Are you passionate about technology? Obsessed with on-demand? Fanatical about BILLING? (we can work on that one). The Aria Systems team is expanding to meet the needs of our ever-increasing customer base. We are accepting applications from candidates with related industry experience in the areas of sales and sales engineering (both east and west coast) and also web development/PHP, software development, marketing, and customer support/ implementation. Send your cover letter and resume to jobs@ariasystems.com.

Aria was mentioned (yet again) in Phil Waineright's blog last week. After a brief run-down of some of the competitors in the SaaS billing space, it was no surprise to us that Phil reached the conclusion that "Probably the most complete offering -- and certainly the most mature as a provider to the SaaS market -- is Aria Systems." Read his blog entry and decide for yourself who to trust with your SaaS billing needs.

Today, Aria client, Serena Software announced their move to SaaS applications.

Continue reading "Aria Supports Serena Move to SaaS" »

Buy a bestseller from Amazon. End up turning left into a lake thanks to your trusty GPS system (don't you hate when that happens?). Grab some new music from iTunes. Watch someone make an ass of himself on YouTube. Perhaps most of us take it for granted, but we truly work (and play) in an on-demand world. No matter what our urge, it can most often be satisfied by heading for the nearest internet browser and these days that often only involves reaching into your pocket for your mobile device.

The ease with which we purchase the products and services from the trusted companies named above is often taken for granted. Few web-based businesses have been able to succeed as they have in creating mutually rewarding, recurring relationships with their customers. In order to support businesses in their efforts to meet the needs of the on-demand world, Aria has partnered with Jeff Kaplan of THINKStrategies. Jeff's whitepaper, "Overcoming the Transaction Management Challenges in the On-Demand Services" provides insight into how businesses can differentiate themselves and increase customer satisfaction by optimizing their transaction and customer management capabilities.

Read the white paper, and download a copy for yourself...

I’ve been getting a lot of questions about Amazon Dev Pay recently.  On the surface, it seems like a great idea and a cost effective way to start a web-based service.  After digging a little deeper, I found several red flags and one BIG game stopper if you plan on growing your business.

Read the entire Processing Agreement.  And pay special attention to paragraph 8.2 which I abridge below:

8.2 Purchase Data.  In order to allow you to manage Subscriptions, we may provide to you certain information pertaining to End Users, including, the name, e-mail address and any other information that we make available to you ("Purchaser Data").  We own all Purchaser Data that we provide to you and you have limited rights to disclose and use Purchaser Data. 

So…you don’t own the customer, Amazon owns them.

The following was an additional scary bit of fine print in the same paragraph:

Specifically, you will not directly or indirectly:use any Purchaser Data for any purpose, other than as is necessary to manage Subscriptions you sell through the Service, including, without limitation, marketing or promotional purposes

I’m not an attorney, but it seems clear, if you send an email offering additional services to your customers Amazon can terminate the agreement and keep the money in your account:

7.2 Suspension or Termination by Us.  We may suspend or terminate the Service, for any reason at any time without prior notice to you.  Termination of the Service will result in the closure of your Payment Account and termination of this Agreement.  Without limiting the foregoing, we may suspend the Service and access to your Payment Account (including without limitation the funds in your Payment Account)

Seems fair to me!!