个人技术走向企业

    近年来，公司员工都带着自己的智能手机和平板电脑上班，还在他们的宝贝上安装能提高工作效率的应用程序和软件，有时未经本公司技术部门的许可。能干的员工正将他们的技术用在办公室里，谷歌（Google）、Dropbox等几家面向消费者的公司不再袖手旁观，开始争取公司顾客。

    成立于2007年的Dropbox提供基于网络的服务，一开始只针对消费者，用户可以储存照片、家庭视频等大文件，并从任何一台连接网上的设备上提取（用户的头2G空间免费）。而Dropbox的粉丝还通过它保存和共享工作文件。公司嗅到了这一机会，在2011年10月推出了面向办公室的有偿订用服务Dropbox for Teams。这一服务适于IT部门管理，员工能各自管理用户账户，付账时，公司可以统一结清。

    所谓的企业市场一直利润丰厚，即便针对它的创新落后于消费者市场。这一被Dropbox称之为“合作应用”市场，目前被微软（Microsoft）和IBM公司所统治，2010年的销售收入为79亿美元，2015年有望达到139亿美元。

    销售消费类技术产品的公司传统上不太重视企业，原因之一是它们的增长状况良好，用不着去吸引企业的信息总监。但是，随着企业个人在设备、软件上的界线变得模糊，消费类产品的技术公司也开始寻找新的利润增长点，企业用户就显得特别有吸引力了。即便很少宣扬产品的企业功能的苹果也在去年第四季度的盈利预告会上强调，公司在B2B方面有了好几笔斩获。在去年早些时候，苹果还发布了供员工批量下载企业应用软件的单独软件商店。谷歌的企业部门销售一套由电子邮件、文件共享等网络工具组成的商务套餐，其企业用户包括Jordache Enterprises和美国维珍公司（Virgin America）。2011年10月，谷歌发布了对商业用户的全天候支持服务，这是一种企业技术客户所期待的贴身服务。

    但是，很多员工喜欢消费电子设备和软件的原因在于极为好用。为了合乎公司要求而添加安全或其他功能，有可能增加复杂性，冲淡员工首先要求的美妙体验。尽管如此，Dropbox的业务开发高管王晨利（音）认为，公司的新服务带来了新的客户。他说：“我们认为，有必要为公司的‘信息技术团队’提供更好的用户体验。”事实上，企业IT人员正是消费产品技术公司要追求的人。他们也是消费者。

    译者：古正

    In recent years employees have been bringing their personal smartphones and tablets to work and tricking out their gadgets (sometimes without the tech department's okay) with productivity-enhancing apps and software. Now, instead of standing by as savvy individuals co-opt their technology for the workplace, a handful of consumer-oriented companies such as Google (GOOG) and Dropbox are courting corporate customers.

    Dropbox, founded in 2007, initially targeted consumers with its web-based service, which allows users to store photos, home movies, and other large files and access them from any Internet-enabled device. (A customer receives the first two gigabytes of storage for free.) But fans also used Dropbox to save and share work files. Smelling opportunity, the company in October launched Dropbox for Teams, a paid-subscription service for the workplace. The IT-friendly version allows employers to manage user accounts and pay the tab on a single, companywide bill.

    The so-called enterprise market has always been lucrative, even if its record for innovation has lagged behind that of its consumer counterparts. The "collaborative applications" market Dropbox addresses, now dominated by Microsoft (MSFT) and IBM (IBM), had annual sales of $7.9 billion last year, and is expected to reach $13.9 billion in 2015.

    Sellers of consumer tech traditionally haven't paid much attention to companies, partly because they were growing just fine without wooing chief information officers. But as the lines between business and personal gadgets and software have blurred -- and as consumer-tech companies look for new sources of growth -- the corporate customer has become surprisingly sexy. Even Apple (AAPL), which rarely touts its enterprise capabilities, noted several business-to-business wins on its fourth-quarter earnings call, and earlier this year the company launched a separate corporate app store where employers can download enterprise apps in bulk. Google's enterprise division, which sells businesses a suite of e-mail, document-sharing, and other web-based tools (corporate clients include Jordache Enterprises and Virgin America), last month unveiled round-the-clock support for business customers -- the type of high-touch service corporate tech buyers expect.

    But the reason so many employees love consumer gadgets and apps is that they're super-easy to use. Beefing up security or other features to comply with a corporation's needs can add complexity and water down the elegant experience employees were demanding in the first place. Still, ChenLi Wang, a business development executive at Dropbox, sees the company's new service as adding a different type of customer to the company's member base. "We thought we needed to provide a better user experience for companies' information-technology teams," he says. Indeed, IT personnel are the ones consumer-tech companies need to hook. Consumers have already bought in.