Articles
Sales Eight SaaSy start-ups leading the move to consumerization
Information technology within the enterprise can be traced back to its earliest roots, when telegraphs and punch cards made their debut and began to streamline business processes. Technology continued to evolve over the years, from the introduction of the mainframe to portable programming languages to personal computers and the Internet. These innovations enabled knowledge workers to become more productive and companies to expand their product and service offerings across the globe.
With each passing year and each new technology, it was usually large public agencies and enterprises that were the first to adopt new systems and devices. The personal computer, wireless data cards and Blackberry smartphones all made their entrance into the enterprise space. As these technologies matured, they began trickling into small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), after which they finally landed in the consumer space.
MIKE SANIGA & BRAD ROSS
QUANT INTERPRETATIONS
Remember the days of using the phone book to find a phone number or an oversized map to get directions? In many ways, Google has pioneered open-data access, much of which stems from their goal of “organizing the world’s information and making it universally accessible and useful.”
SANDY GIBSON
CONNECTEDN
As your client base moves into the social media space, so must you. Engaging with your customers and having discussions in real time is what will ultimately separate the good brands from the great ones.
JASON Y., JASON T., KEVIN W., SEAN K.
NULOGY
While swiftly accepted on the consumer side, the adoption of cloud computing has been slow on the enterprise side. One key reason is that it requires IT to relinquish the same amount of control (i.e., control of managing hardware, hosting data and performing updates).
JAMES LOCHRIE & KIRK SIMPSON
WAVE ACCOUNTING
Traditional enterprise software often comes at a steep price, based around a licensing model and tied to a complex contract. Months of negotiations can ensue in order to agree on maintenance terms, a payment schedule and customized modules.
TERRY WOLOSZYN
PERSPECSYS
PerspecSys has developed a platform that enables companies to leverage cloud-based applications while controlling data privacy, as well as residency and security regulations. It is a hybrid cloud offering that segregates sensitive data from the rest of an application.
DAVID STEIN & DAN DEBOW
RYPPLE
Enterprise software has been known for many great things, but simplicity and ease-of-use are certainly not amongst them. As Eric Schmidt, former CEO of Google, so eloquently put it, “enterprise software has traditionally been built around a model of control and licensing.”
ALEX BLOM
SALESCHOICE
As an individual consumer, one has the freedom to decide what one wants to use and how one wants to use it. From email applications to music players to document editors, web applications are all personalized and customized.
CHRIS ADAMS & KRISTA LARIVIERE
GSHIFT LABS
Self-service tools are becoming increasingly valuable within enterprise, in order to reduce the reliance on subject matter experts who are often unavailable or unaffordable.
