Rave Technologies has planned a series of events (Seminars) :
SPEC 2009 – Software Product Engineering Conference , in London, UK.  Rave is a key player providing software product engineering services to the ISVs(Independent Software Vendors) for last 20 years, in the global market. Along with ISVs, Rave’s customers are ‘software intensive businesses where software is the key enabler for the revenue stream. This Conference Series aims at offering a platform to discuss key product engineering areas of this market segment, where Rave’s Customers share their experiences with other prominent personalities.

The conference started off with a warm welcome speech by Melvyn Burgoyne,
Managing Director for Rave (UK).

SaaS – Software as a Service, is transforming the way traditional ISVs do business as providers of applications to the market. Market Trends & Business perspective of SaaS was presented by Oliver Walker, Archimedes Consulting . Seetharam Raman, Software Architect, Rave  discussed the basic advantages of SaaS as compared to Conventional Software usage. He spoke about the four SaaS Maturity Models, stressing on the necessity to choose the right Maturity Level based on the Product and Business Model, stating that reusability was the key to immediate success in a SaaS initiative. Christian Berthelsen, Technical Director of Fourth Hospitality, shared his SaaS experience.

Usability –  In today’s  competitive world , “Usability” offers  a marketing edge, eases load on customer-support and ensures that the software product is designed, developed and tested, keeping the focus on users and context of usage. Pardha Saradhi, Head Usability and BA, for Rave Technologies talked about how a product can be converted from just a software product to a usable software product.  David Leeming , Manager Project office of RSC (Royal Society of Chemistry), shared the value “Usability” has brought to the table for RSC ‘s  website.
SPEC 2009 was a big success and attracted an audience which included senior IT executives from the top brass of the industry.

Philip Carnelley, event participant & a leading IT Commentator, Says:

“Many thanks to Melvyn Burgoyne and everyone at Rave Technologies, the product development & testing outsourcing company, for laying on a very interesting seminar on issues around transitioning software products to SaaS and product usability. In brief, our key takeaways from the event (which may not agree with the views presented by the various speakers!) were:

• transitioning to SaaS is heavily dependent on where you’re starting from – it might be easier just to start over
• virtually no pure-play SaaS vendor is making money; those that are, are not making much (thanks to Oliver Walker of Archimedes Consulting for highlighting this truth) – and yet stock market valuations are far higher than revenues or profits would suggest
• many people underestimate the switching costs into a SaaS offering: trying to transitioning your existing customers can be a dangerous proposition, inspiring them to look at your competitors
• giving customers the user interface that meets their expectations can be very tricky, if they’re used to a client-centric offering: this needs careful management
• good user interface design requires thought and a structured approach
• service delivery is absolutely critical in the SaaS environment – customers expect five-nines reliability and 24x7 service: these are not things that software companies are used to thinking about or providing, they could require considerable culture change.”