Nimbus is among 20 companies to watch in 2010, according to industry analysts MWD Advisors and Martin Veitch, Editor in Chief at CIO. Martin says: “Here are some companies worth keeping an eye on.”
Nimbus is featured alongside well-known names Salesforce.com, Cisco and Google as well as lesser known but innovative software companies such as Jive Software. In the article Nimbus is described as a “specialist vendor in BPM and business transformation, which offers a capability you might call 'actionable knowledge management'. Authors use the application to map out and solidify business processes; but rather than being automated at run-time these processes are made available to users as interactive guides. Users can step through processes and call up guidance documentation, interact with back-end systems and so on... it's lightweight, non-invasive and designed to keep the user very much in control of their own work environment.”
We meet hundreds of interesting lesser-known vendors every year, but we just don't have room to write about all of them. Here, with the help of analyst firm MWD Advisors, are some companies worth keeping an eye on next year
The judges:
Angela Ashenden, principal analyst, MWD Advisors
Bola Rotibi, principal analyst, MWD Advisors
Neil Ward-Dutton, research director, MWD Advisors
Martin Veitch, Editor in Chief, CIO
Online communities firm Jive Software (www.jivesoftware.com) manages to bridge the gap - both in terms of its technology and its strategy - between the many start-ups in this market and the software giants. Its Social Business Suite provides a comprehensive set of capabilities, packaged in a solutions-based model that will enable the company to scale quickly and effectively. Jive is also unusual among smaller collaboration software players in that it targets buyers on the IT side, as well as business leaders, with strong messaging around hosting, integration and security, rather than focusing solely on end-user functionality. AA
Sonoa Systems (www.sonoasystems.com) is one of a clutch of small vendors focusing on helping companies manage and govern cloud-based services - specifically they provide a set of offerings that monitor, -analyse and govern quality-of-service related- to cloud APIs. This is a critical space, because application and platform security and reliability are key concerns for those looking to invest in cloud computing. It recently launched Apigee.com, a SaaS version of the technology, as a free taster. NWD
Nimbus Partners (www.nimbuspartners.com) is a UK-based specialist vendor in BPM and business transformation programmes. It doesn't take the full-on automation approach that most of the specialist tools vendors do: rather, it offers a capability that you might call 'actionable knowledge management'. Authors use the tools to map out and solidify business processes; but rather than being automated at run-time these processes are made available to users as interactive guides.
Users can step through processes and call up guidance documentation, interact with back-end systems and so on - but the runtime system is lightweight, non-invasive and designed to keep the user very much in control of their own work environment. NWD
Original Software (www.origsoft.com) is a small testing vendor with good technology and customer reach. Possibly one to watch out for in the acquisition stakes. BR
Brightcove (www.brightcove.com) is already the 800-pound gorilla in the emerging market for online video platforms (OVP), the software service layer underlying the use of digital video for sales, marketing, collaboration and communication. Its recent bold move in making available a low-cost entry-level edition could be the catalyst for online video to go from the YouTube generation to money-making content category. In the same field, open-source outfit Kaltura(www.kaltura.org) is worth watching as is, from left field, Flixmedia.tv, helping retailers like John Lewis, Amazon.com and dabs.com handle- content types like videos, images and reviews. Impact (www.impact-europe.com), a systems integrator specialising in business video implementations, also has the right look about it as videoconferencing and other B2B video applications finally grip. MV
IntraLinks (www.intralinks.com) is one of those companies you wonder why you had never heard of. The firm uses the SaaS model to host workspaces on demand. Companies in the process of M&A could employ it as a platform for securely swapping information, for example. It turns over more than $120m very quietly indeed until now but is now pushing hard for more publicity - an IPO would help. MV
Google (www.google.com) is hardly a secret but its business-to-business side has been obscured by the huge success of its search and ads offerings. With Google Apps picking up a series of customer wins in 2009, more blue-chips can point to prece-dents for leaving Microsoft's shadow. Next year could see a major breakthrough. MV
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