1
Company: Enwisen
Started: 1999
Located: Novato, California
Geography: Global
Market: On-demand Workforce Communications
Products: AnswerSource
Key Customers: Fox Entertainment, Nissan, Hershey, State of Montana, Yahoo!
Website: Enwisen
Recent News:
I asked Walter Smith, Enwisen’s Chief Executive Officer a few questions about his business and his view of the SaaS market in 2009.
Did you start out as a Software-as-a-Service company?
Yes, when we started Enwisen in 1999 our vision was to leverage the power of the Internet to deploy robust, highly configured technology for HR using a Software-as-a-Service business model. At the time the term “SaaS” wasn’t commonly used to describe our model… ASP or Application Service Provider… was the more commonly used term for a hosted application. But truly our model from the beginning was to combine software and services in a multi-tenant environment. A key advantage we have had in the marketplace is delivering a suite of products that have all been built internally as a SaaS solution without the challenge of converting from an enterprise foundation or integrating acquired solutions.
Why do your customers buy from Enwisen?
Fundamentally it boils down to compelling economic value and great service. Our technology solves a critical issue for HR – how to deliver quality service to their internal customer (employees) at a lower cost per employee. In today’s economy HR is being challenged to be far more efficient, but without compromising quality. It’s a real conundrum – high touch HR delivery and internal systems are just too expensive and ineffective. Not only do we streamline HR operations, but we improve the service experience for employees. Our solutions are very reasonably priced for the robust capabilities and bottom-line impact we deliver. Customers have to provide services to employees, it’s mission critical, we just give them a better and more cost effective way to do it. Combine that with great, highly attentive service and that’s why customers buy from Enwisen. The validation is there… despite the down economy we grew profitably at 62% during our last quarter and over the last 10 years our retention rate has exceeded 98%.
What do you see as the key trend emerging in the SaaS industry?
Collaboration and integration of various enterprise applications through the “Cloud.” Almost every company today has multiple systems and multiple service providers. Here’s an example – one system for the Intranet, one for HR, outsourced payroll, outsourced benefits, performance and succession planning, learning (LMS), and dozens of benefits providers for health and retirement. Users are simply overwhelmed by the complexity of getting to all of these different sites – how many user IDs and passwords can you remember? If a system cannot be easily accessed, it won’t be used. Companies spend millions of dollars on systems, yet most acknowledge they are underutilized. Also, many companies lock their applications behind the firewall, making it harder if not impossible for many employees to use. One of the biggest trends is to leverage the “Cloud” in a way to seamlessly integrate data and applications to make it easier for user to access everything through a single location.
What is your outlook for 2009?
Now that the fear of financial Armageddon has subsided we see companies getting back to Business 101 as usual. Companies have to continue to innovate, deliver service, retain talent, and drive greater efficiencies to the bottom line. Budgets will remain tight, but companies will continue to invest in ways that make them more efficient in the near term but also prepare them to grow and be more competitive in the long term. We anticipate our current growth rate to continue since part of our success is because of, versus in spite of, the down economy. Companies no longer will buy status quo products due to brand. They will continue to seek best of breed solutions that will give superior performance at a much lower cost even if they are a new vendor to them.
Thank you to Walter Smith for contributing to this profile.
Company: Taleo
Started: 1999
Located: Dublin, California
Public: NASDAQ: TLEO
Geography: Global
Market(s): Human Capital and Talent Management
Products: Taleo Enterprise Edition - Talent Management Suite which includes Sourcing,
Recruiting, Onboarding, Goals Management, Performance Management,
Succession Planning, Compensation Management and Development Planning.
Taleo Business Edition - Talent Management Suite which includes Recruiting,
Goals, Performance Management and Employee Website solutions.
Key Customers: Whirlpool, Hyatt, Macy’s, JP Morgan Chase and HP
Website: Taleo.com
Blog: Taleo Blog – Talent Management Solutions
Recent News:
Taleo Provides Q4 Business Update; Caps Powerful 2008
Taleo Positioned in Visionaries Quadrant for Employee Performance Management Software
Global Businesses Embrace Taleo’s Performance Management Software in Tight Economy
Taleo Named Talent Management Software Leader in Leading Market Research Firm Reports
I asked Al Campa, Taleo’s Chief Marketing Officer a few questions about his business and his view of the SaaS market in 2009.
Did you start out as a Software-as-a-Service company?
In 1999 we were incorporated as Recruitsoft, established our headquarters in San Francisco and launched our Recruiter Web Top product. From the very beginning Taleo has been committed to the SaaS delivery model and was one of the pioneers in SaaS. We provide a comprehensive suite of on-demand talent management applications for businesses of all sizes, across all industries around the world. Taleo was the only SaaS company to design its product from the start for the largest, most complex companies in the world. Most SaaS companies start by meeting the needs of small companies and then work they way up-market.
Why do your customers buy from Taleo?
Three things come to mind – the ROI of talent management, the value of on-demand solutions and the strength of our competitive positioning.
· Even in a down economy, companies continue to see a high level of turnover. And turnover is expensive. Our talent management applications help companies save millions of dollars by reducing or eliminating agency recruiter fees, reducing cost per hire, reducing on-boarding costs, and increasing the effectiveness of candidate sourcing.
· As many organizations are being forced to do more with less, the benefits of using an on-demand solution become clear. Compared to on-premise solutions, our applications cost less, are quick to deploy and provide a rapid ROI.
· As for our competitive positioning, we are one of the few vendors to offer a truly unified talent management solution…we organically developed our recruiting and performance management applications on a single architecture. And we offer scalable, on-demand platforms for enterprises and SMB’s. Plus, we are profitable, growing and have a strong balance sheet.
What do you see as the key trend emerging in the SaaS industry?
The best part of the SaaS model is that it presents opportunities to provide types of innovation that are just not possible with solutions that are installed behind the firewall. The emergence of the concept of Web 2.0 or the next version of the internet is all about collaboration, combining different solutions to make new ones and leveraging aggregate data generated by thousands or millions of users. People see this type of power everyday in the form of the iPhone and it’s ecosystem, Wikipedia, YouTube, and Facebook. Taleo has embarked on an initiative that we call the Talent Grid to leverage new technologies and the aggregate talent management knowledge of millions of talent management practitioners from 3,900 customers as well as a broad ecosystem of partners and subject matter experts. The Taleo Talent Grid will enable customers to collaborate with each other and with Taleo to find solutions to the most pressing talent management and business challenges they are facing.
What is your outlook for 2009?
As we move further into 2009, we believe the overall economic environment will remain difficult and pose challenges. However, we are very optimistic about Taleo’s future and our growth strategy is well defined. Our recurring revenue business model gives us a high degree of visibility, which in turn allows for flexibility in budgeting. We plan to compete in more deals and we also expect our win-rate to improve. We will also compete more in standalone performance management deals and take advantage of international expansion opportunities with our customers. This strategy will allow us to continue to succeed and meet our goals throughout the year.
Thank you to Al Campa, Didi D’Errico and Jaime Spuhler for contributing to this profile.
Back to top