in Needham, Massachusetts, allows users to share photos from locations around the world and offers location tagging and interactive picture maps. Moreover, the site is optimized for viewing photos directly on mobile phones. >>>

Deal Radar 2009: Central Desktop

Central Desktop is a web-based collaborative tool that allows users at small and mid-sized businesses to share information and communicate in real time with others in their workgroups. Users can also manage projects, coordinate tasks and share files on their own time by using this collaboration platform, whose features include web and audio conferencing, wikis and group calendars. >>>

Deal Radar 2009: CollegeNET

Harvard, Syracuse and the University of Toronto are just a few North American institutions reporting that a record number of students have applied for fall 2009 admission. But as the economy flounders and endowments drop, more students than ever are also applying for financial aid. One company aims to make it both easier to apply to college and get money to fund it: Portland-based CollegeNET, a transactions applications and service provider for the $250 billion higher education market. CollegeNET provides scheduling software and admission services to 1,300 universities and colleges including Oregon State, Princeton and Stanford. >>>

Deal Radar 2009: The Rubicon Project

The Rubicon Project was born as a solution to one of the largest problems publishers face today: monetizing ad space. Approximately 80% of this space goes unsold across a fast-growing number of global ad networks. The company’s mission is to automate the $65 billion global online advertising industry with the goal of making advertising an effortless source of income for publishers. >>>

Deal Radar 2009: IntraLinks

In 1996, IntraLinks founders Arthur Sculley, John Muldoon and Mark Adams, noticed that the loan syndication market depended on an informal network of couriers, fax machines and email to distribute critical documents. They realized that the process was slow, cumbersome and prone to security problems. >>>

Deal Radar 2009: Edutainment Resources, Inc.

Even as companies such as Google, Microsoft and Nokia develop technologies to “write the future of the web” in Kannada, Russian and Nepali, and scholars question whether English will “retain its pre-eminence”, each year millions of people begin to study what is still the official language of organizations as diverse as the European Central Bank, ASEAN and OPEC. As long as English remains the global langauge of business and science, there will be a need for English as a Second Language (ESL) materials. But the content and delivery of materials must be adapted to 21st-century learners. Honolulu-based Edutainment Resources, Inc. (ERI) is one company that promotes language learning using digital technology and a unique edutainment approach. >>>