CHICAGO- Feb 2012- On Thursday, February 16, Delivered Innovation co-hosted “State of the Cloud 2012: What Business Executives Need to Know” at the Illinois Technology Association. The event had over 70 registrants, with professionals ranging from companies such as Google and Motorola to mid-market SMEs such as First Communications and Hexistor.

The presenters included Brad Desent of Apex Consulting, Chris Kabat of MPS Partners, and Michael Topalovich, CTO of Delivered Innovation. Topics of conversation centered around old cloud vs. new cloud discussions, leading cloud offerings (PaaS, IaaS, and SaaS), and which cloud applications are useful in running your business, such as Remember the Milk, Google Docs, and Quickbooks.

Justin Hartung, Enterprise Deployment Manager at Google, stated that the turnout of the event, “shows how much the cloud has grown, and how important it is for businesses today to educate themselves on cloud benefits.”

Russell Pease, Strategic Accounts at Windstream, shared his thoughts, “the event was great; it’s interesting to see so many industry experts participate in a cloud discussion and give their own definition of cloud computing since everyone’s is slightly different.”

For a full review of the event, read Delivered Innovation’s blog.

More about Delivered Innovation
Founded in 2006, Delivered Innovation (DI) designs and develops on-demand SaaS business applications. Utilizing leading cloud computing technologies and leveraging strategic partnerships, DI helps clients address complex business challenges and create revenue opportunities by automating business processes, extending the functionality of existing CRM enterprise systems, and introducing new business capabilities within Salesforce.

DI understands the critical nature of getting services to market quickly in order to capture first-mover advantages. Additionally, DI understands that it is just as important for services to be well-designed, highly functional, and high performing in order to drive rapid adoption and growth. With DI’s innovative approach to SaaS application and design, they have completed over 125 successful projects, ranging from innovative startups to global 500 companies.

Links
www | Force Architects Blog | LinkedIn | Twitter | Facebook | Tumblr | Google+

Media Contact
Jessica Buhrman | Social Marketing Manager | jbuhrman/deliveredinnovation.com

State of the Cloud 2012 was a full house, with attendance ranging from professionals at Google and Motorola, to SMEs such as First Communications and Hexistor. Our three presenters, Brad DeSent from Apex Consulting Group; Chris Kabat from MPS Partners; and Delivered Innovation’s own Michael Topalovich, spoke on leading cloud capabilities.

In response to the event, Justin Hartung, Enterprise Deployment Manager at Google, stated that the turnout of the event “shows how much the cloud has grown,” and how important it is for businesses today to educate themselves on cloud benefits. Russ Pease, Strategic Accounts at Windstream, shared his thoughts, “the event was great; it’s interesting to see so many industry experts participate in a cloud discussion and give their own definition of cloud computing since everyone’s is slightly different.”

We were very excited about the turnout of the event, and would like to share with you what we learned:

Brad DeSent was the first to take the stage and presented on the old vs. new in cloud computing. Old news- cloud computing discussions were centered around public vs. private clouds, what the difference is between SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS, and what essential characteristics such as on-demand service and resource pooling that the cloud provides. Today, discussions circle around topics of mobility due to releases in tablets, smart phones, and mobile apps, security and backup for cloud services, and “cloud by default” deployments in offices, such as Salesforce, Microsoft Office, and Google Docs.

Chris Kabat helped bring to light our understanding of PaaS, IaaS, and storage as a service. A couple big players in Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) are Google and Amazon EC2; in Platform as a Service (PaaS) there are Amazon, Windows Azure, Force.com, and Google; in Storage as a Service (which is a relatively new term), there are Dropbox, Google, and Rackspace, to name a few. Each of these players have unique offerings to consumers, and when exploring cloud possibilities, it is important to investigate and compare options.

Some interesting statistics:

• 72% of professionals feel more positive about cloud computing than they did 1 year ago

• Cloud computing is predicted to stay in progressive growth mode, with 53% of professionals wanting more clarity around cloud offerings, and 47% wanting more clarity around deployments.

Lastly, our CTO took the stage. Running 100% in the cloud for the past two years, Mike Topalovich gave a run down of the cloud applications that Delivered Innovation uses on a daily basis. Topalovich gave us a quick demo of Evernote for note taking and web clipping, Remember the Milk for task management, Quickbooks for finance management, and Google Docs for document and project collaboration. With these tools, Delivered Innovation has been able to more effectively run our business, making accessibility to information quicker and easier than ever before. Some other applications to consider for your business are Dropbox for storage, Expensify for expense management, DocVerify for document management, Basecamp for project management, and ZenDesk for an online help desk.

With so many cloud applications, there comes an issue with integration- how can you integrate one application with another? Better yet, how can you integrate five applications into one? Topalovich answered this question by stating that applications can be integrated into PaaS services, such as the Force.com platform. That allows for the application to be integrated into a SaaS environment, in this example it would be Salesforce. The added benefit being paying a one time fee for integration and customization, then having it available for full usage. This cuts down on management of different cloud applications, as you could manage them in one place, in one dashboard.

Thank you to everyone who attended our event, we enjoyed your feedback and look forward to seeing you again soon! If you have any further questions or comments about this event, please comment below, or email me at jbuhrman/deliveredinnovation.com.

We are excited to announce that Delivered Innovation is in the running for two Techweek panels this year! The more votes, tweets, Likes, and LinkedIn shares we get, the more likely you will be seeing our panels at Techweek. If you can, take 10 minutes and review our panels and give us a big, fat vote. Voting ends Thursday, February 16.

Panel 1: Growing up on the Cloud
This panel will feature executives from companies with business models that were enabled by the cloud, speaking to how cloud computing technology allows them to provide products and services that would not be possible without leveraging cloud architecture. Moreover, they will discuss how the cloud has changed and where they see it going in the next 5 years.
Speakers include: Curtis Chambers, Head of Engineering at Uber; Alan McIntosh, CIO of Groupon; Chad Thibodeau, Director of Product Management and Alliances at Cleversafe; Mike Topalovich, CTO of Delivered Innovation.
Vote Now!

Panel 2: To “Like” or Not to “Like”: Should Your Company Turn to Social?
In this panel, you will learn how social can help your employees get their jobs done faster, improve efficiency, and increase employee satisfaction as well as create a forum for them to collectively develop new programs and services to enhance both the client experience and that of their work environment.
Speakers include: Jennifer Cloyd, VP of Sales/Marketing at Omega; Jessica Buhrman, Social Marketing Manager at Delivered Innovation; Starr McCaffery, Owner of Sound Solutions; Joe Bastain, Sr. Learning and Development Consultant at ACS Corporation.
Vote Now!

More about Techweek:
Techweek’s goal is to, “spotlight the big ideas and disruptive products in each [technology] industry.” To do this, Techweek holds a 5-day conference and 5-day expo at Chicago’s Merchandise Mart. This year’s conference will include over 500 speakers across 200 panels and 12 tracks, ranging across every vertical of technology innovation. The conference will be held on June 22-26, 2012, and you can register for the conference here.

We are excited to announce our next (free!) cloud event, “Cloud Computing: What Business Executives Need to Know,” on Thursday, February 16 from 9:00am to 11:00am. At this event, our cloud experts will discuss the State of the Cloud entering 2012

The event will be framed like a discussion, in which three cloud computing enthusiasts will discuss the evolving cloud computing landscape by examining the shift to lower-cost, utility-supplied computing and the implications of the shift as related to business returns that are being experienced. Additionally, our presenters will discuss how specific offerings have evolved and provide examples of how companies are deploying the new technologies.

Questions and participation from attendees are welcomed and encouraged.

Come on by on the morning of Thursday, February 16, grab a bagel, and get ready to learn!

When & Where
Thursday February 16
9:00 AM-11:00 AM
ITA, 200 South Wacker Chicago, lL 60606
15th floor, Conference Room A/B

Schedule
8:30 am Registration, Networking and Complimentary Bagels
9:00 am Meeting Overview
9:15 am Deep Dive Introductions
9:30 am Cloud Computing Research Presentation
10:00 am Cloud Computing 2012 Prediction
10:30 am Roundtable Cloud Computing Discussion

Cost
Free!

The presenters include:

Michael Topalovich, CTO and Founder of Delivered Innovation, Inc.
Founded in 2006, Delivered Innovation (DI) designs and develops on-demand SaaS business applications. Utilizing leading cloud computing technologies and leveraging their strategic partnerships, A Preferred Business Partner of Salesforce.com, Delivered Innovation specializes in Salesforce CRM and the Force.com platform.
For more information, contact Jessica Buhrman jbuhrman[at]deliveredinnovation.com / www.deliveredinnovation.com

Brad DeSent, Consultant and Founder of Apex Consulting Group, Inc.
Apex Consulting Group, Inc. was founded in 1996 to help Chicago-based businesses improve operations. Apex Consulting Group manages information technology for small and medium-sized businesses and offers a proactive approach to server and desktop management, network and systems administration, and end-user support.
For more information, visit www.apexcg.com

Chris Kabat, VP of Connected Business Systems, MPS Partners
Chris is responsible for overseeing solutions based on Enterprise Integration, Trading Partner Integration, and Service Oriented Architecture.
For more information, visit www.mpspartners.com

CHICAGO- January 2012- After 5 years of being stationed just outside of Chicago in Park Ridge, IL, Delivered Innovation, Inc. is excited to announce that they have moved their Headquarters to Chicago as of January 1, 2012.

Delivered Innovation needed a larger office space to accommodate business expansions and quick growth. The new office is located at the corner of Chicago Ave. and Milwaukee Ave., in the River West neighborhood of Chicago.

“Finding a new office location had been on our radar for nearly a year now,” says Michael Topalovich, CTO and founder of Delivered Innovation; “It is crucial for the growth of the business to be in a space that is easily accessible to employees and clients.”

Delivered Innovation has experienced significant growth in the past year, doubling their staff and gaining larger clients that entail complex CRM projects built on the Force.com and salesforce platforms.

Delivered Innovation’s new address is 688 N. Milwaukee #202, Chicago, Illinois 60042. Phone and fax numbers remain the same.

More about Delivered Innovation
Founded in 2006, Delivered Innovation (DI) designs and develops on-demand SaaS business applications. Utilizing leading cloud computing technologies and leveraging strategic partnerships, DI helps clients address complex business challenges and create revenue opportunities by automating business processes, extending the functionality of existing CRM enterprise systems, and introducing new business capabilities within Salesforce.

DI understands the critical nature of getting services to market quickly in order to capture first-mover advantages. Additionally, DI understands that it is just as important for services to be well-designed, highly functional, and high performing in order to drive rapid adoption and growth. With DI’s innovative approach to SaaS application and design, they have completed over 125 successful projects, ranging from innovative startups to global 500 companies.

Links
www | Force Architects Blog | LinkedIn | Twitter | Facebook | Tumblr | Google+

Media Contact
Jessica Buhrman | Social Marketing Manager | jbuhrman/deliveredinnovation.com

We recently held a joint event with Sencha, Explore the Power of ExtJS for Rich Force.com Applications. If you were not in attendance, don’t fret, we have the highlights right here.

Arthur Kay, Solutions Engineer at Sencha, started us off by showcasing Ext JS 4, the newest release in JavaScript framework. Ext JS 4 can be used by software teams in conjunction with HTML5 to create impressive, visually rich web-based applications. In addition to this, Ext JS offers a variety of user interface widgets that are fully customizable and theme-able.

By harnessing the power of HTML5 and JavaScript, software teams can quickly and easily develop an application that can be used on any device. In a world where business is powered by iPads, various models of smartphones, and differing computers/laptops, the ability to have your app accessible by all of these devices is crucial.

Once Arthur wrapped up, Delivered Innovation CTO, Michael Topalovich, took the stage to tell us more about how to use Ext JS 4 within Force.com applications. Mike touched on the need in the market for providing real-time, in-context analytics within Salesforce and Force.com applications, and ExtJS 4 elements such as data grids and charts give us a simple and elegant way to provide this.

Moreover, architecture patterns for mobile and browser user experience (UX) are rapidly converging, and Mike showed us how Sencha’s frameworks can deliver a unified and rich UX across mobile devices. Their implementation of a Model-View-Controller (MVC) architecture aligns with the Force.com MVC pattern, giving application designers and developers many options for creating rich, yet lightweight, applications that can evolve in lockstep with ever-changing business requirements.

The presentations were followed up with a networking reception, where attendees had the chance to discuss ExtJS and Force.com in further detail with an Oktoberfest in hand.

If you have any questions about this event, or have an idea for a future event, feel free to email Jessica Buhrman at jessica [at] deliveredinnovation.com.