企业软件重现创新活力

    这些公司并非特例。很多企业软件创新公司都公布了亮丽的用户和销售增长率。近日，我在旧金山参加了由富国银行（the Wells Fargo）分析师杰森•梅娜德主办的富国银行科技大会（Wells Fargo Technology conference）。优秀的私人持股初创企业数量之多令人震惊。营销动画开发公司Marketo、商业情报平台Domo、社区软件开发商Lithium、企业社交营销公司Hearsay Social、云订购管理软件Zuara和网络广告管理平台Marin Software——需要声明，我是该公司的顾问——个个都有一个让人心动的故事。

    我在会上和一些投资者进行了交谈，发现他们对这些初创企业的感兴趣程度似乎超过了在大会上演讲的诸多知名上市科技公司。华尔街的投资经理们似乎垂涎欲滴，都渴望能在新一代企业科技公司IPO中分得一杯羹。而且，业内大公司也对这些新冒出来的科技创新公司很感兴趣，SAP、甲骨文等公司进行了一系列前瞻性的云收购，希望能与行业发展保持同步。仅4月份的一周时间里，戴尔（Dell）就宣布了包括大型机应用移植开发商Clerity在内的三项收购，目的都是强化其在企业科技领域的地位。

    新一轮的企业科技创新预示着未来企业运用科技的方式将出现翻天覆地的变化。即便这些公司中只有几家取得成功，2014年的办公室也将较之2012年出现巨大的变化。

    我们可能还会看到企业科技供应商格局的改写。

    主导这一行业的可能是新兴商用消费者领域的初创公司。今天的巨人，可能沦为明天的Wang或Digital Equipment Corp 2.0（成立于1957年的一家美国老牌电脑公司，曾发明了Alpha微处理器，后于1998年被康柏电脑收购——译注）。相比购买传统企业软件许可的高价格以及后续每年的维护费用，初创公司的订购定价模式无疑颇具吸引力。市场研究公司Forrester Research近期的数据显示，预计到2012年底，灵活许可模式至少将占到企业软件预算的43%。

    很多新一代的企业软件创新公司似乎都执着于保持自身的独立，延续Facebook马克•扎克伯格和Salesforce.com马克•贝尼奥夫的道路。他们的固执、用户对软件的快速接纳以及公司飞速上升的估值可能意味着现有的大企业再也无法像过去那样通过收购来拓展企业前景。显然，企业科技创新已经重现。企业界、商用消费者和投资者都已投身其中。

    克里斯托弗•洛克希德(@lochhead)曾任科技公司高管，现任Play Bigger Advisors的策略顾问和合伙人

    译者：老榆木

    These aren't unusual stories. Many enterprise innovators are reporting impressive user and sales growth rates. I recently attended the Wells Fargo Technology conference in San Francisco run by analyst-provocateur Jason Maynard. The number of compelling privately held enterprise startups was astonishing. Outfits like marketing automation developer Marketo; business intelligence platform Domo; community software vendor Lithium; enterprise social marketing player Hearsay Social; cloud subscription management software company Zuara and online advertising management platform Marin Software -- where, full disclosure, I am an advisor -- have compelling stories.

    The investors I spoke with at the event seemed more interested in these startups than in many of the big-name public tech companies showing up at the podium. Wall Street money managers appear to be salivating to bite into a whole new breed of enterprise tech IPOs. And, large incumbents are hungry for a piece of these new enterprise technology innovators, with firms like SAP and Oracle making a series of forward-leaning cloud acquisitions to get in on the action. During a single week in April, Dell (DELL) disclosed three acquisitions focused on shoring up its position in the enterprise including the purchase of Clerity, a mainframe migration services company.

    The new wave of enterprise innovation is signaling the biggest transformation in the way businesses use technology in a generation. If even a few of these companies succeed, the workplace of 2014 will be materially different than the workplace of 2012.

    We could also see a re-drawing of the enterprise technology vendor landscape.

    The industry might be dominated by new companies in new bizumer categories. Some Goliaths of today are at risk of becoming Wang or Digital Equipment Corp 2.0. With their subscription-based pricing models and the relatively high cost of buying traditional enterprise software licenses and then paying yearly maintenance fees, these startups offer compelling economics to customers. That's especially true when you consider recent data from Forrester Research (FORR) that suggests flexible licensing models will claim at least 43% of enterprise software budgets by the end of 2012.

    Many of the new breed of enterprise software innovators also seem hell-bent on staying independent, following in the footsteps of Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg and Salesforce.com's Marc Benioff. Their tenacity, coupled with rapid user adoption and escalating valuations, could mean the incumbents may not be able to buy their way into the future, the way they have in the past. What is clear is that enterprise tech innovation is back. And businesses, bizumers, and investors are buying in.

    Christopher Lochhead (@lochhead) is former technology executive, now strategy advisor & partner with Play Bigger Advisors.