The ElastX team had a very successful event at the European Software Conference in Berlin on November 8-9, meeting with business partners and demonstrating ElastX and the Software Screening Room to ISVs.

The great interest shown in the Screening Room concept may accelerate a trial release before the end of the year…stay tuned!

Gord preparing to demo ElastX…photo courtesy of Greg Weir, Tucows.

See Greg’s other pictures here.

See Dave Collins’ pictures here.

See Adriana Iordan’s pictures here.

Software Screening Room provides trial use of software applications through Internet browser; improves convenience and increases sales for software authors.

November 8, 2008, Berlin, Germany: Wrapped Apps Corporation of Ottawa, Canada has announced today that it will be offering a new way of providing free evaluations of software to computer users on the internet. The “Software Screening Room” will provide applications on demand, through only a browser, so that users can evaluate them immediately without any downloading, installation or configuration.

The Software Screening Room is a hosted service provided by Wrapped Apps to software download sites and online software retailers. It will enable them to offer their software authors a new and more effective way to provide free trials that will be more convenient for users and will improve their evaluation-to-purchase conversion rates.

“We believe that on-demand trials will be a great benefit for the millions of computer users who visit download sites searching for software,” said Gord Graham, Director of Marketing at Wrapped Apps. “And by making it easier for users, it will make it more lucrative for the authors of the thousands of great applications out there.”

The Software Screening Room is based on the same technology for web-enablement and delivery of software applications that powers the ElastX initiative announced by Wrapped Apps earlier this year. Wrapped Apps has already transformed hundreds of Windows-based applications into web-based, software-as-a-service applications under this initiative.

A prototype of the Screening Room was demonstrated at the European Software Conference in Berlin, Germany on November 8, 2008. Commercial availability will follow later in 2008. More details are available at the ElastX web site at www.elastx.com.

About Wrapped Apps

Wrapped Apps provides software vendors with a complete platform to offer their applications on-demand, over the Internet, on a Software-as-a-Service model (SaaS). In contrast to other approaches, which require extensive re-writing of applications and the development of SaaS-specific functionality, Wrapped Apps can provide web-enablement, multi-tenancy and other SaaS features with little or no changes to existing applications. The Wrapped Apps approach saves money, reduces time-to-market, and does not disrupt the software vendor’s development schedule. Wrapped Apps is headquartered in Ottawa, Canada, and has customers and business partners throughout the world.

Wrapped Apps will unveil a prototype of a new concept for “try-before-you-buy” software at the European Software Conference in Berlin, November 8, 2008.

The Wrapped Apps “Software Screening Room” uses ElastX application wrapping and on-demand delivery to serve up trial versions of software applications immediately in a user’s browser. The user can evaluate the software without downloading or installing, and will immediately be able to go to a product page where they can download and purchase the application.

The Software Screening Room is targeted at download sites and online software retailers who wish to provide a more effective way for their authors to drive up evaluations and software sales. By eliminating the download-install-configure cycle for product evaluations, and by providing immediate referral of interested users to the place where the application can be purchased, authors can expect to see their evaluation-to-purchase ratio improve and experience increased revenues.

More details will be released later this week.

Ottawa, ON: ElastX, a unique service that enables software applications to be rented over the Internet, created by SaaS specialist firm Wrapped Apps, announced that the service has wrapped its 100th software application.

When fully rolled out, ElastX will provide businesses and consumers on the Internet with one-click, immediate access to thousands of applications without the hassle of downloading, installing, subscribing or purchasing the applications.

Launched earlier this year in a beta offering, the ElastX service enables businesses and consumers to use software applications from shareware developers and micro-ISVs over the Internet for a low hourly fee through multiple on-line marketplaces. The beta program was designed to show shareware developers and micro ISVs the power and effectiveness of the ElastX technology for preparing their applications for Internet delivery.

“Our wrapping technology is Web-enabling these applications in literally a few minutes. The technology is proving itself at every turn. We expect the volume of applications to continue to rise because this model of offering applications on-demand, over the Internet, at a low hourly fee, is perfect for consumers of these types of applications,” said Alain L. Mercier, CEO of Wrapped Apps.

ElastX includes no-charge “wrapping” of applications for software authors to transform their applications for Internet delivery in minutes, usually without any programming or development. It also includes an application delivery service, operated by Wrapped Apps, which will serve up on-demand applications to Internet users through multiple storefronts, such as shareware download sites, software stores and Internet portals.

Wrapped Apps is working with software authors to SaaS-enable their applications, as well as recruiting shareware download sites, online software stores and other portals to offer ElastX applications to their customers in the fall of 2008.

Gord Graham of ElastX has been busy this week. Shareware Talk Radio broadcast an interview with him describing the benefits of the ElastX initiative to software authors, and Wednesday night he was asked to brief end-users on on-demand software at the Ottawa PC Users Group (OPCUG) September meeting.

A rear shot of Gord presenting to users at the Museum of Science and Technology

Gord being interviewed by Mike Dulin for Shareware Talk Radio

Earlier this month Alain Mercier, CEO of Wrapped Apps, was interviewed by SoftwareCEO about the ElastX initiative. The resulting article is here: SoftwareCEO.

This quote from SoftwareCEO editor Gordon Graham (not our Gord Graham, but some imposter) pretty much says it all:

“Let’s sum up. You get a free conversion of your apps to SaaS, promotion through the portal, and a new, no-risk revenue stream. That all sounds like an offer you can’t refuse.”…SoftwareCEO

SoftwareCEO Editor Gordon Graham

Wrapped Apps Corporation CEO Alain Mercier

We have created a page with a sampling of the wrapped applications that have been part of the beta program for ElastX, in the “About ElastX“ tab.

Just to give you an idea of how fast we can wrap, here is what the stopwatch said when we wrapped some of the applications of ISV’s in the program.

• GatorData’s Banner Maker Pro took 3 minutes and 13 seconds to wrap.
• Jellypie Software’s 3D Box Shot took 2 minutes and 40 seconds to wrap.
• Provericon Software’s Real Agent Accelerator took 4 minutes and 13 seconds to wrap.

We have also created a section called “ElastX Insights On-Demand” where we post our latest tirades, musings and predictions for the industry.

With the ElastX ISV Beta Program well underway, we have received very positive comments from ISVs on the ElastX concept. Some key points they make are:

• the technology works, and works well.
• it costs the ISV nothing to participate in the ElastX initiative.
• it’s all upside revenue…there is no risk.

Here is a sampling of comments from our beloved ISVs:

“I think the Wrapped Apps concept is a great one. I wish you the best of luck!”

“It just sounds too good to be true.”

“…the idea of being able to have access to a whole new revenue stream without having to do any work at all – it’s a no-brainer. There’s no point in not doing it.”

“I was able to get both of my applications setup in the beta program. Both seem to be working well.”

If you would like to see a list of the applications we have wrapped so far, go to the “About ElastX ” Tab.

The Ottawa Business Journal has featured the Wrapped Apps’ ElastX initiative in an article this week and put Marketing Director Gord Graham on the cover. The full article can be read at Getting all wrapped up.

Also, the SaaSexperts blog put up a post entitled Wrapped Apps Unveils SaaS for the Masses describing the ElastX initiative.

And we are now up to 60 wrapped applications!

Since opening up the ElastX ISV Beta program last week, the ElastX team has already successfully wrapped over 30 applications. These include business applications for accounting, stock tracking, market trends, staffing solutions, and client databases.

The ElastX team will be continuously wrapping applications throughout the summer at no charge to ISVs to prepare for the commercial launch later this year.

To have your application submitted into the program, please register in the ElastX forum.