When it comes to innovation, smaller organizations often gain an entrepreneurial edge.
Among my various sideline endeavors I serve on the Advisory Board of Wendia North America, a provider of ITIL-compatible service management software. Wendia’s U.S. team is the American counterpart to Wendia AG International, a Swiss company headed by Kerstin Daun that has a legacy of 20-plus years in service management (the software that operates IT helpdesks and their related processes). The U.S. operation is led by Hal Tueller, a close friend and a former 19-year executive for Computer Associates who has been leading Wendia North America for the past five and a half years.
I first wrote about Wendia as an organization last year.
George Spalding, EVP Pink Elephant and global expert on ITIL
Today I am listening to George Spalding, EVP of Pink Elephant as he delivers the keynote address at Wendia’s annual Partner/Customer event. Spalding is one of the world’s leading authorities on IT service management and support. He is hilarious. However as I listen and learn about Wendia’s progress as a company over the past year, several elements are striking to me.
First of all, there are larger companies than Wendia providing service management software: Computer Associates, Hewlett-Packard HPQ -0.4% Symantec SYMC -0.63% and LANDesk, to name just a few. However, during the same challenging global economy and market every company faces, Wendia’s U.S. operation has achieved a growth rate of 300 percent since last year.
Hal Tueller is CEO of Wendia North America
Secondly, the Wendia customers I meet are fiercely loyal. Many have worked with the company through multiple generations of product. Many have even contributed to the development of the product through their ideas and input. They are proud to demonstrate the ideas they’ve innovated themselves through creative implementation.
Finally, I note that Wendia’s relative market size appears to have been an advantage in many respects, as it has allowed the company to be first to market with innovations larger companies aren’t equipped to provide.
Specifically, Wendia offers dynamic platform delivery (it’s actually a branded and trademarked solution, Dynamic Platform Delivery™). Customers can choose the company’s POB (Point Of Business) software as a cloud (SaaS) solution, as on premise software, or a hybrid implementation of both. Even better, they can modulate between these solutions at any time that they wish.
Kerstin Daun, Founder of Wendia AG
Why is this so important? A year ago, Gartner (and others) predicted that “hybrid” IT solutions (blending cloud solutions with traditional on premise IT, or blending public and private cloud solutions) would be one of 2013’s top 10 technology trends.
Gartner’s prediction was spot on. And to Wendia’s advantedge, they are the only service management providers who are able to accommodate a genuine hybrid alternative. It has proven to be a very good call: Tueller reports the company’s new installations during the year have been equally divided among on-premise, cloud and hybrid implementations.
Several, including Wendia’s largest U.S. customer, Anthelio Healthcare, have modulated between chosen solutions. Anthelio’s Senior Director of IT Services, Max Siu, reports such rapid growth in the company (and its Service Desk function) that at a certain level, his company was able to achieve a greater level of economy and faster customization by bringing the management of his software implementation in house. He was happy for the ability to do so.
Max Siu, Sr. Director of IT Services, Anthelio Healthcare
The ability has meant great things for Wendia and for its customers, clearly—but it also represents a significant point for entrepreneurs: In many cases it’s the smaller and more nimble organization that carries the greater opportunity to innovate a market solution.
For a large organization, the development, the support, the channel aspects and SKUs of a hybrid solution present in most cases, an insurmountable task. Conversely, for an organization born in the cloud environment, the company relies on a business model that is so specific it can’t be varied (and on a larger scale, it’s a model that doesn’t allow for the level of customer partnerships a company the size of Wendia can enjoy).
For growth companies everywhere, these are factors that are very good news. Your abilities to be nimble and innovate are a gift. Likewise, the ability to know and support your customers personally—even partner up and include them in the progress of your product and your organization is an opportunity much harder for major organizations to match.
For growth companies everywhere, these are factors that are very good news. Your abilities to be nimble and innovate are a gift. Likewise, the ability to know and support your customers personally—even partner up and include them in the progress of your product and your organization is an opportunity much harder for major organizations to match.
Particularly in a challenging and evolving economy and technology market, entrepreneurs should leverage all advantages available at every stage in their growth. Wendia is delighted, of course, about its growth. I am even more delighted, personally, for the things their success represents about the advantages available to entrepreneurs.
first appeared on forbes.com
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