SaaSGenius News Digest July 22, 2022

Oracle and Microsoft launch Azure direct access to Oracle Database Service

This week, Microsoft and Oracle announced a new level to their partnership that brings the Oracle Database Service to Microsoft Azure. 

With this partnership, Azure users can access, monitor, and provision enterprise-level databases within the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. In addition, they can build or migrate applications on Azure and then link them up to managed Oracle Database services. 

The two companies originally partnered in 2019 to release Oracle Interconnect for Azure. Since its release, users from hundreds of companies in eleven regions around the globe have opted for the service. And with two decades of collaboration, both Microsoft and Oracle are always looking for new ways to make things easier for their customers. 

This release signals a commitment to the ‘make things easier’ mantra from the two companies by further simplifying the multi-cloud experience. Building upon the previous capabilities from Oracle Interconnect, users will now have a simpler process for workload integration.

The best part is that the service is totally free — including network connection and data egress and ingress. This makes sense as both companies want to appease their customer bases and let them know they’ll always be able to integrate their services.

Microsoft’s corporate vice president of Microsoft Cloud for Industry and Global Expansion, Corey Sanders, stated, “Oracle’s decision to select Microsoft as its preferred partner deepens the relationship between our two companies and provides customers with the assurance of working with two industry leaders.”

Enterprise-level SaaS customers have been buzzing about the new features, so it seems the collaboration has been well-received.  

Slack raises prices

SaaS messaging platform Slack announced this week they are restructuring their Free services and increasing the price of their ‘Pro’ plan. 

We’ll focus on the price hike first. No one likes an increase in prices, but it’s often an unfortunate necessity in business. But it’s okay to give Slack a break here — avoiding the obvious ‘Slack’ pun. The company hasn’t increased prices for the history of the company, since 2014. And business software prices are surging in the market.

With that in mind, here are the price increases:

• Monthly Pro subscriptions will raise from $8.00 per month to $8.75
• Annual Pro subscriptions will raise from $80 to $87

These increases won’t take effect until September 1, 2022. And current customers can renew their annual subscription at the lower rate until that date. 

Moving on, Slack also changed its Free tier services for the better with new features and a policy change on storage. Here’s what’s coming on September 1st:

• Access to Slack’s ‘clips’ feature that allows sharing of video and audio messages.

• Retention period settings for messages and files

• The storage limit will change from 10k messages and 5GB of content uploads to an unlimited amount that deletes after 90 days.

The company stated that the changes offer a means to reduce unnecessary meetings and help to simplify subscription limitations for their customers.  

Linktree launches mobile application

Linktree announced the launch of their new Android and iOS mobile apps that will work to streamline access to its link services. Social media users will definitely recognize their product as it’s flooded the bios of influencers and everyday users alike. 

With the new application, Linktree users can manage and add additional links and customize their design with a host of additional features. But most interesting is that the mobile app provides access to conversion and traffic metrics that provide essential data for better digital marketing campaigns.

The company recognized the need for the application when they saw that most sign-ups and logins were coming from mobile devices. And in that respect, this is an organic next step for the business as it attempts to evolve beyond a “link-in-bio” service.

To that note, Linktree CEO and co-founder Alex Zaccaria said, “We are thrilled to launch the Linktree mobile app as we continue to broaden the link-in-bio category we created, ultimately offering creators new ways to link everything they are, anywhere they are.”

In previous months, the company launched multiple new products that push the company in that direction. Linktree Marketplace, Link Apps, and features that allow users to showcase NFTs have all appeared on the platform. As a unicorn, it seems the sky’s the limit for Linktree.

Freshworks announces Summer ‘22 Product Launch

This week, Freshworks announced the release of its Summer ‘22 collection of product innovations. And from that launch, one product really has the SaaS world buzzing. 

The business software innovator updated its Freshchat chatbot service. Now, users can use it as part of their Enhanced Unified Customer Record that includes Freshsales and Freshmarketer. Not sure what that means?

Freshworks CX advisor Colin Crowley said it best:

“What’s important/different today is that we’ve re-architected the application to include a ‘unified customer record’ with our CRM tools Freshsales and Freshmarketer. Together, they bring support, sales and marketing capabilities into a single platform.”

The company also announced updates to their CRM services for eCommerce along with their Omnichannel Customer Support. 

Aqua Security launches in Europe

Cloud-based SaaS security provider Aqua announced its European launch this week in Munich. The company has Fortune 1000 companies in over 40 countries and is looking to expand their territory. 

Aqua isn’t a household name just yet, but the company is a top security provider for cloud-native-applications that can also stop attacks. The company’s solution offers threat monitoring policies for a variety of workloads and offers runtime protection.

Senior director of sales EMEA at Aqua, Arne Jacobsen, said about the launch, “Our customer base in Europe is growing rapidly, and we are committed to meeting regional needs and requirements.”