Gaps in Analytics: Jon Kondo, CEO of Host Analytics (Part 3)

Sramana: When you came into the market in 2008, what did you notice in the competitive landscape? Who were you seeing in deals?

Jon Kondo: We saw the big guys in the space, although they did not take us seriously at first. We saw Oracle, SAP and IBM. Now, they take us a lot more seriously, after we have had a few early wins. There are some other startups in the space that have cloud offerings, although their cloud offerings have significantly less functionality. They only have one sliver. We see them in point solutions. We obviously are aware and watching them. We feel that our product offering and breadth is far greater.

Sramana: Let’s assume that I was considering buying an Oracle, SAP or IBM solution. Convince me that I should go with Host Analytics.

Jon Kondo: The very first thing we would do is come in an understand what your business requirements and business needs are. We would show, from a functionality standpoint, that we stand up with any of the competitors you have mentioned in terms of breadth and functionality.

Why go with Host Analytics over an established company? The first consideration is time to value. Our ability to standup a solution takes probably a tenth of the time that the heavy, on-premises solutions require. If you want to consider getting your solution up quickly, we are the only alternative. There is also a cost component to that as well. We do five-year ROIs with our customers all the time, and we are about a third of the cost of on-premises solutions.

What customers really come to appreciate is that the responsibility of customer satisfaction falls on us. We have to earn our customers’ business every month and year because we are a subscription-based service. If we don’t earn it, then our customers will simply not renew with us. We also put a lot of time, effort and research into product innovation. Those innovations show in our monthly product updates when our customers get new features and enhancements. They don’t have to worry about system maintenance and upgrades because it is provided as a service.

Sramana: It does not sound like any of your competitors have any cloud-based solutions in the corporate financial planning segment of business intelligence. Is that the case?

Jon Kondo: There are some other cloud-based solutions, but they do not have the functionality that can stand up to SAP, IBM and Oracle. The big on-premises providers do not have cloud solutions. They would tell you that if you want it in the cloud, they would be happy to host a single instance for you.

Sramana: So the big players are only offering a private cloud solution whereas you offer a public cloud solution. Is that what allows you to be significantly cheaper?

Jon Kondo: It is. We only have to maintain one code base, not custom implementations. We offer tailoring of our system, but not custom code bases.

Sramana: What happened between 2008 and 2010?

Jon Kondo: We have had great growth in all of our metrics. Top line bookings have grown significantly, and our recurring revenue has seen tremendous growth. That has been fun to watch. We have had some great customer wins like Groupon and Glaxo-Smith Kline. We are seeing an increase in the number of larger enterprises that are accepting of cloud computing. We are a natural fit for the cloud. We have been very true to our methods and our market. We have not actively marketed to super large enterprises even though many of them are our customers. Sticking to our core market has been very important.

We have also been consistent with how we manage our product. We are providing enhancements to our customers, not just chasing the latest technologies. Our enhancements and new features are applicable to our customers, not just sexy toys for the space.

This segment is part 3 in the series : Gaps in Analytics: Jon Kondo, CEO of Host Analytics
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