As we continue our MEAP comparisons, today I virtually sat down with Marc Rosenbaum, Director, Product Marketing, Verivo Software.
Q: Thoughts about the MEAP market. How do you differentiate?
The market has shifted significantly and the enterprise mobile world has matured. In today’s environment, a MEAP must become an ‘open MEAP’ providing value throughout IT to developers, architects, security and operations, without requiring the use of proprietary development tools. Therefore, we recently introduced Verivo Akula: a new, open enterprise mobile app platform to radically simplify the complexities of building, securing and controlling custom enterprise apps. The platform gives developers the freedom to use any standard technologies and IDE’s to build and update native, HTML5 and hybrid apps. Additionally, they don’t have to learn any new, proprietary languages. Akula integrates easily into existing corporate environments and is compatible with today’s mobile ecosystem, including front-end, testing and MAM/MDM tools.
Q: Who is your target market? Size companies?
Our target market is businesses that fall in the mid-market category and above. In fact, many of our current customers are large organizations and the opportunity here is tremendous. In fact, according to MarketsandMarkets, the Global BYOD and enterprise mobility market will reach $181 billion by 2017, with a Compounded Annual Growth rate of 15.17%.
Q: Who in a client company typically buys your product?
Akula is designed for IT management, mobile architects, developers, security compliance managers and even C-level executives.
Q: Is it a SaaS platform or does it require a server infrastructure at the client?
Akula is not yet offered in a SaaS model, however the platform can be deployed both on-premise and in the cloud, depending on the needs the customer has. Many companies today still run much of their data systems on-premise using SAP, Siebel and SharePoint, just to name a few. Because of that, we believe most customers will start with an on-premise Akula deployment.
Q: What kind of vertical markets are you seeing success in?
Verivo has more than a decade of enterprise mobility experience with hundreds of global customers across multiple industries. We started with the financial services organizations but today, our product is used by companies in every industry.
Q: What types of apps are customers developing with your platform?
Our customers use our platform to develop custom mobile apps for the enterprise. The apps range from field services to CRM apps to life saving apps to transactional apps.
Q: Does your platform rely on html5 only?
How would a client use it if they want to customize the app after it has been developed in your platform? With Akula, developers can use the technologies and IDE’s they want to build native, HTML5 and hybrid apps. There is no limitation to just HTML5, or just native – it really comes down to what functionality they want to be a part of their app. Akula has a light IT footprint, is holistically designed and easily scalable. The platform integrates easily into existing corporate environments and is compatible with today’s mobile ecosystem, including front-end, testing and MDM/MAM tools. So, companies have complete control over the apps they build regardless of which technology they used for the front-end.
Q: Do you sell only direct or to app developers as well?
Beginning June 28, users will be able to download Akula and try the platform for 30 days at no cost. Verivo is also introducing predictable and incremental pricing so a company can use the product in phases – starting with just development licenses to deploying a pilot of their app to expanding to a full scale deployment. This progressive pricing model allows a company to try the software without paying a premium price upfront. The company can then grow with the knowledge of what the incremental project costs will be versus adopting the per-app or per-transaction models that are prevalent in the industry. We are also expanding our channel program so the partners can help build, secure and control their customers’ mobile apps.
Q: Do you view app dev companies as competitors or potential partners?
We designed Akula as an open platform to build, secure and control enterprise mobile apps. As you can see from the graphic below, Akula is capable of integrating easily into existing corporate environments and is compatible with today’s mobile ecosystem. Verivo has existing partnerships with companies such as Good Technology, Apperian and Appcelerator – companies that continue to show our dedication to open standards, especially with UI tools and frameworks.
Q: Idea on price points of your product. Starting at? Range?
Users can try our product for 30 days at no cost. After that, they can purchase a development license, starting at $5,000 per year and then move up to $60,000 for a standard enterprise deployment. For additional information on pricing, please visit: verivo.com
A big thanks to Marc Rosenbaum, of Verivo Software.
