Warming Up to SaaS, The Hybrid Model: CDC Will Acquire gomembers to Offer NFPs/NGOs On-Demand Solutions
Monday, CDC Software announced plans to acquire gomembers, Inc., which is a leading provider of SaaS and on-premise solutions to non-profits and non-governmental organizations (NGOs); the acquisition should be completed this week, with only some standard closing conditions being addressed.
The acquisition is part of CDC’s plan to offer both SaaS and on-premise models, as well as a hybrid model comprised of the two deployment forms. The other company CDC is currently negotiating with is Truition, which is an e-commerce provider. CDC’s overarching goal is to offer SaaS solutions alongside or to supplement their on-premise products, in verticals that include NFPs, NGOs, retail, apparel, financial services, and consumer electronics. Part of CDC’s interest in the non-profit market is that there is an estimated 1.5 million registered organizations in North America alone, and also that the sector is ripe for consolidation.
Gomembers has more than 150 customers, including some big names like the Armed Forces and The US Conference of Catholic Bishops. Leveraging gomembers’ solutions, NFPs and NGOs can utilize a single platform to automate constituent communications and development, member services, collaboration among constituents, e-commcerce and ERP and CRM functionalities. The company’s current president, Paul Plaia, will remain at the helm after the acquisition, and expressed excitement and confidence in their joint ability to dominate the NFP/NGO market.
Yet gomembers will not be CDC’s final step toward SaaS offerings for the NFP/NGO sector, as Bruce Cameron, the company’s president states. Gomembers’ solutions, dubbed “Q solutions,” are developed on the Microsoft .NET framework, and CDC is looking for other companies with SaaS deployments to that market. Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know by now that on-demand solutions are much less costly than their on-premise counterparts, and they are thus especially attractive to NFPs and NGOs that are already working with limited budgets.
It’s always nice to software companies who have dealt mostly in on-premise solutions making a dedicated effort to SaaS adoptions. It’s even nicer to see these companies warming up to on-demand solutions through the offering of hybrid models, which, as we’ve noted before, are becoming increasingly popular.
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