Yesterday I held one of my regular update calls with Stefan Topfer, CEO WinWeb. WinWeb is a founding sponsor for this site. As usual, Stefan had plenty to say, some of which is covered by NDA. A few nuggets I can share:
It has some interesting opportunities that fit well with Stefan’s ‘business infrastructure’ model. Expect a monster left field announcement later this week/early next. Sorry to be a tease but it will be worth the wait. It is innovative, will surprise many and will open up a new set of opportunities for VSBs that would not otherwise be readily available.
On market progress, WinWeb’s medium term planning shows current projections are for a 30-40 times expansion over the next year. Ambitious – yes. Do-able. Absolutely. And that’s just the UK.
Not many people know this but WinWeb has a plug-in style architecture. If you have a piece of add-on functionality you’d like to develop then WinWeb provides a moderately easy way to gain access to its innards. At present, Stefan is cautious about how this is used because some work needs to be done to get the API in better shape. The expectation is that over time, the WinWeb API will be made available to suitably qualified ISVs using a revenue share model.
I understand the commercial reasoning behind this given WinWeb’s relative market position and the company’s philosophy of being the centre for business survival support well beyond the accounting application. We discussed the salesforce.com model but Stefan isn’t totally comfortable with that. I’m not sure I agree, largely because I see an opportunity to ride on the SF.com marketing bandwagon. I can though see how ‘doing an SF.com’ could be a distraction at a time when the developers are working hard to get ‘on the slate’ development worked out. It’s also not clear whether a tie to SF.com fits the business infrastructure for VSBs vision that Stefan has. Over time, expect to see a repository of third party WinWeb add-ons.
Hence the headline – pimp my WinWeb. Moving on…
I have long felt that including professional accounts production would be a very good move but Stefan says it takes development into some tough areas that would be a drain on resources at a time when there are other fish to fry. Knowing some of the complexities in formatting alone, it’s a wise decision. Instead, I’m introducing WinWeb to a couple of expert providers in this field.
Finally, there is a plan to enter the US market in 2007. It’s not fully formed, there is much to be done – to use Stefan’s expression: “We need to do some terra forming.” More later.
As an aside, Ismael Ghalimi kindly invited me to present on WinWeb at his upcoming Under The Radar event. While it is an honour to be asked (and Ismael was making it really easy for the company), Stefan felt, and I agree, that WinWeb isn’t quite ready to make a splash over the pond. He’s not going to make the mistake many other have by not being in a position to offer US GAAP. It’s in development but it needs to be there ‘out the gate.’ He’s taking a note from the Web 2.0 playbook – delight users. But I’d add – when it’s right to do so.
