Search the Internet          Tips

4 top firms join to found ASP venture

Ela Dutt
India Abroad Correspondent in New York

American Express [NYSE: AXP], TIBCO Software Inc [NASDAQ: TIBX], Infosys Technologies [NASDAQ: INFY] and WestBridge Capital Partners announced on Tuesday the creation of a new company, Workadia LLC, with plans to open offices soon in Silicon Valley.

Headed by an interim chief executive officer, Mohit Mehrotra, who is currently vice-president of interactive business development at American Express, Workadia plans to provide companies with customizable business intranets through browser-accessed hosted portals.

It will also offer consulting services to help customers select and deploy their intranet applications, content and services.

The work on founding the company has been going on for several months in which the involved partners have lent their personnel, said Raj Mashruwala, executive vice-president for marketing and engineering at TIBCO.

Workadia's initial round of funding totals $16.7 million and the company expects to generate revenue from licensing fees from customers, consulting fees, and third-party product and service sales.

Asked why Workadia would succeed where many application service providers have already failed, Mehrotra said, "A lot of ASPs focused on a single space and did not provide a complete solutions platform. And trust is a huge factor -- that the product is being brought to them by Amex, TIBCO, Infosys and Westbridge lends tremendous credibility," focus group studies showed.

Sumir Chadha, managing director of Westbridge Capital Partners, said, "A lot of ASPs failed because they did not have the right channels of distribution and branding."

The company, which already has American Express signed on as its first customer, is in its pilot stage with the platform.

"We have decided we have to eat our own dog food. All of us are going to be beta customers," said Mashruwala, adding, "Mid-sized companies will be able to get the same benefits that large companies have been able to achieve, but without the costs."

He said revenues would come from services priced on a monthly basis, "like a subscription service", with additional charges for customized services.

"Outsourcing of corporate intranets will be the way of the future for companies," said Phaneesh Murthy, board member and head of worldwide sales at Infosys.

Pierric Beckert, senior vice-president for interactive business development at American Express, said, "Workadia will bring a unique value to its customers... it will aggregate and integrate a wide range of business needs... using the combined strength we bring to the business."

He said Amex was currently a beta customer and would begin offering commercialized services through Workadia within the next few months.

Founders said Workadia's solutions are designed to increase productivity by giving employees the ability to conduct business online, and its hosted model is designed to decrease the total cost of ownership and deployment of intranet applications, the founders emphasized.

The portals will let companies select hosted and in-house software applications, content and services and then integrate them into a single desktop view.

Workadia will integrate systems and automate business processes, allowing real-time information to flow between the portal and internal enterprise systems.

Additionally, it will offer a range of software applications, online services, content and information, including financial services, email, expense reporting, corporate travel, news, stock quotes and more.

Mehrotra said Workadia would initially focus on US companies in need of a complete business intranet service. Many of Workadia's initial target customers will be middle-market companies or companies that want to outsource business activities. Over time, he plans to expand its scope internationally.

"There is an enormous, growing need for this type of service. This need, combined with the potential to draw customers from the American Express customer base, should give Workadia a leg-up in capturing market share," said Sally Hudson, research manager, Internet infrastructure services at IDC, a market research company based in Framingham, Massachusetts. "This partnership and technology combination shows that Workadia has a fundamental understanding of what it takes to create a successful e-business."

Workadia's browser interface requires minimal training, and its single log-on is designed to give users a single point of access to software applications, content and services. By facilitating the flow of information between a company's new and existing business systems, software applications and services, it expects to eliminate redundant data entry and many manual processes.

For example, Mashruwala explained how any changes to Workadia employee profiles would automatically update information in a company's human resources databases, 401K plans, payroll, travel and purchasing systems; travel reservations would automatically post to employee calendars; online corporate purchases would be automatically settled with accounts payable.

In addition, through the TIBCO e-business infrastructure technology access will be extended to wireless devices and mobile phones.

The company's board comprises Glen Salow, executive vice-president and chief information officer at American Express; Jud Linville, president of corporate services, Canada and US, at American Express; Mashruwala, Phaneesh Murthy, board member and head of worldwide sales at Infosys, and Chadha.

Founded in 1850, American Express is the world's leading global provider of commercial cards and expense management solutions. Through its corporate services group, formed in 1982, the company counts more than 70 per cent of the Fortune 500, along with tens of thousands of mid-sized companies, as customers of its business travel, corporate card, corporate purchasing card and consulting services group.

Headquartered in Palo Alto, California, TIBCO Software Inc is a provider of total business integration solutions whose technology was first used to digitize Wall Street and has since been adopted in diverse industries, including financial services, telecommunications, electronic commerce, transportation, logistics, manufacturing and energy.

TIBCO's customer base includes more than 1,000 customers, such as Cisco Systems, Ariba, NEC, Enron, Sun Microsystems, GE Capital, Philips, AT&T, Pirelli and AOL/Netscape.

Infosys Technologies Ltd is an information technology consulting and service provider, providing end-to-end consulting for global corporations. It has partnered with several Fortune 1000 companies providing a wide range of services, including e-strategy consulting and solutions, large application development and enterprise integration services.

Infosys also has product co-development initiatives with numerous communication and Internet infrastructure companies. Headquartered in India, it has offices in Fremont, California, and other parts of the US, Europe and Asia.

WestBridge Capital Partners is a US-India focused venture capital fund with $140 million under management. It focuses on cross-border US-Indian technology companies that are targeting the US market. Founded by Chadha, K P Balaraj and Raj Dugar, who are former Goldman Sachs professionals, the company's investors include Goldman Sachs, SUN Technology, Capital Z Investments, Merrill Lynch, and Fidelity. Individuals such as Suhas Patil, Arjun Malhotra, B V Jagadeesh, Rajat Gupta and Laxmi Mittal have also invested in the fund.

WestBridge has offices in Silicon Valley, Bangalore and Bombay.

Mehrotra said the Workadia office would be located in Silicon Valley, though it is currently operating from Phoenix, Arizona. Incorporated last week, the company will be helped with its management recruitment and other startup issues by Westbridge.

Back to top

Tell us what you think of this report