Eloqua CEO talks about how SaaS empowers companies

Marketing automation firm Eloqua is in a “quiet period,” but that didn’t stop CEO Joe Payne at CloudBeat 2011 from talking about his company and how the basic SaaS services it provides are transforming business.

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For reference, Eloqua offers various SaaS services that help clients with analytics to help predict revenue performance and its IPO, which could happen in the next few months, could help validate just how important and big marketing automation is right now. It filed for an estimated $100 million IPO in August, and it is now one of the most successful marketing automation businesses running today.

“Just because someone is in the cloud, it doesn’t mean it’s a viable business,” Payne said. “Eloqua is a real viable business and we work with all sorts of companies. We work with HP and lots of small companies that compete too.”

Payne said that he expects customers to keep using Eloqua’s services over time, and because it is so easy to switch SaaS providers, there’s pressure to maintain a strong, reliable experience.

“Ninty percent of my revenues will come from customers using Eloqua today,” Payne said. “Our entire focus is to make our customers successful, not to just sell to you.”

Payne broadly spoke about SaaS as a powerful tool because of its ability to synchronize teams no matter where they are in the world.

“The reason to use SaaS is ease of use,” Payne said. “I can have my same accounting team in London securely using the same software as my accounting team in D.C. When you use SaaS, you can buy only what you need and start small. You can grow into your business. If your business contracts, you can pay less.”

In a final note during his session, Payne said his company was making other companies perform better and, because of that, he felt good about his mission and challenged others to see if they felt the same.

“My company’s orientation is to make you successful,” Payne said. “I wake up every day, and I know I’m adding value. That’s different in the software industry. Ask someone at Oracle if they feel good about what they’re selling.”

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