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Conquering the North America Market
Danish software company Workbook Software A/S can now distribute their solution around the world by working with Microsoft’s cloud system. And they are collaborating with a Canadian Partner, 360 Visibility, to conquer the North American market.
WorkBook is built for professional services firms requiring end-to-end project management, time tracking and financial management. It is delivered as Software as a Service (SaaS) using Microsoft Windows Azure technology, making maintenance simple and affordable, no matter where a client is located.
Expansion to North America Fits Buying Trend
Workbook Software A/S has expanded from exclusively serving Denmark’s advertising industry to currently providing 72% of the IT systems to Danish communications and marketing businesses.
360 Visibility, located in Toronto, Canada, is presenting the WorkBook solution to the professional services industry, including consultants, lawyers and engineers.
More North American businesses are searching online in order to find business management solutions to fit their needs, notes WorkBook Software A/S Director René Præstholm. This is a trend he anticipates will drive sales of WorkBook solutions around the world.
Cloud Forces Change in Tactics
As SaaS grows, it’s becoming more challenging for business software providers to rely exclusively on selling on-premise ERP solutions to maintain a competitive edge. As the transition to the cloud continues, René Præstholm (pictured at right) says it is unrealistic to expect a business to thrive on traditional implementations alone. “Instead, we have an advisory role, helping to simplify workflows and optimize projects,” he explains.
WorkBook Software A/S now has partnerships with business management solution providers in eight countries. Their solution has been offered as a service for several years. In addition to now reaching North America with 360 Visibility, they hope to offer the solution across Europe.
Delivering the solution with Azure simplifies this process. Where before, they had to have a hosting partner in order to deliver WorkBook in a particular country, now, “the system is automatically available throughout the world”, says René Præstholm.
Azure Simplifies Customer Support
Because Windows Azure is a Platform as a Service (PaaS), it can be used for developing and running applications. This simplifies supporting customers, with just one system to maintain. Previously, WorkBook had to maintain multiple systems and contend with each system’s user names, passwords and remote connections.
The challenge so far, says René Præstholm, has been scaling Azure to run WorkBook. “Until now, Azure has mostly been used for smaller applications and testing.” WorkBook Software A/S will maintain their hosting partnership agreements, with the ultimate goal of running all clients on Azure in the next 5-10 years.
The Latest WorkBook Developments
As Workbook moves to Azure, the company is launching WorkBook Release 8. This latest version, developed over the last two years, features a web-based user interface, plus more features for use with an iPad or iPhone. Applications for Windows Mobile and Android are expected later this year.
René Præstholm anticipates clients will be moving to Workbook Release 8 within the next few months.