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Oracle today launched a new commercial licensing model that enables Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) to purchase license and support for components of the Oracle Platform for SaaS on a monthly basis. The new monthly option, called SaaS for ISVs, is available to ISVs interested in delivering a SaaS application in a one-to-many commercial deployment on Oracle Database, Oracle WebLogic Server and Oracle Application Server. With the new monthly licensing model, ISVs can leverage Oracle's leading platform for SaaS and also scale their investment to meet the evolving demands of their business. The combined Oracle Platform for SaaS and licensing options deliver the power and flexibility ISVs need to compete in today's global SaaS marketplace.

With this release, Zoho has integrated Zoho Wiki with Zoho Projects. Besides, they have added a Twitter like status update into the app and integrated the Zoho chat feature so that team members can interact in real time. But, what makes Zoho Projects 2.0 different from other online project management apps is its tighter integration with Zoho Office Suite. Now companies could offer their project teams a comprehensive suite containing online project management tools, wikis, social tools and a complete office productivity suite. In fact, they can do this without the exorbitant price tag. Some of the features of Zoho Projects 2.0 are:

Cisco announced its plans for delivering Cloud Computing services. The company’s cloud strategy relies on its hardware to make its WebEx collaboration software run economically. Cisco sees the cloud as having four layers: infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) offerings, platforms as a service (PaaS), software as a service (SaaS) and hardware infrastructure. So the company wants to play in all layers except IaaS (because it’s where its service provider customers want to build their own businesses). Besides, Cisco wants to provide an “inter-cloud” system for communications among the various clouds as the technology world will have to work on open standards for naming, directories, and presence awareness, as well as protect corporations that don’t want to have such openness between clouds.

LiveOps, famous for its distributed outsourcing call-center, has launched a new workforce crowdsourcing service Livework. It lets businesses outsource process work to distributed teams of experts and agents, all in a dynamic, on-demand environment in the cloud. Any client can advertise the need for virtual work on the platform and work providers can find projects or advertise their services on the site. Companies can operate virtual service storefront, and can bid for workers. Each worker’s profile includes information about their work history, reputation etc. It seems that Liveops is launching this service in an environment that is ripe for the offering. More and more companies are looking to the cloud as a platform for operations

ClackPoint is a new gadget that integrates realtime text chat, voice conferencing and basic document sharing with social platform Friend Connect. Using this gadget you can activate your microphone, and your voice can then be heard by anyone else in your chat room. There’s also a standard text-based group chat service. As far as sharing goes, you can participate in a group-edited notepad, import PDF slides that can be viewed by other chat members. While the gadget could probably be used in a business setting, probably most businesses will stick with products like WebEx for their serious calls.

Dell has rolled out a SaaS package Dell Modular Services to enable European businesses to outsource functions such as email, software-licence management, disaster recovery and laptop encryption. The suite is already available in the US. The package includes six offerings: Distributed Device Management, Software Inventory, Online Backup and Restore, Laptop Data Encryption, Email Management and Crisis Management. All are designed to help businesses to cut costs through the use of highly automated, cloud-based software. Customers can pick and choose from a number of different features offered as a part of each service, and businesses can add or remove features as their needs change. Dell did not give specifics on pricing, but said it was designed to be flexible, with billing offered on a monthly, quarterly or annual basis.

SAP is still developing its long-promised SaaS ERP application, Business ByDesign. Meanwhile, NetSuite has achieved a certification of German Institute of Auditors that will help company to do business in Germany and comply with tough financial reporting standards. NetSuite has exploited the delayed release of SAP's Business ByDesign by offering SAP customers discounts on its NetSuite OneWorld software. Dubbing the campaign "Business ByNetSuite," it promised to halve the annual bills of SAP customers running R/3 releases if they switched to NetSuite. In April, NetSuite extended its Suite Cloud offering to SAP customers, targeting NetSuite OneWorld at subsidiaries of companies running SAP at their headquarters and offering packaged integrations to tie it into their SAP back-end system.

Colligo Networks announced Colligo Contributor 4.0, the new version of the software suite that lends offline access and desktop interface to MS Sharepoint. The 4.0 release expands the suite's capabilities with a pair of tools that touch the core of SharePoint's capabilities: a new file manager and an uploader for Outlook. The new software is an extension to Windows Explorer that allows users to integrate files within their systems with SharePoint document libraries, essentially making any document on the desktop accessible from the platform at will. Uploader for Outlook takes the files you'd normally just attach in Outlook, and moves them to SharePoint for you to link to, rather than weigh down your Exchange server. Other features incorporated in to 4.0 include an enhanced SDK, one-click attachments, and drag-and-drop control of folders.

EGL (Enterprise Generation Language) has been developing at IBM since 2002. It was developed with the typical business application in mind and new capabilities have been added to support systems where the interface runs on the Web and data is pulled from other apps or invoked via services. IBM claims that EGL is the new COBOL, an easy to code business tool. To encourage take up, EGL is available for free in the guise of a Community Edition. There is no direct support for it, but help can be found in the EGL Cafe, IBM's bijou bistro for those in need of guidance or advice. Naturally, IBM isn't doing this out of the kindness of its heart. The aim is to build a generation of developers familiar with EGL to challenge the dominance of those versed in the arts of PHP or Ruby on Rails. Once users get the package (roughly a 100-200MB download), running under Java and with an Eclipse package, they can start creating rich Internet applications without having to master the intricacies of JavaScript.

Jive Software announced that they integrated SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence onDemand solutions into Jive's Social Business Software suite. SAP BusinessObject's BI software is one of the most known business intelligence solutions on the market which includes the ability to do ad-hoc and what-if analysis for planning. This integration provides customers of Jive's SBS 3.0 suite, indepth analytics and reporting capabilities without having to deal with issues like data management and infrastructure for a similar in-house solution. According to Jive, organizations can share, discuss and collaborate on business data and then use SAP's BI software to generate analytics and reports.

Hewlett-Packard is rolling out several new consulting services focusing on cloud computing. The goal is to help businesses take advantage of the cost savings promised by cloud computing. The HP Cloud Discovery Workshop, which will be available in July, will aim to help businesses learn about the various service delivery strategies, outline benefits and risks, and give recommendations regarding processes and technologies needed to get started in cloud computing. The HP Cloud Roadmap Service will offer more recommendations about how cloud computing can fit in with overall service delivery models and the right strategy and program model, and set up a road map for adopting cloud computing, including what businesses can expect to achieve and what steps they should take.

Digsby, the all-in-one IM application announced some new features, including a boost to performance power and reduces Digsby's CPU usage by 50 percent. Besides, Digsby added hidden search bar that pops up when you press Ctrl + F. It can also conduct Web searches on Google, Wikipedia, Twitter, Facebook, Amazon, iTunes, and YouTube. The multiprotocol messenger also added an option that will automatically keep new IM windows from popping up by default, instead letting the unread messages blink in the tray. In the message window, the company has added four additional emoticon packs, which you can enable one at a time via the Preferences menu (click "Conversations" and "Enable emoticons" next.)

FriendFeed announced a new file-sharing feature that is encouraging more organizations to use FriendFeed as a online collaboration tool. FriendFeed users can upload files either on the site or by email. People can upload files by clicking the “Files” link under the post box on the FriendFeed page. To send a file by email, you send the file as an attachment to share@friendfeed.com. FriendFeed users can upload anything from a Microsoft Office document to a Photoshop mock-up, but executable files and video files are restricted. While uploading audio files is permitted, FriendFeed lets users upload only three MP3 files a day as an attempt to crack down on copyrighted music file-sharing.

TripIt, the online travel management service, today is launching TripIt Pro - a collection of premium features that appeal to a wide range of road warriors. The first major feature is enhanced flight monitoring. TripIt will keep tabs on any delays, cancellations, and gate changes for every flight in your itinerary, and send you an SMS message to alert you as soon as there’s a change. Another new feature is the ‘Inner Circle’. Before now you’ve been able to share an itinerary with friends, but there hasn’t been a way to designate someone as a permanent buddy who can always see your plans. With Inner Circle, you’ll be able to grant permanent access to a select group of friends. Finally, TripIt is adding a new point tracking service for your frequent traveller points. The service keeps tabs on airlines, hotels, and some car companies, presenting your points in a single interface.

VoIP service provider JAJAH today announced today the one billionth call connection on the JAJAH platform was made. That call was made using Yahoo’s Voice service, which is powered by JAJAH. According to JAJAH, the service has attracted 25 million users since its launch, and every user has on average made 40 calls through the company’s IP telephony platform if we use back-of-the-envelope calculations. By comparison, rival Skype boasts over 405 million registered users globally and in a recent press release claimed people have made more than 100 billion minutes worth of free Skype-to-Skype calls alone.

Telligent, the enterprise collaboration platform, has launched the new versions of both their internal and external platforms, as well as a new online analytics package to accompany them. In addition to a new look and feel, some of the features that have been incorporated include richer and more easily searchable user profiles and Twitter-like activity streams. However, the real win is really the new drag-and-drop widgets. The speed and fluidity by which a user interface in Telligent Community 5.0 can be reconfigured and enhanced with rich content is impressive indeed.

PerfectForms, online forms building tool, is launching a cloud-based software service to accompany its on-premise offering. PerfectForms lets anyone create custom web-based forms for a variety of tasks, from simple HR routines like vacation requests or new hires, to intricate product management projects.Using a drag and drop editor, you can easily build forms within minutes. The forms can be integrated with LDAP, databases and other existing CRMs. The software and on-premise solution give users automatic reminders when action is required on forms and will create customized detailed reports on data, project tracking and workflow.

IBM launched LotusLive Connections, porting its Lotus Connections social networking suite as a SAAS offering. Launched in 2007 as an enterprise collaboration suite geared to capitalize on the popularity of social networks such as Facebook, Lotus Connections includes apps for employee profiles, blogging, bookmarks and community and activities. With LotusLive Connections, a follow-up to the LotusLive Engage, the first SAAS social networking and collaboration app IBM introduced in April, IBM represents the latest break from that hosted software tradition.

MindTouch today announce the first of three collaborative network solutions based on their open source collaboration platform: MindTouch Collaborative Intranet. MindTouch says their Collaborative Intranet enables IT departments to easily federate information from the various enterprise applications and data repositories that employees need to do their jobs. Information from file servers, ERP systems, CRM systems, email, social networks and web services is brought into a central interface that is collaborative, interactive and scalable.

NewsGator today introduced Social Sites 3.0 - significant upgrade to NewsGator's enterprise social computing platform, and to Enterprise 2.0 capabilities in general. Companies can sign up for beta access today to see how Social Sites transforms content, activity and social graphs into "Social Knowledge." NewsGator's Social Sites 3.0 release includes two breakthrough capabilities to organize valuable content and leverage reputation in large organizations: