SaaS Leveraging SaaS: Stone Cobra and Clarizen

Stone Cobra is a leader in enterprise software and services, such as Enterprise 2.0, software as a service (SaaS), CRM, desktop solutions and more, that align organizations with industry best practices and market-leading technology solutions.

Stone Cobra services industries such as financial, automotive, high-tech, insurance, health care, retail, manufacturing and government with customers such as Juniper Networks, Sun Microsystems, 3M and Nokia. With close to 15 employees, Stone Cobra is comprised of startup veterans and senior engineers and architects with a keen focus on the selection, deployment and integration of enterprise software.

Proudly serving a vast range of industries with a proven track record of quality and distinction, the company attributes success to its implementation of external SaaS applications such as Clarizen’s on-demand project management. Unlike consulting companies, Stone Cobra employees are known for proficiency at solving the hard problems clients encounter – when conflicts arise with multiple organizations, Stone Cobra efficiently completes the integration or architects the right solution. Focusing on everything from product selection, custom development, implementation and integration, Stone Cobra employees understand what it means to build software from the ground up.

Stone Cobra finds benefit in implementing external SaaS options such as online project management tool, Clarizen, for continued ROI and opportunity costs so that the company can continue to scale and be profitable, rather than just maintain internal applications. Stone Cobra’s company goal is to transform from a successful company that offers products and services, to an entirely self-sustaining product company. In order to succeed and reach this goal, the talented engineering team must dedicate more time to product development than be bogged down with continued maintenance and quarterly upgrades.

The company uses the flexible interface of Clarizen to manage both internal and external facing projects. The company leverages all facets of the solution, from high level project process components to the detailed task completion ability. In addition to using the external licenses with clients, Stone Cobra leverages the easy-action task email ability to complete hundreds of internal projects.

Stone Cobra sees impressive ROI and benefit in implementing on-demand project management, specifically because of the ease of selection, installation, deployment, training and implementation of Clarizen. From a cost-saving and services perspective, applying Clarizen to the company model is a no-brainer for CEO Amanda Roberts.

In addition to giving the development team the freedom to build up a roster of SaaS applications, Clarizen’s ability to grant partner and external licenses, as well as additional free email capabilities, gives Stone Cobra confidence that users are concisely and comprehensively updating project tasks and progress. The licensing model was a strong selling point for the company.

In looking for the best SaaS project management solution, Stone Cobra found that speed and process was equally as important as pricing. Other solutions, such as Liquid Planner, encountered too many pop-ups or click-through's. The company appreciated the speed and ease at which projects and tasks could be updated, and that reminders and notifications went beyond a note – developers can easily and concisely make full, detailed updates for the team.

By using Clarizen, Stone Cobra is saving close to $4,000 worth of billable hours by freeing the development team of days spent developing, maintaining and upgrading an internal SaaS project management application.

Because Clarizen is being constantly updated and enhanced, Stone Cobra sees huge savings in straight-line costs. As a company with long-term goals that requires constant product development, Stone Cobra saves up to 40 hours worth of opportunity hours, which to Roberts, is priceless.

"Many people question why, as a SaaS company, we implement an external SaaS program. The ease of use and comprehensive solution that Clarizen provides our company is a true differentiator to other products on the market. The speed and agility of Clarizen, combined with the cost benefit, license flexibility and email functionality is a show stopper for me, game over."