BackgroundUtilizing the Software as a Service (SaaS) business model is a distinct trend for marketing softwarevia the Internet. It allows software suppliers to expand their market globally and to extend theiroffering to customers by simplifying their software procurements and ownerships. The trend has beenongoing for some time concerning horizontal software niches and now intensifies for vertical niches.Logistics is such an examples of a vertical software niche. ObjectivesThis thesis aims to investigate the utilized marketing strategies for companies using a Software as aService business model within the logistics niche. The purpose of this thesis is to deepen theknowledge about how to market a vertical Software as a Service solution within the logistics domain. MethodologyAn explorative research method in the form of a multiple case study is used. Three companies aresampled using a theoretical sampling approach. SaaS ideally requires less people contact and themarketing materials are integrated in the published SaaS on the respective companies’ web pages.Data publicly available on the Internet is collected and used to investigate the utilized marketingstrategies. FindingsThe identified marketing strategies are categorized according to an eight-element model utilized inearlier studies. The eight elements are product, price, place, promotion, people, process, productivity& quality, and physical environment. The categorization does help to guide during data collections anddata analysis. The last element physical environment is confirmed to be not relevant since the requiredphysical material are chosen and decided by customers themselves. ConclusionsThe marketing strategies within this niche is at large consistent with earlier findings. One of the newlyfindings is that the sample companies choose one of SaaS strong points that is most suitable to theiroffering solution and emphasize it in their marketing strategies. Here are easiness, scalability andflexibility. Some main deviations however exist. The sample companies do not provide easilyavailable trial accounts. They instead offer manned online demonstrations. The market is also notfound to be as global as the business model enables. The reason of being that is the fact that theproducts/services are too dependent on the integrations to local-market software solutions. Recommendations for future researchA similar study with a larger sample may strengthen the findings. Performing interviews in addition toonline data collection may extend more information about post customer contact marketing strategiesas well as reasons behind the selected strategies.

One of the most important attribute a cloud service provider (CSP) offers their customers through their cloud services is scalability. Scalability gives customers the ability to vary the amount of capacity when required. A cloud service can be divided in three service layers, Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), Platform-as- a-Service (PaaS) and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). Scalability of a certain service depends  on  software licenses on these layers. When a customer wants to increase the capacity it will be determined by the CSP's licenses bought from its suppliers in advance. If a CSP scales up more than what was agreed on, then there is a risk that the CSP needs to pay a penalty fee to the supplier. If the CSP invests in too many licenses that does not get utilized, then it will be an investment loss. A second challenge with software licensing is when a customer outsources their applications to the CSP’s platform. As each application comes with a set of licenses, there is a certain level of scalability that cannot be exceeded. If a customer wants the CSP scale up more than usual for an application then the customer need to inform the vendors. However, a common misunderstanding is that the customer expects the CSP to notify the vendor. Then there is a risk that the vendor never gets notified and the customer is in danger of paying a penalty fee. This in turn hurts the CSP’s  relationship with the customer. The recommendation to the CSP under study is to create a successful customer relationship management (CRM) and a supplier relationship management (SRM). By creating a CRM with the customer will minimize the occurring misunderstandings and highlight the responsibilities when a customer outsources an application to the CSP. By creating a SRM with the supplier will help the CSP to maintain a flexible paying method that they have with a certain supplier. Furthermore, it will set  an example to the remaining suppliers to change their inflexible paying method. By achieving a flexible payment method with the suppliers will make it easier for the CSP to find equilibrium between scalability and licenses.

The information and communication technology industry is constantly affected by rapid changes and new development in technology. During the recent years there is an emerging trend within IT outsourcing where scalable and flexible IT enabled capabilities are delivered as a service over the Internet, called cloud computing. Software as a Service (SaaS) is one of the most adopted cloud service models, which is a software distribution model where applications are hosted by a SaaS provider and made available to the customer over a network. Tieto is present in this fast changing industry and has recognized a need to move into the cloud in order to stay competitive and meet their customers’ requests. Tieto’s department Energy Utilities wants to transform their broad portfolio of different software solutions to a SaaS delivery model. This transition will affect Tieto’s sales strategies, both in terms of pricing and marketing, and they will face challenges when changing to a SaaS delivery model. Hence, this master thesis aimed to determine important aspects when a company is changing software to a SaaS delivery model, where focus was on pricing and marketing strategies for SaaS. The objective was accomplished by conducting a case study that involved a qualitative data  ollecting method. Interviews were conducted from three different perspectives: from external SaaS providers, internally at Tieto as well as from a customer point of view. Conclusions from this thesis, was that important aspects when marketing SaaS involved:  managing the customers’ preconceptions, handling the impact of irrational factors,  nderstanding customer need and have the capability to guide and advise customers when purchasing a SaaS solution. The empirical findings showed that a value-based pricing approach was the most common strategy, using a user-based charging method and a model with different levels of subscriptions. The customers expressed that the price level was not the determining factor; instead the difference between the price level and the potential revenue generated from the SaaS solution was of importance. Furthermore, transparency and clearness are desirable conditions in a SaaS pricing model. Several challenges have been identified when transforming software to a SaaS delivery model, where multi-tenancy, security, pricing and standardization were the most common ones.

En un mundo donde la transformación digital avanza a un ritmo veloz y aparecen de forma exponencial nuevas soluciones y capacidades tecnológicas, las grandes compañías necesitan sacar más y mejores productos al mercado. Sin embargo, sus pesadas arquitecturas tecnológicas legadas y sus capacidades de integración y escalabilidad no les permiten llegar al mercado en el tiempo y forma deseado. En este contexto, la investigación se centra en la creación de una arquitectura en la nube que permita habilitar, implantar, desarrollar e integrar servicios, soluciones y sistemas transaccionales de distinta naturaleza de forma segura, escalable, resiliente y ágil. La validación de la misma con el desarrollo de 3 patentes en explotación que implementan casos prácticos, ofrece veracidad al modelo propuesto para resolver el problema.

With the enormous competition in the industry, organizations must frequently find better ways to embrace organizational learning. This research study advocates eLearning to be one of the best methods for organizational learning, and this is the study’s main area of interest. This research explored a case at a telecommunication organization named ComTek (pseudonym). The research study addressed a problem of eLearning low usage rate, which resulted in ComTek not meeting their set learning targets during the time of the study. The usage rate was measured using the number of enrolled assessments. The study uses qualitative methods to propose a conceptual framework to understand the causes of low eLearning usage. This conceptual framework illustrated the use of the activity theory elements to understand the problem of eLearning low usage, paired with the use of cloud computing services to access eLearning, and the use of content delivery techniques to help understand eLearning low usage. This conceptual framework took advantage of cloud services like Software as a Service (SaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). This research study focused on the periods from 2016 to 2017 for collecting data and creating an understanding of the research setting, while other data was derived from historical documents about the phenomenon studied. During this period, there was inadequate literature about cloud computing and other aspects to consider within the domain of telecommunication organizations. The literature study, therefore, comprised of literature from different domains. During the study, ComTek used eLearning with the aid of learning management systems (LMS) to manage learning and leverage employee skills. During the period of the study compared to other years, about 50% of assessments had a usage rate of below 80%, a standard target established by ComTek as a benchmark, placing compliance and training at a low rate. Of the 50% of assessments, some were just above 40% in usage rate, were of a high stake, and were in the categories of compliance and training iv assessments. While this was the case, this study did not consider the technical implementation of the application systems involved, and did not create any form of intervention, but focused on understanding the activities that were involved in the learning environment. This research study used a paradigm that was constructive and interpretive in nature, using qualitative methods with the belief that there were multiple realities in understanding the situation at ComTek and possible solutions to it. To unpack the multiple realities, an exploratory case study was conducted as a research approach. In this study, the researcher used multiple data collection methods, including open-ended questionnaires and unstructured interviews. / School of Computing

Background: The intense growth of data that is continuously expanding has resulted in SMEs using cloud computing to store, process and analyze data. Thus, a critical element is for SMEs to understand the value of cloud computing and the factors influencing the adoption decision.  Problem: Due to the increased use of cloud computing, the importance of examining the factors that can affect and impact SMEs adoption has been highlighted. Cloud computing has been pointed out as a component for SMEs to stay competitive and sustainable in public crises and uncertain environments. Despite the importance among scholars, no research has studied cloud adoption factors among SMEs during 2020 - 2021 and the present of a public crisis. Purpose: The purpose of this research is to investigate and explore SMEs cloud computing adoption factors in the turbulent time of a public crisis. The result of this research is expected to add knowledge and theoretical insights to existing literature and fill the gap within the underexplored context of cloud computing adoption factors during public crisis. Method: In this research, a qualitative research design was applied where six semi-structured interviews with people experienced of the phenomenon under study were conducted and eight customer cases with cloud users were collected from cloud providers' websites. Conclusion: The findings of this research declared ten significantly important factors; complexity, compatibility, relative advantage, cost savings, security, top management support, technology readiness, organizational culture, competition and trading partner pressure and supplier computing support, to influence SMEs cloud computing adoption. Although this research was conducted during the time of a public crisis, no conclusion of the crisis' impact on which factors influencing SMEs cloud computing adoption could be recognized.

(anglicky) This thesis deals with benefits and risks of using cloud computing in public sector institutions. The thesis focuses mainly on the usage of public cloud deployment model. The thesis is divided into 4 main chapters. The first chapter presents definition and basic characteristics of cloud computing. The second part consists of PESTL analysis that describes the impact of macro-environmental factors (namely political, economical, social, technological and legal factors) on the use of cloud computing in public sector institutions. The third part presents SWOT analysis of cloud computing and its use in public sector. The fourth chapter presents a case study of the implementation of cloud computing services at The Faculty of Arts of the Charles University. The results of the conducted analysis tend to positive effects of cloud computing use in public sector institutions, presuming a proper risk analysis is done before implementation begins. Klíčová slova (anglicky): Cloud computing, IaaS, PaaS, SaaS, public sector, PESTL, SWOT, virtualisation

Organisationer har i decennier nyttjat affärssystem för att planera och övervaka samtliga delar av sina verksamheter. Sättet på vilket dessa system har körts har länge varit lokalt, på servrar hos den organisation som nyttjar systemet. Det har inneburit stora investeringar i hårdvara och höga underhållskostnader. Med de tekniska framsteg som har gjorts under 2000-talet har det som nämns vid molntjänster möjliggjorts, och mjukvara går nu att abonnera på, detta gäller även för affärssystem. Försäljning och implementation av affärssystem utförs i regel av konsultbolag i partnerskap med det bolag som utvecklar systemen. Syftet med studien har varit att undersöka hur ett av de säljande konsultbolagens affärsmodell påverkas när allt fler affärssystem säljs som molntjänst. För att ta reda på det har konsultbolaget Softronic och deras affärsmodell undersökts genom att intervjua representanter från deras affärssystemsverksamhet. Studien kom fram till att det uppstår stora skillnader i framförallt intäktsströmmarna, vilka kompetenser som krävs samt hur erbjudandet till kunderna ser ut. Vidare beskrivs det hur Softronic genom att i en övergångsfas nyttja parallella affärsmodeller lättare kan hantera skiftet / For decades, organizations have used enterprise resource planning systems to plan and monitor all parts of their operations. The way in which these systems have operated has traditionally been on locals servers of the organization that uses the system. This way of operating has resulted in major investments in hardware and high maintenance costs. With the technical advancements made during the 2000s, the concept of cloud services has been made possible. Software can now be delivered as a service. This change is also applicable to enterprise resource planning systems. Sales and implementation of enterprise resource planning systems are usually carried out by consulting companies in partnership with the company that develops the systems. The purpose of the study was to investigate how one of the selling consulting companies' business model is affected when a larger proportion of the enterprise resource planning systems are sold as cloud services. In order to get an understanding of this, the consulting company Softronic and their business model were studied by interviewing representatives from their enterprise resource planning systems unit. The study found that there are major differences, in particular, the revenue streams, the capabilities required and how the offer to the customers differs. Furthermore, it is described how Softronic more easily can handle the shift in a transition phase by using parallel business models.

The diploma thesis describes the analysis, specification, origin and transformation of the current editing system N.E.S.P.I, which is the intellectual property of the company WebRex s.r.o. The main aim is to separate the administration of the web sites from their content, which can be seen on the Internet and by doing so to achieve the unified and complex administration interface for the customers. By bringing the service into work we do not only save time and simplify the work of the programmers, but we are also able to reach the stage when the editing system is not only the intellectual property of the company, but also its physical property, because the customer owns only the web sites, but the possibility to administrative them is offered as further service. The service should also provide the customers with modern access to informational technologies and propose enhanced assistance for their entrepreneurial plans and ideals.

Software as a Service (SaaS) platforms paired with cloud-based storage is a common schema used among software providers across the globe. Such solutions usually accumulate vast amounts of usage and usage behaviour data. Utilizing this data in the form of monitoring solutions can potentially generate great value for both software users and software providers. Swedish authorities have taken a restrictive standpoint against incorporating cloud-based storage solutions into software used in the public sector. The project aims to identify a practical and reusable way of utilizing cloud data and to demonstrate to Swedish authorities how cloud-based storage models can be beneficial. The case of this project is the SaaS solution Gemini Portal+, a water and sewage management solution. The end result was a monitoring module to Gemini Portal+ where users can view the digital maturity of their Gemini Portal+ usage. The digital maturity is conveyed in an easily digested manner, with concrete and actionable information on how to increase digital maturity. The result has passed the requirements and stakeholders are satisfied with the result.