BT Supports SaaS

In the UK, BT has launched BT Applications Marketplace, a home for SaaS applications.

It enables Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) to publish and promote their software to small businesses via a dedicated Applications Marketplace portal.

BT is assisting developers by providing a set of APIs and SDKs with a wide range of interfaces, including .NET. The API functionality that is currently available includes SMS, voice call, conference call, presence, authentication, user profile, and location. To date, more than 1,700 developers have registered for BT’s SDKs.

BT Business plans to actively monitor the feedback and ratings generated by end-users and identify ISV partners whose applications could become part of “Ideas Lab” – its software incubator programme. BT Business will then select certain partners from Ideas Lab to further develop their product and ensure their applications are reliable and secure in a service-based delivery model. These new “services” will ultimately become part of the BT product portfolio and will be supported by its sales and marketing operation, including the UK’s largest sales force dedicated to small businesses.

The BT Applications Marketplace initiative has been actively supported by Microsoft UK and a number of joint initiatives are being built around the platform.

In New Zealand, it would be great to see such an initiative launched. With our distance to market issues, SaaS is one area of application development that should be encouraged. The availability of a NZ-centric SaaS Applications Marketplace would clearly help.