For fans of on-demand software, yesterday was a big day. The mighty SAP (NYSE: SAP), which has built a global empire based on traditional software, launched a comprehensive offering of on-demand solutions.
Basically, on-demand software uses the web as its delivery vehicle. The installation and maintenance requirements tend to be fairly easy. Also, the business model is usually based on subscriptions (not large upfront fees).
But, of course, SAP is not the only European player that is pushing on-demand. Take a look at BRAIN FORCE.
The company has been around since the mid 1980s and went public in 1998 (on the Frankfurt Exchange). Last year, revenues were $120 million and EBITDA came in at $8 million.
"Just as Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM) provides on-demand solutions for customer relationship management," said Cristian Anastasiu, the CEO of BRAIN FORCE, in a BloggingStocks.com interview, "we are doing the same thing for Information Technology (IT) people. That is, we help with automating the service desk, application management, and asset management."
Interestingly enough, Anastasiu says that the startup activity for on-demand operators in Europe is still fairly light. "It's usually the case that 90% of the innovation comes from the US and then comes to Europe," said Anastasiu.
Of course, he is very bullish on the prospects of on-demand. "Over the past twenty years, we have seen an outsourcing of IT people to places like India. Now, we are seeing the outsourcing of software. I refer to it as the utility model. That is, companies use the amount of IT services they want."
And his thoughts on SAP? "I'm excited. It validates that on-demand is a big market. No longer do we need to explain why companies can benefit from it."
Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook
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