Taking on Business Intelligence: Lucidera CEO Ken Rudin (Part 6)

SM: What are your top target segments?

KR: We are finding a lot of success with Sales Operations managers, VP of Sales and also the CFO or Director of Finance at small and medium size companies. Those with a slightly distributed workforce and who don’t want the hassle of managing the cost associated with traditional on-premise BI solutions have demonstrated the most interest thus far. Some of our current customers include 3PAR, Ingres, KACE and Black Duck software. And, since we only started selling LucidEra in March, I’m really happy with the adoption rate. We also find the manufacturing vertical is very interested in on-demand BI services.

SM: How did you penetrate the market and get early traction?

KR: I think it certainly helps to have a compelling solution that people can try and get up-and-running in no time. It’s the best way to get traction. Once people try LucidEra, the proverbial light bulb goes off and it’s exciting to watch. The amazing thing about the SaaS model is that the product is simple to use, simple to set-up, and simple to buy. Why wouldn’t you just try it to see if our solution can add value to your business? It’s a no-brainer in my opinion.

I think another plus we have at LucidEra is a strong executive team that has the right experiences to take us to the next level. For example, my own background has prepared me to take on some of the more established big vendors in the space. I saw first hand while running the OnDemand CRM business at Siebel, just how conflicted the company was trying to sell an in-house enterprise software product, and an OnDemand product. Traditional enterprise software companies have such a different DNA that traditional players like Business Objects, Cognos, SAP, etc., could never fully execute in the SaaS market.

SM: Are you part of Salesforce.com’s AppExchange? Are they sending you leads?

KR: Yes, we get a lot of leads from the AppExchange. We also work with other vendors like NetSuite, Oracle Financials, Great Plains.

[Part 1]
[Part 2]
[Part 3]
[Part 4]
[Part 5]
[Part 6]
[Part 7]
[Part 8]

This segment is part 6 in the series : Taking on Business Intelligence: Lucidera CEO Ken Rudin
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