During the holiday season we have been taking a closer look at the Microsoft Surface tablet and assessing interest among consumers, enterprises and app developers.

Our take is that the current version of Surface has some interesting aspects but lacks the critical mass of capabilities and design elements to really "move the needle" for Microsoft in the near future. Our skeptical view is shaped by several factors:

On Nov 13th MGI Research is hosting an intensive half-day, invitation-only “21 conference” focused on technology and business innovation in SaaS.

On July 25th 2012 MGI is hosting a webinar on Platform as a Service (PaaS) trends.

Platform as a Service or PaaS is being touted as the express elevator to faster development, integration and deployment of Cloud applications. In the past, integration middleware was largely the domain of large companies as it required a significant upfront investment. Integration costs often added upwards of 60% of the total cost of a business application. PaaS promises to transform the economics of cloud application integration and delivery. Is PaaS a fundamentally new, must-have technology with a clear ROI or is it just a repackaging of old concepts retro-fitted for the cloud?

The announcement of Microsoft long-awaited Surface tablet focused everyone's immediate attention on a few of its hardware features such as the keyboard cover and a USB port. In terms of both opportunity and risk for Microsoft and members of its ecosystem, this announcement represents a seminal event. If Microsoft is successful in gaining market share for Surface and can then extend that initial success to other product initiatives, it can dramatically alter the shape of the PC and mobile computing industry. If it fails, then major changes are likely at Microsoft. Market reaction has been positive as MSFT shares finally moved up today by over 3%.

In a research note published last night - SAP Buys Ariba – A Fallen Angel Finds an Exit, we analyze the merits and metrics of this transaction and the impact on SAP customers, investors and competitors.

There is a very decent, albeit not foolproof treatment of Salesforce.com (CRM) on SeekingAlpha.com. The article looks at number of relevant accounting red flags but sometimes fails to interpret those correctly or put them into context. Some of commentary following the article highlight the discrepancies.

The 2012 Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) valuation guide is now available to MGI Research subscribers as well as in the MGI Research Store and via Bloomberg, L.P.

Interview with Rootstock Software CEO Pat Garrehy

Is SaaS ready to support complex manufacturing solution requirements?

Until recently, successful SaaS companies have excluded core manufacturing functionality, and focused on departmental and/or horizontal functionality far from the plant floor.  That’s about to change. 

In the IT deal negotiation universe, end of year (EOY) is a critical time for negotiation. This year, the EOY activity is focused on three key topics:

• Cloud (SaaS solutions),
• Mobile applications and
• Business intelligence / analytics – BIG data.

With those phrases being the battle cries, the war wages on between Oracle and SAP with each company fighting to gain critical revenue and increase market share.  This provides CIOs with the perfect market opportunity for a very productive EOY negotiation cycle.

The concept of Yahoo going private, would actually make a lot of sense for large Yahoo holders but will deprive minority Yahoo shareholders of the real upside that can be unlocked through a restructuring that can follow the go-private deal.

Investors have been watching Microsoft for some time wondering what the company will do with its growing cash hoard that has reached some $50 billion.  As company observers know, Microsoft has been relatively conservative with regard to its acquisition strategy, that with the exception of the failed bid to acquire Yahoo, has until now, focused on comparatively small companies.  The pending acquisition of Skype is certainly large (particularly in price @ $8.5 billion), the immediate reaction of the investment community has been largely critical.