Recognizes the best business application that automates the management of project-based business activities. The category includes: project management software, project accounting, project estimating, project portfolio management, project scheduling, requirements management, bug and defect tracking and resource planning and scheduling software.

Products nominated here are eligible for the Best Operations Management Solution supercategory.

AtTask – AtTask, Inc.

Combining the structure of project management with the power of social media to address the nuances of work management, AtTask has built the world’s first true social Work Management platform. AtTask provides a data-rich environment that improves management visibility, while delivering value to individual contributors in a way that is actually fun to use.

Clarizen.com – Clarizen

Clarizen’s Work Execution Software is an easy to use, cloud computing platform streamlining and optimizing every knowledge worker’s full effort, ensuring all activities are aligned with the overall business objectives and coordinated among colleagues. Clarizen naturally connects unstructured communications with structured project objectives, tasks and milestones.

Work and project details are managed and maintained in one centralized, online location reflecting the true status and orchestrating the team in real time.

Clarizen integrates all facets of collaborative work execution from setting goals and creating projects to customizing resource availability and cost structures to tracking issues and time to real-time reporting to email/note and document tracking and hosting. Managers and team members visually see the state of projects and open tasks/issues/alerts from an intuitive dashboard available in any browser.

Clarizen delivers enterprise security and scalability for work execution. With Clarizen, repetitive actions and initiatives (client kick-off, new location opening, etc.) can be saved as templates with workflows, tasks and alerts so that similar projects can be started in a click and resource conflicts and opportunities can be identified in a moment. Using Clarizen, companies such as DHL, NBC Universal, Roche, Fujitsu, IDC, the US EPA and many more are executing work 85% more efficiently. Clarizen customers eliminate status meetings since status is always up to date in Clarizen – and instead meet to brainstorm, resolve issues and work.

OpenAir – NetSuite, Inc.

NetSuite OpenAir’s Professional Services Automation (PSA) provides a complete cloud solution for services organization including project management; resource Management; timesheet management; expense Management; invoicing; reporting and dashboards

NetSuite OpenAir project management capabilities enables project managers and team members to collaborate on projects and maintain current and accurate project status at all times, allowing managers to proactively identify and resolve potential threats to the success of each and every engagement. The result is a significantly improved project completion record, more satisfied clients, and reduced non-billable work.

Tenrox Project Workforce Management Solution – Tenrox Corporation

Cloud-based Project Management Software that packs all the power you need and still is an absolute pleasure to use.

Your workforce is dispersed and globally dispered. Your project workforce is composed of a variety of skills and experience from a pool of internal staff, part time employees, contractors and partner resources. Project teams are often remote and sometimes disconnected, but are required to collaborate to deliver work. Tenrox cloud-based project management software helps you manage your resource pool and work schedules so that you can optimize project delivery and resource utilization by assigning the optimal resources to the right projects while avoiding scheduling conflicts and resource overload.

Tenrox project management empowers your project workforce by giving them the tools they need to collaborate in real-time, track project progress and issues, and gain access to instants reports and analytics to assess project status and make faster more informed decisions.

News that Blackboard has hired Barclays Capital to evaluate “strategic alternatives” after receiving an unsolicited proposal caused its stock to rise by more than 30 percent to all-time highs.

The company says it’s looking for ways to “enhance shareholder value, including whether other third parties would have an interest in acquiring the company at a price and on terms that would represent a better value for its shareholders than having the company continue to execute its business plan on a stand-alone basis.”

The news comes as short interest in Blackboard’s [BBBB 48.29 -0.51 (-1.05%) ] stock hovers at a nosebleed 44 percent — an indication that 44 percent of its shares outstanding have been sold short. Short-selling is a bearish bet against the stock.

As I wrote in February, short-sellers of Blackboard’s stock are betting that the company’s fundamentals are going the wrong way.

It’s unclear who possible buyers would be, but one large short-seller of Blackboard’s stock told me today that he would be surprised to see a deal if potential buyers do the kind of due-diligence he has done.

Blackboard makes learning management software, which is used by students and teachers on college campuses for a variety of purposes. Its market share has been rapidly falling as competitors — many using open-source software code — have eaten away at the core.

One of the most interesting new competitors, Instructure, announced last week that it had received $8 million in funding from several venture-capitalists, including Google [GOOG 525.17 0.07 (+0.01%) ] Chairman Eric Schmidt’s Tomorrow Ventures.

Much of the company’s pull comes from CEO Josh Coats, who founded computer-backup service Mozy, which he sold to EMC in 2007 for $75 million.

Instructure says that since its launch earlier this year, it has heard from thousands of schools seeking an alternative to Blackboard.

As an Intronis employee, I interact with plenty of managed service providers who evaluate and offer numerous technology solutions to their clients. During our discussions, I’ll usually let the business owner know that Intronis only partners with managed service providers, IT resellers, and other companies that provide IT solutions to SMB’s. While some non-channel focused solutions may be just as efficient, it seems to me that the channel-focused solutions are more beneficial.

What are some reasons for this?

1. Product Development With Partners In Mind

The product roadmap for channel-focused companies is driven by the partners themselves. Because the company utilizes input from its partners, it is able to shape and develop its products in that manner. This streamlines and adds value to the product itself. For example, a content partner stated, “The central management portal is so flexible and easy to use with its drag and drop interface. I can easily adjust my customers’ backup schedules that way.”

2. Customer Support With Partners In Mind

The team is trained to handle issues and questions that resonate among partners. Rather than wearing multiple hats, the customer support team can enhance and focus upon skills related to the most important needs of its partners. As in any product segment, customer service is key to retaining consumers (partners) and attaining potential ones and in turn, the success of a company and its product.

3. Partner-centric Pricing Models

A major advantage of a channel focused partnership is price, in which a partner will never be undercut. Channel-focused companies price their programs strategically so that partners can make appealing margins when selling to the end users.  This seems to be a compelling component when evaluating vendors — as in any industry since price is such a definitive factor in strategic business and purchase decisions in both products and services.

4. Flexible Partner Branding

The ability to rebrand is typically unique to channel-focused companies. Rebranding allows the partner to enhance the level of confidence already existing with its current clients. I think this may be one factor that some MSP’s overlook. In my opinion, a rebranded solution builds trust between the reseller and the end user. Many individuals that I speak with tend to feel that their level of trust with their clients is pretty high. Why not continue to instill in that trust with a solution that speaks for the provider itself?

5. Partner-centric Marketing and Education

The channel-focused company, with a value-add product, will be driven by its partners’ success when selling and marketing the solution. The vendor will likely find ways to promote and educate the channel with webinars, demos, best practice sessions, etc.

To conclude, a partnership with a channel focused vendor can be useful.  Whether it be features and robustness of product, customer support, rebranding ability, or the overall attitude that a vendor has toward its partners, a channel focused partnership will not only be supportive, but also bring success.

The latest guest blog from Intronis (News – Alert) on the MSP Mentor site covers five ways channel-centric vendors can succeed with managed service providers (MSPs). Intronis provides a cloud-based backup and recovery solution for MSPs and IT solution providers and blogger Danielle St. Jean is an account consultant for the company.

According to St. Jean, channel-focused solutions are more beneficial for service providers, and Intronis only partners with MSPs, IT resellers and other companies providing IT solutions for the SMB market. Developing products with partners in mind should be the primary focus for channel solution providers. Intronis believes the product roadmap for channel-focused companies should be driven by partners themselves, and that input will help companies to better shape and develop their products.

Customer support should also be provided with partners in mind. When a team is trained to handle the important issues and questions that surface among partners, customer support can focus and enhance that skill set. Channel providers should also offer partner-centric pricing models, since a major advantage of channel partnerships is that the partner will never be undercut. Channel-focused businesses should price their offerings strategically so that their partners can make appealing margins after selling to end users. St. Jean says this is a compelling component when evaluating vendors, since price is such a definitive factor in purchase decisions of both products and services.

Flexible partner branding is also a strong factor that will give channel-focused companies an advantage. Rebranding enables partners to enhance the confidence level with their current clients, and a rebranded solution can build trust between the reseller and the end user. Finally, partner-centric marketing and education are crucial to channel vendor success. A channel-focused company offering a value-added product will be ultimately driven by its partners’ success in selling and marketing the solution. By offering clear ways to promote and educate the channel through webinars, demos and best practice sessions, companies can ensure their products reach the maximum audience.

Instructure has raised $8 million in Series B funding from OpenView Venture Partners, EPIC Ventures, Eric Schmidt’s venture capital company Tomorrow Ventures, and Tim Draper. Instructure raised a total of $9.2 million. Instructure’s software called Canvas includes assessment tools, discussions, web chat, multiple assignment submission types, drag-and-drop file uploads, HTML5 video, and speech-to-text conversion.

Instructure has Google Docs and Facebook integration and is installed on 30 educational institutions. The company is led by Mozy founder Josh Coates. Mozy was sold to EMC for $76 million in 2007.

Instructure, provider of an open-source learning management system (LMS) called Canvas, announced Thursday that it has closed $8 million in a Series B round of financing led by OpenView Venture Partners, EPIC Ventures, TomorrowVentures (Google CEO Eric Schmidt’s investment vehicle), and Tim Draper of Draper Fisher Jurveston.

As part of the funding, OpenView partner Firas Raouf has joined the company’s board of directors.

While Instructure itself admits to being a “new entrant” to the education LMS space (a humbling breath of fresh air compared to the typically overzealous pride-soaked press release), that doesn’t mean they can’t have big, disruptive ambitions:

“We’re here for the long haul,” said Josh Coates, CEO of Instructure. “Our mission is to relieve teachers and students in all levels of education of antiquated technology. The investment will be used to scale the company’s operations and to keep up with market demand.”

Coates co-founded Instructure in 2008, just a year after his first startup creation, online data backup solution Mozy, sold to EMC for $76 million.

Instructure’s core LMS product, Canvas, was made available as an open-source product on February 1st of this year. While the LMS is completely free, most institutions require hosting and support, which is where Instructure makes its money. The company claims that, at the moment, it serves more than 30 educational institutions, most of which had previously been Blackboard customers. Coates says over four thousand schools have contacted him about the product.

If it’s true (and there’s no reason to doubt it), then Blackboard could have a problem on its hands.

(Most recently, Blackboard has been doing pretty well, having just announced in early February year-over-year revenue growth of 19 percent, to $447.3 million. But then, Instructure’s LMS had only been released two days prior.)

Canvas draws its power by taking a more flexible and modern approach in contrast to other standard LMS platforms, like Blackboard, and by incorporating systems like Google Docs, Facebook, Twitter and mobile. And, no matter what happens to Instructure as a business, its LMS will always be available as an open-source solution.