Web2 and More starts 2010 with a bang and an interview with Shahab Kaviani of HyperOffice
What was the initial inspiration for HyperOffice and how long has it been established?
We’ve been around since 1998, we strive to help small businesses leverage the same collaborative technologies which larger enterprises have benefited from to improve team productivity. We hope to level the playing field to help small business owners with a more cost effective way to deploy software via a Software-as-a-Service plus free support and training.
How many people work for HyperOffice and how did they come to the company (i.e. their background) ?
About 30. Our President as well as our CEO, were involved with Lotus Notes in the late 80s through the early 90s, they saw what a profound impact collaboration tools could have on businesses. As a small business themselves delivering training for Lotus Notes and Novell GroupWise, they were frustrated with the complexity and costs to implementing such tools. They were investors in WebOS, and as the dot.com started to fizzle – with the help of the original CTO they helped resurrect the company to form HyperOffice.
What has been the biggest challenge so far … ?
IT has typically been implemented by internally IT folks, or IT consultants. We are disrupting that model by telling small business owners they can save money by outsourcing to a Software-as—Service provider. So IT consultants who would typically introduce new technologies don’t have much to gain. Our challenge has been to communicate directly with small business owners; for the first 5 years they practically thought it was too good to be true – that’s starting to change now.
And what challenges do you see for the future?
Integration. The same requirements that drove traditional software implementations to require system integrators will happen in the cloud. As more businesses move more of their operations to the cloud – how do you get these applications to share data?
Do you have any plans for other services?
Yes, we will be looking at the best ways to incorporate social networking, as well as better support for mobile collaboration.
What do you think are the major obstacles to getting people and businesses to use web based services?
I can only speak to the small business segment. I think the major obstacle there is awareness; once people try it they really like it so it’s just a matter of making SaaS collaboration part of mainstream.. Since the IT community; i.e. all those Microsoft solution providers don’t have enough to gain so business owners will have to be motivated enough to learn about the possibilities and benefits SaaS presents.
What is the biggest incentive to get them to switch to cloud based systems (i.e. financial savings, better communications etc)
Cost savings and improved productivity amongst distributed teams. Cost savings gained by not having to buy servers, upgrade software, of have internal IT overhead/staff. In today’s economy we are seeing more contractors and part-time staff, people working off-site. Businesses who can figure our how to boost distributed team productivity will gain a compelling advantage.
How do you see web based services in five years time?
I expect a few platforms will emerge making it easier for businesses to plug into cloud computing in a way data will be easily interchanged across specialized services.
What happens when someone puts a digger through the cable
No doubt offline support is key. i.e. we synch with Outlook, so some of your data will live locally; we are also looking at solving this for documents, and have an exciting announcement in the new year for supporting data that will reside on the mobile device.
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