Only one month to go! It is that time of year again, Cebit is coming to Sydney 35,000 wild business and technology people from around 60 countries in a frenzy of new and cool stuff in one place.

CeBIT is THE International Trade Show for Information Technology, Telecommunications, Software and Services. In other words, if you want to geek-out or get a real competitive advantage for your business you will love it.

Last year was good

Last year Saasu won the one and only highly prized ‘excellence in innovation platinum award’ for our flagship product NetAccounts. We were going to insert lots of other blatant boasting and superlatives here but thought that was probably more than you can take already.

This year will be even better

This year there will be something like 750 exhibitors from 20+ countries.

This year we will be speaking at the conference in the Transaction 2.0 section, chairing a session and of course exhibiting.

Best of all, as part of the Saasu foundation work we do, Saasu will be the sole green sponsor for the event, we are making the venue carbon neutral for the event for EVERY EXHIBITOR just so we can say we did our bit. Gold standard of course.

Special Bonus (or two)

As a special bonus you can register free as a friend of Saasu just quote code SAASUCA08 and you will get in free which is a fairly substantial saving off the normal door price of $40.

If you visit us at the show you will receive an extra month on your subscription for new and current customers! We will be asking all our visitors two questions - what do they like most about saasu today and what would they like to see in our coming releases?

You will also be able to see our latest release demonstrated and talk to the experts about your needs, wants, desires and passions in the field of financial management success.

Finding Saasu at CeBIT

So do drop by stand S45, on the main aisle right next to our mates from salesforce.com (in case you have been living in a cave and hadn’t already heard, saasu integrates instantly with salesforce).

We are smack bang in the middle of the main business-software/e-finance/CRM section which takes up most of halls 4 and 5.

Want to know more?

We thought you might so here is a taste of what you will see, watch the videos or read some more
from the CeBIT marketers -

CeBIT Australia 2008 is the largest and most important business-to-business technology event in the region. Join 35,000 business professionals at CeBIT Australia this year to understand, analyse, sample and select the right technology solutions for your business’s future success.

Finding the right solutions has never been easier, CeBIT Australia is organised into 30 show floor categories – ranging from CRM, VoIP, e-Marketing & Search Engine Optimisation, Web Applications to Open Source – making it the number one stop for business professionals seeking the competitive advantage.

* 150 FREE show-floor Seminars
* International Keynote Speakers
* Business Networking
* Interactive Panel Sessions
* 6 High-Level Conferences
* 750+ Solution Providers
* 5000+ Technology Experts
* 30 Show Floor Categories

Visiting CeBIT Australia 2008 will teach you how to make your ICT investment work for you

* Get more out of your website
* Unleash the power 2.0
* Retain your top talent
* Discover online trading
* Slash your communications costs
* See next-gen CRM systems
* Learn about Green IT

And much, much more… most importantly you will arm yourself with knowledge that will give you the power to take your business to next level!

See you @ CeBIT Australia,
20 – 22 May 2008
Sydney Convention & Exhibition Centre,
Darling Harbour

If you have not seen Marc’s excellent recent post on Sustainable Business you should read it.

Today we will build on that article and take a slight tangent to focus on the specific use of SaaS (software-as-a-service) to improve your business and improve (not just simplify) your life with SaaS in three areas. (more…)

We are looking at sustainable business design. We want to be sure we are doing the right things in the new Saasu offices in the Sydney CBD, Australia. The offices will house labs, accounts and operations.

The work environment and how we work in it is one of the biggest sustainability factors we will face. However, it is second only to the impact we have at a global level by selling an environmentally sustainable product such as the Saasu web finance engine.
(more…)

Peter mentioned the Saasu Foundation the other day and our commitment to donate 2% of all profits to worthy causes.

When we were thinking about charities to donate to, we wanted to choose organisations that matched the values for our business. One of our beliefs is that business can be a force for positive change - especially small businesses.

With this in mind, we felt that Kiva was a great choice. Kiva is an online service that allows people around the world to make small loans to micro-business owners who may otherwise not be able to borrow the money they need - a concept known as “microfinance”.

Now that the Saasu Foundation is formal and announced, I thought it appropriate to point to our Kiva profile page which lists the businesses we currently support (a list which will grow in months to come).

Needless to say the team at Saasu would like to wish our first three business owners, Charkaz Mammadov, Seruz Nuriyev and Boun Kim Loun all the best in their endeavours.

A while ago we quietly launched internally what we call ‘The Saasu Foundation’. This work is starting to get some momentum now so we thought it was time to tell you all about it.

This is our attempt at a sustainable initiative to improve our world by donating to meaningful charities that don’t just feed people but ‘help them to help themselves’. We will donate -

* 2% of all profits,
* 2% of all product and
* 2% of all team time

This will be given annually to charities that our team selects (and board endorses) that we think will improve the world a little.

This might be helping entrepreneurs get started in maturing nations with kiva.org or by supporting local initiatives with donations of product or hands on time donated by our staff working on projects of their choice. It is early days but we think this could be big. Suggestions and feedback very welcome.

Cheers, Peter.