• 观点
    行业逐渐回暖,但风口已过的在线教育依旧会步履维艰 8月23日,VIPKID召开D轮融资发布会,2亿美元的融资金额打破了K12在线教育领域的单笔融资记录,随后不久,作业盒子也宣布完成2亿元B+轮融资。 历经五年探索,一度陷入资本寒冬的在线教育似乎开始有了行业回暖的迹象,一时间关于在线教育能否风口再起的讨论甚嚣尘上。更为关键的是,共享经济的投资热潮已然陷入尾声,市场上同样需要新的风口来刺激互联网经济的生长。 只不过单靠融资记录的突破,恐怕并不能证明在线教育有成为下一个风口的趋势,尤其是行业痼疾之下,新一轮的资本青睐可能也意味着新的风险。 巨额融资背后的理性回归 据IT桔子最新整理的创投数据显示,截止10月16日,2017年度在线教育领域公开的融资次数超过150笔,累计融资额超过80亿元人民币,其中K12领域融资公司有38家,融资金额接近41亿元。表面上看,共享经济席卷资本市场的情况下,在线教育还能获得如此频繁的融资次数,或许已经彰显了该行业得到市场认可之后的商业价值。 但是与2014年投资风口不同的是,从近一年的融资状况可以发现,其实市场上早已不是当初的那种投资热潮,这就说明理性回归可能意味着在线教育很难重新站在风口之上。 以融资的具体情况来分析,近几年的融资多集中在种子轮、天使轮、Pre-A 轮、A、A+轮等早期轮次。例如今年1-3 季度中,早期融资事件都超过一半,达70%上下,但与轮次集中的状况恰恰相反,融资金额反而主要加注于中后期融资阶段的在线平台。 数据显示,2017年第三季度的69起早期融资,披露的融资总金额为18.42亿元。而中期融资阶段(B、B+、C、C+轮)的案例有16起,披露的融资总金额为22.96亿元,后期阶段(D轮以后及并购)的案例共4起,金额却达到了22.03亿元。 这种情况说明两个问题,一方面投资在线教育的资本广泛遍布早期项目,这侧面印证了教育市场的需求确实在逐渐升温,尤其是二胎政策的放开,使得家长对教育的关注明显提升。另一方面,更为关键的是,资本还是青睐于较成熟的项目。换句话说,虽然在线教育行业并没有形成稳定的格局,但随着早期成熟项目或平台对资本的吸引愈加集中,也就意味着其他相对弱势的中小教育产品,将会面临洗牌期的淘汰。 尤其是在市场探索阶段中,各类平台非但没有一套成功盈利的商业模式作为支撑,反而盲目跟风,造成了平台日益同质化的倾向。这种情形之下,依赖融资就成了平台存活的最重要希望,而新晋参与者或小平台恐怕在吸引融资方面没有任何优势。由此可见,投资理性回归对整个行业来讲,并不全是好事。 五年探索未果,成功的商业模式路在何方? 8月16日,培生集团宣布将其环球天下教育集团(环球雅思)的业务,以8000万美元的价格出售给中国一家名为“朴新教育”的公司,而六年前培生买入的价格是2.95亿美元。与此同时,华尔街英语也被宣布“寻找潜在业务合作伙伴”接盘,培生集团接连抛售在华业务,除了在本土化过程中水土不服之外,其实这些举动也暗示着国内教育市场的步履维艰。 据央视财经此前报道,市场机构对400家主要在线教育企业的调查结果显示:截至2016年底,400家企业当中70%的公司都处于亏损状态,仅有10%的公司能够持平,而能够盈利的仅仅占了5%,甚至有15%的企业濒临倒闭。 这背后的原因都在于在线教育平台盈利模式尚未明晰,整体来讲,内容付费、会员收费、平台佣金和广告等方式,看似都有可行性,但是应用到教育这一复杂领域就显得异常不适,以内容付费为例,不管是内容本身还是盈利模式都存在大量现实问题。 一般情况下,为了尽快突破亏损困境,在线平台都会将付费内容的战线拉得过长,相应地内容管理和用户体验方面就会有所欠缺,而且从这些平台的具体表现看,出现了两种比较极端的反差。一方面,从教育机构转型的在线教育企业,一般都会照搬复制线下的课程,虽然表面上打通了线上渠道,但其缺乏互联网运营经验。而另一方面,互联网企业则盲目集结很多质量参差不齐的课程资源,利用互联网为线上用户学习服务。 这两种情况都直接导致课程优质内容缺乏、运营管理不足,使本来就缺少忠诚度的用户丧失兴趣。而从盈利角度看,内容付费的实现也极大受限于模式缺陷,这主要是因为教育平台为了低成本提升获客量,基本上一开始都打着免费的旗号争夺流量,而免费内容大范围推行之后,用户付费习惯就很难培养,到最后平台只能靠着融资烧钱、弥补高额成本。 仅仅是内容付费,在线教育就已经是百般受困,更深度触及国内教育痼疾的教学问题,基本上所要跨越的不只是获客成本,而是观念、教学方法、人力成本等一切挑战传统教学的多重障碍,这对任何平台都是终极的市场考验。 在线教育想要依靠技术突围,可能依旧困难重重 在传统认知中,十年育树,百年育人,教育说到底是一个更考验长期回报的领域,即使互联网改变了教育的形式,但本质上这点决定了在线平台的商业价值,还未能像普通快消品一样获得较快的收益回馈。可目前在线教育市场则恰恰相反,主要靠资本驱动的商业运转,不得不受制于投资人的回报期望,这两者之间的矛盾令平台对商业模式的探索更加困难。 可能正是认识到这点,在线教育除了费尽心机地摸索盈利渠道,其实把更多的期望寄托到新技术身上。比如VR、AR、AI及大数据分析等等,不仅被认为是在线教育平台提高教学效果、提升平台效率的未来工具,更是挑战传统教育的最大核心竞争点。可是就目前的情况来看,技术突围可能只是一种幻想。 以去年红极一时的在线直播教育为例,据悉,到2016年涉及到直播的公司,累积融资金额占在线培训行业融资总额的84%,总金额约20.5亿美金,相对应的录播型只占16%,可见当时行业对直播给予了多大的厚望。 可是直播元年已经过去,再看看现在的直播教育基本上已不如当初的势头。这不仅仅是因为直播行业本身的“熄火”,还在于“教育+直播”模式,不但不可能一下子将在线教育盈利难的问题解决,而且很有可能受居高不下的直播成本所累,为在线平台的亏损增添更重的负担。 直播风口已过,VR/AR或者是AI技术还只是停留在概念层面,尤其是前者,风风火火的元年最后只换来一地鸡毛,这说明新技术远不到成熟落地的时间。也就是说,在线平台所谓的虚拟课堂或智能教育,没有强硬的技术实力支撑就等同于空话。 实际上,在线教育平台的前景应该不止于作为对传统教育的补充而存在,更遥远一些,若是能通过线上渠道突破现有教学思维、方式的桎梏,那其商业价值和社会意义将会成倍增长,当然前提是先解决好盈利问题。 来源:歪道道,科技媒体人,互联网分析师。微信公众号:歪思妙想(wddtalk)。谢绝未保留作者相关信息的任何形式的转载。
    观点
    2017年11月07日
  • 观点
    标榜自己是中国的Salesforce的CRM厂商们,醒醒 近几年被业内人士看好的几家CRM公司,如纷享销客、红圈营销、神州云动、销售易、外勤365、EC等,以及一些不太知名的CRM厂商,纷纷说自己是中国的Salesforce,吹嘘技术实力有多强,发展前景有多好。但直到现在也没出现行业“黑马”,国内CRM市场规模约10亿,没有一家厂商占比超过20%。 很多CRM厂商在面对媒体和客户时,评价Salesforce的字眼多为:持续亏损、收费高、续费率低、易用性不够等等,然后再讲几个自己产品替代Salesforce的用户案例,对于自己与Salesforce的差距有多大,一般闭口不谈。 Salesforce下面这些客观事实,值得国内CRM见贤思齐并加以宣扬。 1 地位稳固,增速强劲 Gartner数据显示,连续几年,Salesforce在全球CRM领域的市场份额始终是第一,第二的Oracle在CRM领域的市场份额不到Salesforce的一半。 Salesforce市场份额增速之快,让业内惊叹,从2010年的10.6%上升到2016年的21%左右,今年将达到30%左右。Salesforce2017年营业收入将超过100亿。 反观国内的CRM厂商,年营业收入大多在几千万徘徊,多数是亏损状态。2017年资本市场对CRM领域投资很谨慎,能拿到投资继续研发产品、开拓市场的厂商算是幸运,销售易、神州云动、红圈等几家就占了融资份额的80%。 Salesforce虽然每年仍有亏损,但主要原因是他们暂时不考虑盈利,要拿利润换高增长,把蛋糕做大,比盈利更重要,所以少量亏损丝毫不影响他们的发展速度和影响力,目前市值已飙升到700亿美元左右,分析师表示Salesforce将在3年内成为一家价值1000亿美元的公司。 Salesforce多年来始终执行1/1/1模式的慈善事业,拿出百分之一的股权、百分之一的利润和员工百分之一的时间做公益慈善,投入巨大,值得很多企业学习。 2 创新驱动引领发展 《福布斯》全球最具创新力企业排行榜上,Salesforce名列首位,并且连续四年稳居宝座。 Salesforce是最早将软件带入到SaaS时代的厂商,但当大家埋头SaaS时,Salesforce已经推出了强大的PaaS平台,用户可自行或在Salesforce的协助下开发、扩展应用,这使得Salesforce用户数大幅上升,续费率也提升到96%左右,这是国内CRM厂商无法企及的。 近两年,销售易、神州云动、纷享销客等国内CRM厂商都说自己也有了PaaS平台,其完善程度就不得而知了,毕竟PaaS的技术门槛很高。 基于PaaS平台,Salesforce又推出了AppExchange,从内生到外延,目前这个自定义程序共享中心已有3000多个应用程序。 Salesforce为加快完善这个生态体系,2017年推出AppExchange合作伙伴计划,拨款1亿美元来激励开发商、创业公司和ISV。 国内CRM厂商继续效仿,神州云动在今年8月宣布推出国内首款CRM生态,但目前其应用商城仅有数十款应用,并且多为自己研发的。 2017年,Salesforce重点做AI和大数据,依然有厂商跟风。但看情形,Salesforce能做到“一直被模仿,从未被超越”。 3 巨额市场投入带动销售 Salesforce每年在市场和营销方面的投入,占销售额的50%左右,广告投入巨大,这也说明了他们只是暂时不想盈利。 他们通过大量报道,成功的宣传了自己的理念:No Software,并与媒体建立了良好的关系,很多媒体在Salesforce成立之初,就拿他们和行业强者相媲美。 Salesforce 2017 Q2财报营收同比上涨26%,弗雷斯特研究公司的副总裁兼首席分析师Andrew Bartels表示,“Salesforce创造的每一美元收入,它将其中的约45美分花在了销售和营销上。如果你把这么多的钱花在销售和营销上,要是没有获得那种收入增长势头才怪。” 纷享销客前两年在各广告渠道频频现身,烧了许多钱,但因产品实力一般,加上战略方向不清晰,营收并不理想,去年忍痛裁员。国内其他CRM厂商在市场营销方面的投入都很谨慎。 Salesforce最新产品Salesforce AI——Einstein(爱因斯坦)已经做到自动挖掘相关商机,预测和分析客户行为,推荐下一步最佳的行动方案,帮助用户提升销售能力。 在CRM之外,Salesforce还有CommunityCloud、Analytics Cloud、IoT Cloud和App Cloud,这些服务虽然不与CRM直接相关,但是这却是Salesforce能够满足客户多样需求,不断提升服务质量的保障,共同构建起Salesforce业务生态。 国内CRM厂商,请跟上节奏,加快增长、创新的步伐!企业用户需要你们。
    观点
    2017年11月06日
  • 观点
    LinkedIn通过大数据选出美国最具人才吸引力的50个创业公司 LinkedIn Top Companies | Startups: The 50 industry disruptors you need to know now 作者:Daniel Rot   Editor in Chief, LinkedIn 所有估值和资金数据来自CB Insights。除非由公司直接提供,否则任职,员工增长和全球员工数据均来自LinkedIn Premium Insights。 全文是英文,我们简单列出前十名: 1、UBER 2、AIRBNB 3、WEWORK 4、LYFT( 跟UBER一样的打车软件) 5、Slack  (HR项目) 6、NIO 7、Rubrik 8、Dropbox 9、Houzz 10、Convoy ········ 16、Pinterest 19、Udacity 22、Opendoor 31、Coursera 46、Glint (HR项目) 详细的大家可以看这些项目和公司福利。   Some of the most fascinating businesses today are startups. Sensing a chance to transform (or take over) a market, founders are channeling their seemingly endless flow of venture funds into new ideas — and top talent. We wanted to see which startups were winning the talent game. Who are the 50 most in-demand upstarts in the U.S. today? The all-new LinkedIn “Top Companies | Startups” list is the answer. To surface the companies, we looked at the billions of actions of LinkedIn’s more than 500 million members to determine employee growth, job seeker interest via views and applications, member engagement with the company and its employees — and how well these startups pulled talent from our flagship LinkedIn Top Companies list. (You can learn more about our methodology here.) To be eligible for Top Companies | Startups, companies must be 10 years old or younger, have at least 100 employees, remain independent and privately held and have at least one round of venture-backed funding. LinkedIn worked with CB Insights to pull a global list of nearly 25,000 eligible venture-backed companies. Share the list and join the conversation using #LinkedInTopCompanies. Here are this year’s top 50 startups in the U.S. All valuation and funding data come from CB Insights. Tenure, employee growth and global headcount data are from LinkedIn Premium Insights unless provided directly by the company. Follow Driving forward: Uber has been in the public eye this year for all the wrong reasons: sexual harassment claims, regulatory issues, a new CEO and loads of boardroom drama. That hasn’t kept the ride-sharing giant from growing fast or attracting top talent. Of all the companies on our list, Uber has the most workers who have joined from other LinkedIn Top Companies; employees have left the likes of Google, JPMorgan and Facebook to work at the super-unicorn. Global headcount: 16,000 Global headquarters: San Francisco Catch a ride: Worldwide employees get free monthly Uber credits to use on personal rides or UberEATS, the company’s online meal ordering and delivery platform. Valuation: $68 billion Explore jobs at Uber Follow Yurt, treehouse, castle: Airbnb has had 200 million guest arrivals since the company launched. Taking on the $550 billion hotel industry is no small feat. To go head-to-head, the company has expanded its instant booking listings and even announced plans to open its first co-branded apartments (which residents will be able to share on Airbnb). Global headcount: 3,000 Global headquarters: San Francisco Royal lodgings: Employees receive an annual $2,000 (£1,516) stipend to stay in Airbnb locales around the world, including one of nearly 3,000 listed castles. Valuation: $29.25 billion Explore jobs at Airbnb Follow Creating communities: WeWork has nearly doubled its membership this year to over 150,000 users, expanded to some 170 locations (including its first India location) and purchased private coding academy Flatiron School in a recent acquisition. While the startup has been growing rapidly, a highly competitive office-leasing market recently raised doubts around the company’s rich valuation. Global headcount: 3,000 Global headquarters: New York City TGIM: New hires join WeWork every Monday for orientation at the company’s headquarters. The day includes a citywide scavenger hunt where employees get a glimpse of the company’s nearly 40 buildings across New York and ends with the weekly “Thank God it’s Monday” dinner for the entire staff. Valuation: $20 billion Explore jobs at WeWork Follow Driving across America: Lyft has been rapidly expanding across the U.S. It now covers 95 percent of the population across all 50 states, more than any other rideshare platform, and provides over 1 million rides every day. In mid-October, it raised $1 billion in a new funding round led by the venture arm of Alphabet, Google’s parent company. Global headcount: 2,000 Global headquarters: San Francisco Expanding accessibility: Lyft introduced new features to make the app more accessible to deaf or hard-of-hearing drivers, including visual notifications and a message telling passengers to contact the driver via text. Passengers can also get a quick tutorial on how to say “Hello” and “Thank You” in sign language. Valuation: $11 billion Explore jobs at Lyft Follow Revolutionizing productivity: Known as a dead-simple collaboration tool, Slack is going head-to-head with the likes of LinkedIn parent Microsoft and Atlassian to own workplace productivity. Its platform allows workers to message each other in real time, while connected apps add context or automate mundane tasks to help get the job done. Global headcount: 890 Global headquarters: San Francisco Corporate scale: Slack bills itself as the fastest-growing business application in history, serving some 9 million weekly active users and 43 companies from the Fortune 100 list. It’s been hiring rapidly to keep up with that scale: growing 32 percent over the past year.   Valuation: $5.1 billion Explore jobs at Slack Follow Speeding into the future: Shanghai-based NIO develops smart, electric and autonomous vehicles. The startup, which expanded to the U.S. two years ago, built the world’s fastest electric car, manned or unmanned, able to go from 0 to 60 miles per hour in 2.7 seconds. CEO Padmasree Warrior, formerly of Cisco, says NIO cars will be available in the U.S. as soon as 2020. Global headcount: 3,000 Global headquarters: Shanghai (San Jose, Calif. in the U.S.) Welcome to the team: NIO has more than quadrupled its staff since June 2016. Amid such rapid growth, NIO shepherds its culture through bimonthly “team time,” where all employees welcome new hires and get to know each other outside of work through activities like trivia and scavenger hunts. Valuation: $2.89 billion Explore jobs at NIO Follow Cloud’s the limit: Rubrik helps companies organize their data in the cloud, ensuring instant access for recovery, analytics and application development. It counts corporate giant JLL, non-profit World Vision and the Tampa Bay Rays among its customers, but CEO Bipul Sinha has even bigger ambitions. “In the future, data will be like money,” he said in a May interview. “Rubrik can be like the Visa for enterprise.” Global headcount: 600 Global headquarters: Palo Alto, Calif. Big-name investors: The company counts NBA MVP Kevin Durant as one of its investors and board advisors alongside iconic firms like IVP and Lightspeed Ventures. It’s also notably transparent: all 600 employees can attend board meetings and see the company’s financials. Valuation: $1.3 billion Explore jobs at Rubrik Follow Refreshing storage: Dropbox has a new look these days. The online storage company went through its biggest-ever rebrand this year, repositioning itself as the tool to enable and inspire creativity in the workplace. The new branding also comes with a major milestone: Dropbox reached a $1 billion revenue run rate in February, the company told LinkedIn. Global headcount: 1,900 Global headquarters: San Francisco Giving back: Every Dropbox employee is given 32 hours of annual volunteer time off to participate in a cause about which they are passionate. The company will also match up to $1,000 for all donations made by Dropboxers to charitable organizations. Valuation: $9.38 billion Explore jobs at Dropbox Follow Bringing tech home: Houzz, the online platform for remodeling and decorating, is transforming the way people design and shop for their homes. Beyond sketching ideas or hiring the right contractor, users can experience their designs through Houzz’s augmented reality tool. The company says that shoppers who engage with the tool are 11 times more likely to purchase. Global headcount: 1,600 Global headquarters: Palo Alto, Calif. More than an office: On their first day, every new employee gets a pair of Houzz slippers to wear around the office so they can feel at home. It’s not much of a stretch: Houzz’s meeting rooms are inspired by household spaces around the world, including the British Tea Room, German Backyard and Italian Closet. Valuation: $3.84 billion Explore jobs at Houzz Follow Trucking on demand: Convoy believes the world moves on reliable trucks, and it is in the business of building innovative services to match shipments with reliable carriers. The company works with a network of independent trucking companies and uses technology to match the right truck to the right load, helping optimize supply chain performance. Global headcount: 170 Global headquarters: Seattle Staffing up: The company has been scaling rapidly since its founding in 2015. In the past six months, Convoy’s headcount has grown 37 percent — and it’s hiring for another 28 jobs currently, according to LinkedIn data. Its recent $62 million funding round, led by Y Combinator, will help rev up that growth. Total funding: $80 million Explore jobs at Convoy Follow Closing the skills gap: General Assembly is creating a new way to educate today’s workforce. The company, which started as a single co-working space in 2011, now has campuses in 20 cities. GA has served over 40,000 students through its full- and part-time programs, and it says it works with a third of the Fortune 100 to develop proprietary, sustainable talent pipelines in fields like data science and web development. Global headcount: 580 Global headquarters: New York City Moving up: While GA has some great perks (like 16 weeks of parental leave for a primary caregiver), the biggest benefit may be the upward mobility within the company. In the first half of 2017, GA had 136 promotions, the company told LinkedIn. That’s a quarter of all employees. Valuation: $452 million Explore jobs at General Assembly Follow Moving the money: Bought something online at Target recently? Or Under Armour? Then you’ve likely used Stripe’s products without even realizing it. The company builds the tools businesses need to instantly accept and manage online payments, helping buyers pay seamlessly and providing sellers real-time analytics. Global headcount: 810 Global headquarters: San Francisco Worldwide access: Stripe powers businesses in 25 countries and accepts 135 different currencies (plus Bitcoin). It enables Apple Pay across the internet and in iOS apps, and Stripe even helped launch a new cryptocurrency: Stellar. Valuation: $9.2 billion Explore jobs at Stripe Follow The birth of an empire: Before starting her direct-to-consumer skincare and makeup company, Glossier CEO Emily Weiss ran the popular blog Into the Gloss. The industry expertise and cult following she gained was a recipe for Glossier success. Her social media-savvy brand became such a hit after launching in 2014 that its products quickly sold out and garnered waitlists 10,000 people long. Global headcount: 130 Global headquarters: New York City Growth in all directions: At an annual employee growth rate of 257 percent, Glossier was the fastest-growing company on this list over the past 12 months, according to our data. The company also made strides to meet growing demand abroad with plans to ship to Canada, the UK and France. Total funding: $34.4 million Explore jobs at Glossier Follow Connecting the dots: Early in his career, Flexport CEO Ryan Petersen worked in logistics importing lawnmowers and jacuzzis from China. Now he’s on a mission to ensure any two businesses can trade regardless of distance or regulatory hurdles. His freight forwarding and customs brokerage company is growing at a rapid clip, with its base of clients up 315 percent over the past year, the company says. Global headcount: 500 Global headquarters: San Francisco Branch out: The company does a regular “lunch roulette” where you go out to lunch with coworkers you don’t see on a daily basis. Valuation: $910 million Explore jobs at Flexport Making the connection: Organizations often spend a fortune investing in telecommunications infrastructure from the likes of AT&T and Verizon. Aryaka Networks, a SD-WAN provider, is disrupting those telecom giants by providing a networking option that eliminates hardware and helps control costs with a pay-as-you-use model. The end result is seamless connectivity that’s optimized for cloud-based applications and global access. Global headcount: More than 300 Global headquarters: San Mateo, Calif. Loyal employees: The average employee tenure at Aryaka Networks is 2.7 years, the longest of all the companies on the list, according to LinkedIn data. Total funding: $120 million Explore jobs at Aryaka Networks The visual search engine: Seven years after the company’s debut, it’s still hard to nail down exactly what Pinterest is: it’s part social network, part scrapbook, part catalog of ideas. But, increasingly, it’s defining itself as a search company — one that hopes to offer marketers an alternative to ad behemoths like Google. The company is expected to generate $500 million in ad revenue this year, up from $300 million in 2016. Global headcount: 1,200 Global headquarters: San Francisco Just getting started: Pinterest believes most of its site “hasn’t been built yet,” so this year it launched Pinterest Labs, a collaboration with researchers, scientists, engineers and universities to take on the biggest problems in machine learning and artificial intelligence. Valuation: $12.3 billion Explore jobs at Pinterest Follow Working to save lives: Since launching a year ago, GRAIL has attracted a whopping $1 billion in funding from Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos and some of the biggest companies in healthcare. The company's goal is to detect cancer early, when it's possible to cure. To do that, it’s attracted world-class geneticists and biostatisticians, and launched one of the largest clinical research programs in genomic health, with studies enrolling more than 130,000 people. Global headcount: 250 Global headquarters: Menlo Park, Calif. Expert leader: CEO Bill Rastetter co-invented one of the world’s most valuable cancer therapies, and has won praise for his work in academia. He held multiple faculty positions at MIT and won the award for “Excellence in the Teaching of Chemistry” at Harvard. Total funding: $1 billion Explore jobs at GRAIL Follow Growth hackers: Duo Security, the first of five cybersecurity companies on the list, provides features like two-factor authentication and secure single sign-on to clients as diverse as Facebook, Toyota and Zillow. The 8-year-old company has been on a tear: In the last year, Duo quadrupled its user base, doubled its headcount and became cash-flow positive, it says. Global headcount: 500 Global headquarters: Ann Arbor, Mich. Local flavor: The Ann Arbor, Mich.-based company embraces its Midwestern roots by enforcing a “no jerks” policy and gives each employee a personal candy pack from Zingerman’s, the famous local deli, on the first day. Valuation: $1.17 billion Explore jobs at Duo Security The Silicon Valley university: On a mission to democratize education, Udacity offers courses designed by companies like Google and Salesforce that teach professionals the foundational skills needed to land jobs as web developers, mobile developers or data scientists — all at a fraction of the cost of normal universities. Global headcount: 500 Global headquarters: Mountain View, Calif. Driving diversity: If you thought you couldn’t get a degree in self-driving cars, think again. Udacity recently created a scholarship with Lyft for its new Intro to Self-Driving Cars program to help make the field more accessible. Valuation: $1 billion Explore jobs at Udacity The Yelp for enterprise software: With nearly 250,000 verified user reviews for software and services, G2 Crowd is making it simple to find the best business technology based on people’s real experience, acting as a Yelp for enterprise software. There’s one big difference from the consumer-focused review site: G2 Crowd doesn’t sell any ads. Instead, it uses its data to provide for-purchase research reports. Global headcount: 120 Global headquarters: Chicago Personalized welcome: If you land one of G2 Crowd’s 130 forecasted job openings over the next year, expect to see your personal Bitmoji hanging at the entrance to the office on your first day. Valuation: $300 million Explore jobs at G2 Crowd Modern mortgage making: Blend provides mortgage lenders the digital tools they need to make home loan applications faster, smarter and more secure. The company, which says its clients control about 25 percent of the $10 trillion mortgage lending industry, has helped process $57 billion in applications so far this year. Global headcount: 200 Global headquarters: San Francisco Humble beginnings: Blend CEO and founder Nima Ghamsari attributes his foray into entrepreneurship to his first job at McDonald’s. “The one thing it teaches everyone is that most jobs are not glamorous, and you have to do whatever it takes to get by,” he told LinkedIn. Valuation: $500 million Explore jobs at Blend Moving on: Opendoor wants to cure your real estate woes by making it possible to sell your home online quickly — no real estate listing necessary. The company, which also operates its own mortgage business, buys your home directly then resells it. Opendoor is active in Phoenix, Dallas-Fort Worth, Las Vegas and Atlanta with plans to expand to two new markets before year end, it says. Global headcount: 415 Global headquarters: San Francisco Undercover employee: All new hires act as Opendoor secret shoppers in order to experience the service first-hand, using the app to enter a home and explore as if they were potential buyers. Valuation: $1 billion Explore jobs at Opendoor Follow Military grade security: Fighting hackers is no easy task, but Boston-based Cybereason is equipped for the challenge. Many of its employees served in the Israel Defense Forces’ cybersecurity unit and now use similar tactics to protect its clients. The company’s endpoint detection platform finds attackers’ vulnerabilities after they’ve infiltrated an organization, letting companies know if they are under attack and how to quickly stop the threat. Global headcount: 325 Global headquarters: Boston Perk alert: Cybereason offers employees unlimited vacation, reimbursement for commuting expenses, free lunch and an employee referral bonus of up to $5,000. Valuation: $999 million Explore jobs at Cybereason Follow Protection on all fronts: Cylance is one of the world’s first companies to provide an antivirus platform built on machine learning and artificial intelligence. It uses its next-generation technology to proactively protect companies like Panasonic and Gap Inc., as well as the U.S. government and even consumer home devices, from malware attacks. Global headcount: 805 Global headquarters: Irvine, Calif. The motive: On a flight to Australia in 1989, Founder & CEO Stuart McClure faced a near-death experience when the flight incurred devastating damage en route that cost eight other passengers their lives. Since that day, McClure told LinkedIn, his life’s passion has been “to find and fix the problems introduced by technology to prevent bad stuff from happening to innocent people.” Valuation: $1 billion Explore jobs at Cylance Follow Making headlines: Cybersecurity company CrowdStrike was the first to point a finger at Russia after its investigation of the Democratic National Committee email hack prior to the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Since then, it’s capitalized on the surging interest in online security to raise new funding (another $100 million in May) and to sign on ever-more clients. CrowdStrike tells LinkedIn that more than 10 percent of the Fortune 1000 now leverage its tech and services. Global headcount: 760 Global headquarters: Sunnyvale, Calif. In-person intro: The company flies all new hires in from around the world to meet with execs and learn about company's strategic direction in person. Valuation: $1.01 billion Explore jobs at CrowdStrike Increasing efficiency: Chicago-based predictive analytics firm Uptake added more than 300 jobs this year. The company’s software analyzes sensor data to improve productivity and decrease failures across a host of industries, from aviation to energy. One example: wind farms. Uptake’s software can predict when parts on a turbine may soon need to be replaced, preventing costly outages. Global headcount: 800 Global headquarters: Chicago Your name here: Employees who submit patentable ideas for company review can be awarded up to $2,000 and named inventors if the patent is granted. Valuation: $2 billion Explore jobs at Uptake Cash, credit, or a loan: Third-party lender Affirm aims to offer shoppers an alternative at the register by providing quick and easy personal loans with fixed monthly payments. The company recently announced it’s available at checkout with more than 1,000 merchants, up from 100 a year ago, often for higher-priced merchandise like furniture and electronics. Global headcount: 280 Global headquarters: San Francisco Origin story: Despite just having sold PayPal to eBay for $1.5 billion in 2012, Max Levchin couldn’t get approved for a car loan. He was haunted by minor credit issues racked up in college. The experience proved to him that FICO scores weren’t useful for determining credit worthiness and helped birth the idea for Affirm, where he’s co-founder and CEO. Valuation: $781 million Explore jobs at Affirm New foundation: Construction projects rarely finish early or under budget. Katerra wants to streamline the process — by owning all of it. With its model, developers don’t parcel out work to contractors who in turn subcontract again, which inflates costs. Katerra oversees everything, from design to materials sourcing and assembly. Its Phoenix, Ariz., manufacturing facility can build a 24-unit apartment building every two weeks. Global headcount: 850 Global headquarters: Menlo Park, Calif. Who it’s hiring: The company writes that it looks for employees who can “think big, and lead from any seat.” Another core corporate value: frugality. As the company looks to trim costs from the construction process, one cultural principle is working “in the most cost-efficient manner possible.” Valuation: $1 billion Explore jobs at Katerra Ding-dong: Video doorbell company Ring turns your smartphone into a surveillance hub, sending you a live feed of your front door. The company, rejected by judges on “Shark Tank” in 2013, went on to generate an estimated $160 million in sales last year. It recently expanded into other user-friendly home security products like floodlight cameras. Global headcount: 1,500 Global headquarters: Santa Monica, Calif. Doing battle: In his quest to stay ahead of competitors, CEO Jamie Siminoff treats employees as “confidants in war,” the LA Times reported, “bestowing them with dog-tag-style security badges inscribed with name, start date and title.” Another corporate rarity: Ring’s dozens of team leaders have nearly full autonomy — no mandatory management meetings or even budgets — to encourage speed and innovation. Valuation: $431 million Explore jobs at Ring Rethinking real estate: Convene designs and operates corporate meeting spaces, and sees its business model as much more, calling it “workplace as a service.” The company amps up the cool factor of average office buildings by adding high-end touches more common in luxury hotels like microbrew coffee shops and farm-to-table meals. It brought in $40.7 million in revenue in 2016, up from $28.9 million the prior year. Global headcount: 320 Global headquarters: New York City Coffee talk: Within a month of starting at Convene, every new hire meets with one or both of the company’s co-founders to chat over coffee. They also receive a giant chocolate business card with their name on it. Total funding: $113.5 million Explore jobs at Convene Follow Open classroom: Online education giant Coursera offers a multitude of digital courses on topics from cryptocurrency to game theory. It has grown to over 28 million users globally and is adding nearly a half million new users every month, the company told LinkedIn. Coursera is committed to amping up the technical skills of underemployed people worldwide, often partnering directly with governments to close the skills gap. Global headcount: 300 Global headquarters: Mountain View, Calif. Hit the books: Employees enjoy free Coursera courses as well as time during working hours to meet with colleagues in study groups. Valuation: $800 million Explore jobs at Coursera Follow Customized: Online styling service Stitch Fix pairs customers with its more than 3,000 personal stylists to gauge wardrobe needs and dispatch regular boxes stuffed with clothes, shoes, and accessories. There is a strict separation between the company’s merchandising and data teams to ensure its recommendation algorithms get just the right products into customers’ hands. Global headcount: 5,800 Global headquarters: San Francisco On the market: The company recently filed for its much-anticipated IPO; it reported$977 million in revenue in its most recent fiscal year and lost $594,000, although it was profitable in previous years. Valuation: $314 million Explore jobs at Stitch Fix Follow Alibaba of the West: Wish, a mobile commerce app, connects shoppers directly with the suppliers of everything from down jackets to wireless chargers. This direct access to manufacturers, many of which are in China, means cheaper prices and a huge selection: the site has tens of millions of listed products. Global headcount: 310 Global headquarters: San Francisco Making money: The 7-year-old startup has raised over $1 billion in funding from the likes of Founders Fund and GGV Capital. That bet may pay off. Wish has an annual run rate in the “middle single billions” and is profitable, according to Joe Lonsdale, an investor in the company. Valuation: $3 billion Explore jobs at Wish Follow Wooing millennials: Online brokerage Robinhood lets members make trades without paying any fees, an appealing proposition for many first-time traders. "Free is pretty difficult,” says co-founder Baiju Bhatt, noting that most of the company’s employees are software engineers focused on building automation into the system to ensure customers can easily trade without human guidance or intervention. Global headcount: 100 Global headquarters: Palo Alto, Calif. On the rise: Robinhood doubled its base to 2 million users in the past year, and Bhatt estimates that 90 percent are under age 40. The company expects to double its headcount next year to keep up with the growth. Valuation: $1.3 billion Explore jobs at Robinhood Follow Threats thwarted: Cybersecurity company Darktrace uses AI and machine learning to defend enterprise networks. Rather than building perimeters to keep hackers out, it looks at what normal behavior is in a system and raises alarms when something deviates. The company was founded by mathematicians from the University of Cambridge. Global headcount: 600 Global headquarters: Cambridge, UK Unsolved problem: Darktrace has raised $180.5 million in total, including a new $75 million funding round earlier this year, putting its valuation near unicorn territory. Its more than 3,500 customers include even water-supply systems, eager for help. “The problem of cybersecurity is still unsolved,” CEO Nicole Eagan told Bloomberg TV. Valuation: $825 million Follow Get connected: Sprout Social is an enterprise social media management platform that helps companies with the often chaotic task of tending to their presence across multiple social networks. More than 19,000 brands currently use Sprout, and the company has been expanding both its workforce and its capabilities to meet demand. Sprout grew its headcount by 80 percent since September 2016 and added features like Instagram scheduling and a built-in image editor. Global headcount: 400 Global headquarters: Chicago Access to the top: All new employees meet with Sprout CEO Justyn Howard shortly after starting. They can ask questions and hear straight from the top boss about the company’s values and vision. Valuation: $500 million, according to the company. Explore jobs at Sprout Social Follow Powerhouse partnership: Hyperloop One recently announced an investment from and partnership with Virgin Group that gives Richard Branson a board seat and rebrands the startup: Meet Virgin Hyperloop One. The company, which remains independent, will be able to tap into Virgin’s expertise in operations, safety and passenger experience as it looks to commercialize its first hyperloop systems as early as 2021. Global headcount: 300 Global headquarters: Los Angeles Farther and faster: Virgin Hyperloop One’s autonomous system uses electric propulsion through a low-pressure tube, which could reach airplane-equivalent speeds once fully developed. In a second phase of testing in July, its XP-1 pod reached 190 mph and a maximum distance of 1,433 feet, going farther and faster than its initial runs in May. Valuation: $700 million Explore jobs at Virgin Hyperloop One Follow Data driven: Snowflake Computing is a pay-as-you-go data warehouse for the cloud. The 5-year-old company boasts clients like Adobe, Capital One and Sony Pictures and says its sales have increased 300 percent in the past year while its workforce roughly doubled. It raised $105 million earlier this year, bringing its total funding to $210 million, in part to open more sales offices worldwide. It tells LinkedIn it expects to add another 300 jobs next year, a move that would again double the size of the company. Global headcount: 280 Global headquarters: San Mateo, Calif. Warm welcome: In a personal touch at the weekly all-hands meeting, CEO Bob Muglia introduces each new employee, asking them to stand as their colleagues provide thunderous applause and cheers. Valuation: $500 million Explore jobs at Snowflake Computing Follow AI to the rescue: ThoughtSpot is an analytics platform that aims to take the pain out of using business intelligence tools. Its AI-powered software lets users ask questions in everyday language, similar to a Google search. Customers include Chevron, Capital One and OpenTable, with the company aiming for 20 million users by 2020. Global headcount: 220 Global headquarters: Palo Alto, Calif. In it together: Co-founder and CEO Ajeet Singh describes himself as “Chief Coffee Maker” and sees his job as being there to help others, even if it's just brewing another pot. ThoughtSpot’s commitment to “selfless excellence” extends into a Slack channel where employees can applaud each other for good deeds. Valuation: $417 million Explore jobs at ThoughtSpot Follow Offline marketing magic: Zenreach has transformed free wifi from a service into a tool: brick-and-mortar businesses can collect the email, demographic information and visit behavior of customers just by inviting them to log onto in-store wifi. Companies can then use that information to better target marketing campaigns to the right consumers at the right time. Global headcount: 220 Global headquarters: San Francisco Star-studded cast: Zenreach has raised $80 million in funding and collected a star-studded list of investors, including Peter Thiel, Kevin Durant and Ashton Kutcher. Valuation: $193 million Explore jobs at Zenreach Follow Keeping data safe: Storing, protecting and analyzing data is big business, and multiple enterprise startups are competing to own the space. Cohesity has been rapidly gaining momentum with its proprietary technology that allows companies to streamline their backup and data protection while delivering real-time analytics. Its products have wooed the likes of Cisco and Hewlett Packard Enterprise, which are both investors. Global headcount: 210 Global headquarters: Santa Clara, Calif. Bonding on the beach: Last December, CEO and founder Mohit Aron paid for all employees and their families to vacation in Hawaii to celebrate the 4-year-old company’s rapid growth. Valuation: $537 million Explore jobs at Cohesity Follow Customer service meets business insight: Pendo is making that ubiquitous — and loathed — emailed customer feedback survey obsolete. Its software leverages in-app surveys, polls and analytics to give product developers more detailed user feedback. Revenue is up 400 percent compared to a year ago, Pendo told LinkedIn. Global headcount: 150 Global headquarters: Raleigh, N.C. Better than Bitmoji: The Raleigh, N.C.-based startup plans to double in size this year, with an estimated 150 job openings planned for the next year. New hires can look forward to their own hand-illustrated avatar that lives on Pendo’s website and their own personal coffee mug. Total funding: $56 million, according to the company. Explore jobs at Pendo Follow Know your customer: Moda Operandi is redefining what it means to be a luxury shopper in a digital age, allowing customers to pre-order clothing, accessories and jewelry straight from the runway online. New this year is Moda Operandi Madison, a private boutique off of New York’s Madison Avenue for exclusive events and appointments. Global headcount: 200 Global headquarters: New York City Happy (furry) employees: Dogs are welcome in the office anytime, including at Moda Operandi’s weekly Friday happy hours. Biped employees also get bonus and equity at every level. Valuation: $330 million Explore jobs at Moda Operandi Follow Open-source operation: Databricks is helping companies like Salesforce, Viacom and Shell accelerate innovation by unifying analytics across engineering teams, data scientists and business partners. The company was founded by the creators of the open-source processing engine Apache Spark and is committed to continuing that open tradition. Databricks believes “that no computing platform will win in the big data space unless it is fully open.” Global headcount: 220 Global headquarters: San Francisco This is the droid you’re looking for: Databricks employees enjoy free catered lunch every day, Boba tea twice a week and the chance to spot an R2D2 model around the office daily. Valuation: $856 million Explore jobs at Databricks Follow Easier apps: Skuid is a champion of the better user experience, believing that low adoption rates of business software traces back to bad UX. Based in Chattanooga, Tenn., Skuid’s platform lets businesses build analytics apps with a drag-and-drop interface instead of coding. It scored a $25 million investment this year from Iconiq, the family wealth manager of tech titans like Mark Zuckerberg. Global headcount: 175 Global headquarters: Chattanooga, Tenn. Health, ensured: Skuid covers 100 percent of insurance premiums for its employees and their dependents. Total funding: $35.62 million Explore jobs at Skuid Following Taking the pulse: Glint attempts to go beyond the employee-happiness survey of old. One of its newest products, Narrative Intelligence, uses AI to analyze employee comments and provide a visual map of what employees care about. HR execs rejoice: No more reading through thousands of survey comments. Global headcount: 130 Global headquarters: Redwood City, Calif. Walk the talk: Based on its own employee feedback, Glint has added programs like No Meeting Wednesdays, volunteer opportunities and adjustable-height desks for all employees. Total funding: $119.17 million Explore jobs at Glint Follow Standardizing software: Docker is an open-source platform that allows developers and system administrators to build, ship and run distributed applications. Its container-as-a-service platform packages software into standardized units for easier access by teams and clients, which can speed up software shipments as much as 7x for companies, according to Docker. Global headcount: 325 Global headquarters: San Francisco Who needs groceries: Employees at Docker can help themselves to lunch, dinner, snacks, and bottomless cups of coffee at the office. Valuation: $1.3 billion Explore jobs at Docker Follow Making free services pay: Credit Karma built a profitable business providing free credit reports, credit monitoring services, and — in the wake of the Equifax breach — free ID monitoring. Its services have attracted 75 million users to date, including almost half of all American millennials, according to the company. This year the fintech startup topped $500 million in revenue and opened new offices in Charlotte and Los Angeles. Global headcount: More than 700 Global headquarters: San Francisco Recharge in the office: Perks include an on-site spa for manicures and pedicures, nap nooks and dedicated rooms for music jam sessions, art creation and retro arcade games. Valuation: $3.5 billion Explore jobs at Credit Karma Follow Better sleep, wherever: Direct-to-consumer mattress maker Casper has gone beyond its flagship single product. It introduced products like a humidity fighting duvet, an adjustable bed frame and a dog bed. Casper has also gone offline in a big way this year, launching a roving “bedmobile,” retail pop-ups and a Target partnership that puts its products in stores across the U.S. Global headcount: 350 Global headquarters: New York City Sleeping on the job: New employees receive a full suite of Casper sleep products, from the mattress to pillows to sheets, to ensure they are well-rested. If mid-afternoon sleepiness hits, they also have access to office nap pods for a quick snooze. Valuation: $920 million Explore jobs at Casper Follow Making search flexible: Elastic believes that good things come from connecting the dots — lots and lots of them. The company builds open-source data software for easier search, logging, security and analytics in real-time. Elastic’s products have been downloaded more than 150 million times and its community has grown to more than 100,000 developers across 100 countries. Global headcount: 600 Global headquarters: Mountain View, Calif. Distributed talent: Elastic searches far and wide for the best tech talent regardless of location — and embraces a distributed workforce model. The company started with employees in places like Amsterdam, London, Prague and Barcelona. Valuation: $700 million Explore jobs at Elastic Reported by: Chip Cutter, Susan Jackson, Laura Lorenzetti and Ashley Peterson Corrections: Valuations and funding for Sprout Social, Udacity, Aryaka Networks, Convoy, Pinterest and Cylance have been updated with information directly from the company. Global headcounts for Ring, Darktrace, Pinterest and Airbnb have been updated. WeWork recently acquired Flatiron School; it was incorrectly stated as the company's first acquisition.
    观点
    2017年11月05日
  • 观点
    英文阅读:(人工智能与人力资源)AI and human understanding will win the war for talent 简单讲就是AI人工智能与人力资源是一个好的结合点,尤其是招聘面试的时候,AI可以更好的帮忙搜索简历,进行人才搜寻。 同时面试的时候可以用人工智能的聊天机器人与候选人进行基础的面试管理安排以及与面试官进行协作。这块国内专注面试管理服务的优面宝已经开始这方面的工作。在前期职位分析与人才匹配阶段国内很多招聘服务机构也开始了各种的AI机器人的工作。 一切都在路上!人工智能在人力资源上的机会刚刚开始! One of the most well known tropes in startup and tech culture is that your business is only as good as the team behind it. You can’t do anything without having a strong team, and the most important job for every manager is to hire quality talent that fits into the preexisting team dynamics. The HR and recruiting industry has dedicated itself to finding the people who are right for your company, but the process of skimming resumes and calling in highly rated candidates for an interview hasn’t changed for the past decade or so. However, the newest trend, AI, is infiltrating all industries. While it might be a very good thing, you shouldn’t put all your hiring eggs in that AI basket. The best solution combines the strengths of HR and AI. AI in the hiring process We’ve all been hearing (and reading) about how AI will completely take over our lives. We’ve also been frightened into thinking it will soon replace all of us. While the job of getting people jobs will not be replaced by AI anytime soon, the tech can offer major improvements to the process. To find the right talent, you need to have the ability to scan resumes quickly, read people immediately, and imagine the future of the applicant sitting in front of you. While some of that work can be replaced by AI, currently we are nowhere near an AI that can read people and assess their fit within the culture of the workplace. But some of the processes for finding the right people to join your company — such as immediately asking for more information, screening, and highlighting special candidates — can be done more quickly and efficiently with AI. The integration of AI is not just about saving the company time and resources. It also saves time and uncertainty for the candidate. Getting back to top talent to set up an interview a week from now is the best way to have them move on to the next opportunity. If you can provide instantaneous feedback on every application, you get a leg up over other companies looking to snag that candidate, instead of wasting their time and missing a hire. Onboarding with chatbots The optimal way to maximize efficiency is combining human and technological resources. A chatbot can onboard new candidates as quickly as possible, as opposed to a form that might never get filled out. If you build a real AI chat bot, you can give candidates real-time feedback on their applications and ask questions to gather information before any interview is scheduled. The bot can even automatically analyze the candidate’s resume and information while onboarding and give them real-time responses relevant to them, making sure that the right people get called in for an interview and that the interviewer has the right information before even asking the first question. After the chatbot has done its job and flagged the relevant candidates according to your parameters, the human element kicks in. Hiring managers don’t have to read the whole resume, supporting documents, and answers to a questionnaire because AIs can create a personalized summary of documents. The AI behind the hiring process can create a five-bullet summary of everything that’s important to know about each candidate. It can even set up the interview on its own. This means even small companies where C-level executives do the hiring don’t waste time on pre-interview screening, and interviewers have concise information about each candidate before they walk in the room. The interview is where the human intelligence and expertise shine. Things like a candidate’s cultural fit, connection, and ability to work with others, along with the hiring manager’s overall impression of a person, are vital. Humans can focus on what they do best and automate the rest. The future of AI in recruiting At the end of the day, hiring a person doesn’t just hinge on facts and figures, it depends on who they are. And that’s something AIs still can’t assess. But the process of going through those facts and figures to see if someone is qualified can certainly be automated by an intelligent bot. The value is increased by the fact that you can onboard and convert candidates quickly, meaning top talent will be more likely to work for you and you’ll take less time filling important positions at your company. The combination of AI and human understanding is what hiring managers need to win the war on talent — and save a few dollars, as well as time. Moritz Kothe is the chief executive officer of kununu, a place to find and share workplace insights.
    观点
    2017年11月04日
  • 观点
    有法务赵小彬:法律服务增量市场源于各行业创新业务 “中国的私人律师什么时候普及?”采访有法务时,笔者问了这个问题。 在有法务创始人赵小彬看来,答案是至少十年。赵小彬说:“一方面,中国文化以和为贵,排斥诉讼,人们更倾向靠关系解决问题。另一方面,大众法律意识不强,法律是讲求证据的,很多诉讼人没有证据,律师反倒做了无谓的心理安慰工作。”正因如此, 赵小彬在创业时就决定要做B端的生意。 B端法律服务行业的创新热潮 赵小彬曾于德恒(深圳)律师事务所做律师,之后进入微信法务部任职近4年。2015年他创立有法务(ULegal),公司定位于向垂直行业公司提供互联网法律服务。作为经历丰富的法律人,赵小彬看到了行业存在的深层问题: 一、客户越来越多,付费意愿却越来越低,尤其面对互联网免费服务的洗脑; 二、律师越来越多,却重复信息不对称的生意,互联网打破信息不对称是一条必然的趋势; 三、企业服务市场互相交叉,法律服务的创新也需要从整体企业服务中去跨界。 困难就是机遇,在互联网的冲击下,各行业信息愈加透明,法律行业也不例外,因此,拥抱互联网成为共识。此外,由于各个行业涌现出创新业务,例如互联网金融的爆发、内容付费的兴起等,这些趋势对法律服务也提出了创新的需求。 反观供给端,法律服务行业可以分为几个大类: 第一类、法律电商。也就是法律服务的撮合平台,上游找法律服务供应商,下游找需求方,代表企业有易法通、快法务等,这些平台也是有法务的上游; 第二类、做细分市场。比如只做法律证据这个一个环节,比如把电子凭证做到极致。又或者是专注于法律行业的某些模块,比如做司法数据库、股权激励管理工具等,这一类公司大都会用到大数据和人工智能技术; 第三类、律师事务所转型,本质上是线下律师事务所加上了网络营销,增加线上获客的能力。这一类的公司数量巨大,但也遵从二八法则,其中真正理解互联网营销,并能和原有业务结合好的事务所较少。 第四类、同有法务一样的互联网法律服务公司。从互联网业务起家,80%的业务可以通过互联网解决,因此更擅长于服务创新业务,客户也多为泛互联网行业的公司。 因此,ULegal并不做原有法律服务的电商渠道,跟律师事务所业务不完全冲突。 在赵小彬看来,有法务所在赛道是整个法律服务市场的行业延展,更注重对于服务新平台的创新。 “新平台的创新产生了大量的原有体系规则的破坏,大量新的交易的达成以及新规则体系搭建的需求,更有大量的潜在纠纷的风险。ULegal瞄准的正是这些新的行业平台规则搭建和纠纷解决的市场。” 赵小彬表示,因为其新兴领域的行业门槛、效率要求、低付费意愿等特点,这类新平台的“法律服务”还暂时没有成为传统律师行业的服务对象,可以相对避开律师行业的竞争。 专注于服务创新行业客户 具体到业务层面,ULegal的核心目标用户是互联网企业及行业平台,客户集中在内容、游戏、互联网金融、电商等行业。商业模式分为提供标准法律产品和法律服务。 其中,标准产品是考虑到法律服务市场“低风险”、“高粘性“的特性,发现并抽离细分行业风险特性,打造内容产业(版权)、互金平台(逾期)、交易平台(违约)等特定行业可复制的法律服务产品。 法律服务则根据业务创新程度又细分为两类: 一、传统法律服务的转型:主要是已有法律服务如股权、融资、合同、合规等刚需高频的需求的对接,然后咨询、合同等最高频需求的系统化提高效率,降低人的因素的错误率和成本,提升服务体验。同时提供给专业律师向行业性法务转型的机会。 二、新兴领域法律产品的创新:在行业服务中找出最容易切入的行业领域问题,如内容产业版权、交易平台违约、互联网金融逾期等,结合金融和仲裁合作方及玩法,找到可复制的风险解决方案,实现法务服务的插件化嵌入和流程化,提供例如互联网产品合规、APP及公众号收购等新业务。 有法务在2016年获腾讯双百战略投资入股,在当年腾讯818创业节上,获得2016腾讯全球合伙伙伴大会腾讯创业节优秀服务商,现付费企业用户10000+,业务覆盖全国。   来源:亿欧 作者:宋少卿
    观点
    2017年11月02日
  • 观点
    微软说 MR 重新定义了“工作”,HoloLens 也将进入29个新欧洲市场 本文作者:田苗 来源:雷锋网 11 月 1 日,记者了解,微软 HoloLens 和 Windows Experiences 总经理 Lorraine Bardeen 在官网上发表博文,他讲到混合现实 MR 在现代工作场景中更多应用的可能性,同时,随着市场对 MR 的需求增加,微软 HoloLens 也将进入 29 个新的欧洲市场。 他表示,微软曾推出不少技术,如 Microsoft 365、Microsoft HoloLens、Windows Mixed Reality 等,来帮助公司,一线工作者工作,让现代工作向数字化转变。 他特别谈到,微软对混合现实在现代工作场景中的应用,十分看好。 微软想做的是,让地球上的每个人和机构能完成更多的事情。MR 便有这样的潜能,帮助消费者和企业去完成一些不可能的事情。MR 让企业员工更快、更安全、更有效地完成关键工作,并且创建与消费者和合作伙伴联系的新方式。 记者在他的博文中读到,如同农业革命加速了农业生产,工业革命产生了新的生产方式,而数字革命已经重新定义了工作的含义。人们的智慧,富有创造性的问题解决方式,以及合作的技能正在重新定义何为“工作”。这也就产生了对可支持新的工作方式的技术需求。 对于一线工作者来说,他们经常直接接触到消费者,是第一个展示公司品牌的人,也是第一个向外界展示产品和服务的人。他们是企业的支柱,但是很大程度上却被技术低估了价值所在。而混合显示将帮助他们同新技术一起工作,解决问题,以及交流。 对于信息工作者,混合现实将帮助他们更好的合作和远程工作,他们可以更自然地与数字世界交互。有了混合现实,工作者们可在几秒内改变内容,改变人们,甚至是变换会议场景。混合现实呈现的界面可帮助工作者直接在仪表盘或信息设备生成的数据上工作,并且与真实世界中的其他事物无缝连接。 博文中 Lorraine Bardeen 正式宣布 HoloLens 将进入 29 个新的欧洲市场,至此 HoloLesn 上市的市场达到 39 个。目前,一些企业已经使用了混合现实工作,如福特汽车,全球著名的医疗公司史塞克(Stryker),钢铁公司 thyssenkrupp。 那么具体的工作场景中,混合现实能实现的功能有哪些呢? 远程助手,与远程专家合作,实时在真实的空间中完成任务; 训练,创建定制化第一人称视角的训练手册,以及对新产品、流程和设备的分步指南; 设计,计划和布置空间,与他人协作,无需真实的模型进行设计; 3D 办公,3D 内容制作,将电脑屏幕的内容与混合现实体验对接; MR 数据&分析。 国内微软 HoloLens 的销售价格 HoloLens 已通过北美和欧洲防护眼镜标准,并且遵循 ANSI Z87.1、CSA Z94.3 和 EN 166 最常规防护眼镜证书标准。同时,防尘防水级别达到 IP50。为了工作人员的安全,明年初微软还将推出一款 HoloLens 安全帽。 此外, Lorraine Bardeen 还提到微软在软件层面对 HoloLens 的支持。例如 Windows 10 支持 3D 内容创建,而 Windows 10 秋季创新者版本也提供了更完善的 3D 制作工具和资源。 记者了解到,目前商业版套装和开发者版本的 HoloLens 已经可通过微软商店购买。微软也为开发者和寻求 MR 解决方案的合作伙伴提供了专门的渠道(可查看微软官方网站)。
    观点
    2017年11月02日
  • 观点
    AI与云端HR的强强结合能颠覆整个人才管理系统? 随着越来越多的公司将其人力资本管理(HCM)系统与数据迁移到云中,他们不再只是满足于获得经济效益,并实现实时的数据访问。如今,他们希望自身的云端HCM可以与AI进行结合,以实现实时决策、提升客户服务和改善员工体验。 收益?那些能够有效结合AI和云端HCM的人可能会发现自己将具有明显的竞争优势。 在最近Oracle于旧金山召开的OpenWorld的大会上,IBM全球人才与参与业务服务伙伴Duke Daehling告诉与会者,大部分的未来公司将以人才为中心,并以AI为动力。Daehling强调,如果公司想要跟上业务、技术以及工作模式的发展,那么这是他们的唯一选择。 “我们正在进入一个新时代,”Daehling说道。“事物的变化从来未向如今这样快,而且还会更快。” AI驱动的人才管理的四大优势   Daehling表示,未来以人才为中心并通过AI赋能的公司将在四个关键领域享受优势: 1、公司将能够对员工工作内容与方式进行重新成像,以便解决相应的时间管理,据Daehling所述,管理者所花费的时间中有大约60%都浪费在了与他们无关的任务上; 2、公司可以通过使用实时数据以实现员工和业务表现的预测,并将由此生成的洞察与见解交与决策者,从而实现客观的决策; 3、公司可以用数据来对他们的人才战略进行验证,以对招聘工作进行更好的定位,从而可以引进最优秀的员工; 4、借助云端HCM和AI赋能,公司能够为员工带来更多“以人为本”的体验。比如,如果公司了解到消费者在学习中更有可能进行产品消费,那么为什么他们不把同样的想法带入招聘过程中? Daehling曾参与到Hilton集团与陆路货运公司YRC Worldwide的高管会议中。 IBM与这两家公司均分享了他们利用AI与云端HCM系统组合的方法以及期望的目标。 例如,Hilton集团正在开发一套全球人力资源和人才获取系统,该系统运行于Oracle的HCM Cloud,并将于今年晚些时候为Hilton在美国、英国和爱尔兰的1000多处酒店招聘到8万名员工。Hilton数字人力资源与战略规划副总裁Kellie Romack说道,这套全新的系统正在取代公司长期依赖的PeopleSoft本地部署系统。新系统将通过AI功能帮助公司对每年超过7万个职位的申请人建立进行整理与归档。 实际上,这会对员工造成大量的困扰,招聘人员往往需要花费大量时间来寻找与筛查出候选人,比如一份调查所示,52%的受访者认为招聘工作中最难的部分就是从大量的申请人中选出一份候选人名单。此外,Hilton还希望AI能够解放其呼叫中心的员工,让他们不必再去回答客户重复性的问题,从而他们可以专注于进行更复杂的查询支持服务。 同样,全球货运服务公司YRC也打算将AI的元素带入自己的云中。公司CIO Jason Ringgenberg说道,该公司将于今年上线Oracle的HCM和ERP系统,并计划于2018年增加工资和人才管理系统。 对于YRC来说,做出IT资源上云的决定是必要的,因为YRC自身的数据中心已经严重老化,而且为了实现链接前端应用和后端PeopleSoft系统,其IT人员在页面编写时花费了过多的时间。 而之后,当YRC完成了云部署后,公司还希望AI能够帮其实现两个人力资源相关的目标:员工留存和驾驶员安全。对于前者,Ringgenberg表示,YRC的管理层希望其云HCM系统能够降低员工流失。“你可以使用HCM云中的数据来预测司机会长时间留在这里的可能性吗?”Ringgenberg说道,这是公司希望AI可以帮助其HCM系统解决的一个问题。 同时,Ringgenberg还提到,利用AI数据分析可以帮助公司确定评估道路状况以确定是否需要更改运输时间表,从而保护驾驶员的安全。通过分析这些状况与条件,公司可以实时决定是否需要让卡车驶离道路或是让终端管理程序与驾驶员进行安全协议。这样公司可以减少与避免事故的发生,而更少的事故意味更好的潜在风险与问题。 一个内部的使用案例:IBM Watson 鉴于Hilton和YRC均希望建立其以人才为中心并通过AI赋能的HCM的系统以希望在未来的市场中继续成为行业主导,他们可以以IBM Watson作为系统内部使用的参照。 作为一家在172个国家拥有380000名员工的IT服务和软硬件供应商,IBM一直致力于在内部进行AI技术的使用。对此Daehling提到了几个例子,比如Watson中的IBM Job Finder,其旨在帮助求职者找到合适的职位;而IBM Watson Recruitment会帮助公司找出空缺的职位会对那些员工造成更大的影响;此外还有Myca(My Career Advisor,“我的职业顾问”),该应用将帮助员工在内部进行工作的切换。 Daehling认为在商业世界中,用AI来改善工作体验可以有效缓解那些将AI视为纯粹邪恶的人的担忧。他说道,“我们不想把人变成机器人或去除人性。”“我们只想去预测员工与业务的表现,并希望在这个过程中获得竞争优势”。 当然,玩家不只是巨头公司 在AI与人力系统结合中,还有一个值得一提的公司,它便是“HR2.0”时代的佼佼者之一的SmartRecruiters。 2017年四月,SmartRecruiters在其人才获取套件中新加入了招聘AI功能。招聘AI使用人工智能技术来处理大量的招聘信息及数据,并对这些数据和信息进行解释以便招聘人员作出更好的决策。传统的ATS(申请人跟踪系统)用户体验感低并缺乏营销功能,这样使得公司的招聘效率严重低下,招聘人员往往需要花费大量时间来寻找与筛查出候选人。 而通过AI与机器学习的技术,招聘人员可以重新做回自己的“员工”的角色,因为系统可以自动的完成发现、筛选与候选人评分的工作。当招聘的过程不再费时费力时,招聘人员便可以回归他们的最本职的工作“为公司延揽最出色的人才。”这将极大地提升公司内部的多样性,并让公司和候选人都能找到心仪的对方。 同时,招聘AI还有望解决雇主的偏见问题。尽管通常是无意的,但是招聘人员总会具有一些偏见,而人工智能不会这样。招聘AI可以通过预测分析为特定工作的候选人提供公正的评估。 思考:未来属于巨头还是创业公司? 众所周知,由于数据与资金等原因的限制,对于AI的开发与应用通常还是集中于大型公司。如前文所述的Oracle与IBM这样的大体量的厂商以及Hilton和YRC这样大型的用户。但是相较于大型公司,小型的创业公司却往往具有较强的创新力与开拓力,而中小型的HCM系统用户同样也渴求着合适的人才。 在AI赋能上,很难说到底是大型公司还是中小型公司会带来更多的价值。二者各自具有自己的特点,但也有自己的缺陷。当然在这个有“一千种死法”的商业时代里,若想继续存活,在AI这种新技术领域中发力始终是一条不变的真理。
    观点
    2017年11月01日
  • 观点
    十年后,最热门的工作会是什么呢? 编者按:本文作者Marillyn Hewson是全球最大国防工业承包商洛克希德马丁(Lockheed Martin)的公司总裁兼首席执行官,她向我们介绍了未来10到20年内会有哪些职业变得热门。 我领导着全球科技最先进的一家公司,经常有人问我怎么看未来的就业环境,这个问题具体来说就是:今后10到20年里,会有哪些最热门的职业呢? 在《财富》杂志最近举办的一场年度最具影响力女性论坛上,提出了一项大议题,只不过论坛上换了一种问法:未来(很多年)会有哪些我们甚至无法想象到的工作出现? 对一些企业,这可是价值上十亿美元的重磅问题,它是面向未来培养学生和储备劳动力的关键。 当然,商场风云变幻,我们谁都不是预言家。可是,现代科技发展的潮流的确能让洛克希德马丁这样的公司做出靠谱的预测。 比方说,商界领袖正在认识到,广泛的数字领域革新正席卷整个世界,影响全球经济的方方面面。随着计算能力提高,推动制造取得进步,设计、生产、监控和维保产品的方式都会改变。 实际上,新近一份研究已经预计,到2020年,全世界的数据将增加到44 zettabytes。那么,44 zettabytes到底有多大规模呢?不妨这样类比:现在一些人常用的智能手机有32GB的数据容量,大概需要440亿部这种容量的手机才能装得下一个zettabytes的数据。(注:1zettabytes约等于1万亿GB) 展望未来,我们可能无从得知会出现具体哪些工作岗位,却肯定知道,随着用人单位越来越依赖数字科学和人机合作,我们会需要机敏又有创意的员工,他们要有深厚的科学、数学、研究、技术和各类工程领域背景。 基于这样的考量,我认为,以下工作会对未来世界发展尤为重要: •自动化工程师:科技改变了人机合作的方式,因此自动化直升飞机、水下载具和飞行系统的需求将继续增长。随着这一领域发展,对人工智能和机器学习领域的专家将有很高需求。自动化工程师来自多种工程分支,包括软件和系统工程。自动化领域前途不可限量:整个行业越是进步,自动化工程师就有更多机会创造更智能化、更好的系统。 •数据科学家:数据科学家研究一组组体量庞大的数据,探寻它们有什么样的模式、彼此有什么关系。从技术开发到提高试点性能,他们收集的信息能对各方面提供有可行性的深入了解。数学、作业研究、计算机学、工程学等多类教育背景的人都可以从事这种工作。 •射频工程师:这类工程师以一切收发射频的事物为工作对象,包括Wi-Fi和手机。这是一个很广阔的数据科学领域。比如可以研究航天器的天线、导弹或者飞机传感器系统。这份工作可能是最适合喜欢当“万金油”的人。只要有雄厚的电气工程、数学或者系统工程学背景,就保证能获得这样的工作。 •量子信息科学家:虽然还方兴未艾,但量子计算技术潜在的发展速度足以将智能手机、平板电脑和台式电脑都远远甩在身后。这项新技术可能一次性研究所有可能的解决方案,从而针对最棘手的问题给予最迅速的计算。这是一个多学科交叉的领域,将量子化学、量子物理、热力学和信息学与计算机学融于一炉。 •网络安全专家:我们几乎无时无刻不在听闻有关黑客、数据泄露、网络攻击的新闻报道。遗憾的是,很多人自己也尝过网络入侵和数据失窃的苦头。这类威胁将与日俱增。为了保护个人信息、全球经济和国家安全,我们在商界和政界各个领域都有网络安全人才。而且,网络安全方面的工作相对来说属于铁饭碗:据美国投资咨询机构Cybersecurity Ventures分析,该领域的失业率为零。目前这方面约有100万个空缺的工作岗位,今后将有增无减,到2021年预计约有350万个。如果想在这个日益发展壮大的重要领域找份工作,你应该考虑攻读计算机学或者计算机工程学。 事实上,我们无法预知本世纪会出现多少科技方面的挑战,这些挑战又分别属于哪些行业,但有一样可以确定:随着科技革新涌现的速度加快,科学家和工程师会拥有光明的前途,可以为之奋斗终生。 假如你想进一步了解洛克希德马丁的各类工作岗位,我欢迎你访问我们公司在视频网站YouTube的官方网页,直接倾听我司员工的心声,听取他们分享的经验。 假如你对我们提供的任何工作有兴趣,我鼓励你点击那些领域相关空缺岗位的链接。 亲爱的读者,你们觉得哪些工作在不远的将来最为重要呢?不妨在下面的评论栏里分享一下你的观点吧。 原文链接:https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/top-jobs-future-now-hiring-marillyn-hewson/ 编译组出品。编辑:郝鹏程 本文翻译自 www.linkedin.com,原文链接。如若转载请注明出处。
    观点
    2017年11月01日
  • 观点
    百亿帝国崛起史:从CRM工具裂变为SaaS巨头,独角兽Salesforce做到了   2000年,Salesforce的联合创始人创始人Marc Benioff上演了一场在硅谷难得一见的戏剧性抗议活动。 这个在当时名不见经传的CEO花钱请来了一群演员,带上“反软件”的标志聚在Siebel Systems用户会议的会场前。Siebel Systems是一家客户应用解决方案提供商,主要销售客户关系管理软件。 此举得到了关注,但当时并没有人相信Salesforce能够成为软件公司中的巨头。Business Insider曾针对抗议活动撰写过一篇报道,并讽刺Salesforce不过是蚍蜉撼树 然而,就是这样的一只“蚍蜉”帮助创造了2500亿美元的全球市场。Benioff建立企业的主旨就是软件应该通过云端全天候提供服务。Salesforce是第一个落实这一思想的企业。20世纪90年代后期,像甲骨文和SAP这样的公司还在向企业销售需要安装和升级的企业预置型软件。而现在,这些公司正在不断开发云端产品,试图赶上Salesforce的脚步。 Salesforce开发了首个云端产品——一款CRM工具,同时积极地传播公司的愿景。他们通过一个相对简单的产品向用户灌输云端的概念。然后他们开始开发其他产品,并试图建立一个可持续发展的生态系统,在理想状态下将收益重新带回Salesforce。现在,他们通过建立更多的使用案例、改进自身产品来直接回应竞争对手,捍卫他们作为在任者的地位。 这一独特的方式引发了软件行业的一系列疑问: 1.Salesforce如何通过一个不为人知的模式成功地破坏了现有的企业预置型软件提供商的市场? 2.在激烈的市场竞争中,Salesforce如何还能如此成功,并在持续创收的同时持续创新? 3.Salesforce又是如何在发展和创新的同时维持品牌的连续性? 让我们来深入了解这只SaaS巨兽的崛起之路。 1999-2004年:让软件更易使用 Salesforce要将所有软件带到云端的愿景是革命性的。但完成这样的愿景绝不是一蹴而就的,在过去的18年里Salesforce一直致力于实现它。一开始,云的概念是抽象且笨拙的,因此Salesforce选择从一款产品开始做起。 在20世纪90年代后期,客户关系管理软件行业的活动很多。像甲骨文和SAP这样的大企业相互竞争,促使企业为其产品添加越来越多的功能,因而其产品变得庞大而复杂。相反的是,公司更需要一个集中的系统来跟踪销售情况和客户数据。 Salesforce的联合创始人都曾从事CRM和销售自动化的相关工作。Salesforce最初开发的产品就比那些繁杂的产品更易使用。Salesforce的产品设置更加简便快捷,集成了现有的系统,更方便用户支付,并且总是能够快速运行。 早期的产品开发和营销活动以一个简单的想法为核心——使CRM软件更易于使用。以下是公司一步步实现这个想法的时间轴: 1999年:Salesforce的联合创始人Marc Benioff卸任甲骨文数据库公司副总裁一职,为此他曾耗费13年逐步获取客户支持并脱颖而出。那时候,他已经与甲骨文创始人拉里·埃里森(Larry Ellison)建立了密切的工作关系,并形成了关于CRM软件以及普通软件改进的初步构想:“这种云端交付模式使得软件类似于应用程序,就好比每月支付电费。那客户又怎么会拒绝每个月为一个可以随时随地提供服务的应用买单呢?” 当Benioff离开甲骨文时,他从一家他投资的创企里挖了3名顾问——Parker Harris、Dave Moellenhoff以及Frank Dominguez。他们此前就在一起工作,关系不错,有些甚至曾开发过非SaaS的CRM产品,也就是说从一开始,Salesforce团队的技术背景就非常强大。他们所开发的首个CRM版本看起来就像这样: 2000-2002年:Salesforce针对其CRM产品发起了极具侵略性的营销策略,以针对Siebel的抗议活动和“软件终结”活动为出发点展开计划。根据其“反软件”营销信息,软件或是现有的企业预置型软件使得销售人员在客户关系管理方面变得更加困难。当时在Salesforce网站上的一则信息表明更好的产品、更快的设置和更高的可访问性对一个团队来说是多么重要。 2003年:Salesforce表示他们愿意通过极具争议的举动来传播他们的产品并发展社区。他们利用达赖喇嘛引起了巨大的舆论关注且受到强烈批评,最终Benioff被迫道歉。 同年,公司还举办了第一届年度Dreamforce用户大会。此后,他们每年都会在该会议上为新产品和新创意造势。这正是Salesforce成功建立社区并激起用户对云端的热情之后的下一步动作。 2004年:Salesforce宣布IPO。在交易的第一天,公司就上了头条,因为他们的股票涨幅超过55%。成功的IPO证明Salesforce确实开发了一款人见人爱的产品,幸免于互联网泡沫的破灭,持续发展,并成功地开始让消费者为云计算买单。 在这几年里,Salesforce通过使产品、市场营销和销售策略保持一致而获得了成长。虽然云端应用的概念对用户来说是全新的,但其价值主张——更好的CRM——轻易地替Salesforce拿下了目标客户,也就是众多的销售人员。 这样的主张也正是Salesforce一直倡导的。虽然团队认为他们早期的产品是“错误梗概”,但与Siebel和SAP复杂的CRM系统相比,Salesforce的工具用起来显然更加地流畅、简单。 Salesforce的早期用户大多是销售人员,这也是公司营销策略的关键部分。对于大多数公司来说,销售就是一个赢利渠道,如果能更有效地完成KPI,那么销售团队通常乐于为新技术买单。而Salesforce直截了当地秀出其产品将如何帮助公司赚更多的钱。 Salesforce基本上已经构建了免费试用和软件销售的新模式。其产品就是通过云端交付的SaaS产品,并在早期用户中创造了强大的病毒式传播渠道。Salesforce对外宣称任何公司的前五名用户都可以免费使用该CRM工具。 一旦团队成员试用了产品并对其产生好感,根据Salesforce明确的定价计划,扩展用户就变得相当简单了。公司可以花钱让更多员工使用这一工具,也可以购买附加的功能。为客户提供的两种扩展方案也促使Salesforce的收入呈几何式增长。 通过病毒式的销售模式将易于使用的产品销售给试用市场,帮助Salesforce提高资本效率。这使得公司能够继续投资其增长引擎。 这些销售和营销实践也促进了公司收入的高速增长。公司在2001-2003年的年度复合增长率超过100%。 通过用户友好型产品和病毒性分销渠道的结合,公司的收益从2001年的590万美元增长到2003年的5900万美元。在2004年IPO期间,该公司的估值达到11亿美元。 当时,Salesforce作为CRM的颠覆者,其产品主要还是依靠CRM,但是Benioff看的更远,他的野心绝不仅仅停留在CRM上。 2005-2014年:平台即服务 当Salesforce开始在云端销售CRM时,他们是第一家也是唯一一家SaaS公司。他们的竞争对手是现有的企业预置型CRM软件。但随着公司的发展,情况也有所变化。 Salesforce早期的成功预示着市场上云服务的兴起。越来越多的公司发现这种交付模式使得他们能够更快地开发产品并销售给更多的用户。 对于那些新兴的SaaS公司,Salesforce并没有采取敌对态度,相反的他们构建了一个平台,开发人员可以在上面定制开发应用程序。另外Salesforce还建立了一个社区,其用户可以开发并销售应用程序。他们还通过收购其他SaaS公司并将其添加到自己的产品套件中,从而将其核心产品扩展到CRM之外。 通过为用户提供更多的云端产品,如支持和协作工具,他们吸引了越来越多的用户。因而Salesforce构建的生态系统对开发人员产生了越来越大的吸引力,Salesforce的产品价值也得到了提升。而云服务越完善,Salesforce的成长就越快。 2005年:Salesforce开发了AppExchange功能。在这里,第三方开发人员可以创建自己的应用程序并将其销售给Salesforce用户。 这是培养不断增长的云计算行业的下一个合乎逻辑的步骤,因为它为开发人员提供了一个支持性的社区和一批受众。 2006年:Salesforce团队发布了更多的模块,这是一种按需编程语言,允许第三方程序员在Salesforce的多用户共享体系中编写和运行代码。Parker Harris还开发了Visualforce,它允许用户创建用户界面,构建表单、按钮、链接,并嵌入任何他们想要的功能。 2008年:Salesforce发布了官方平台Force.com,这是世界上首个平台即服务平台。它允许第三方在Salesforce架构上开发应用程序。同时,它也为Salesforce增加了新的收入来源,因为第三方在每次登录平台时都需要支付费用。 2011年:Salesforce将收购的众包数据公司Jigsaw更名为Data.com,类似这样的收购帮助Salesforce扩大了SaaS行业中的业务范畴,并增加了赢利点。 2012年:Salesforce将收购的社会客户服务工具Assistly更名为Desk.com。Salesforce在Assistly创业的初期就已经投资了一部分资金,最终在2011年以8000万美元完成了收购。此次收购帮助Salesforce将Desk.com成功转型为社会服务平台。该工具可以利用Salesforce的CRM数据为用户实现更加集成的用户体验。该工具同时为公司扩大了产品用例和赢利点。 2013年:Salesforce将收购的社交媒体监控平台Radian 6更名为Social.com,以便用户整合社交媒体数据和CRM数据。 同年,Salesforce在AppExchange上实现了200万次的App下载和安装。这证明公司作为一个平台提供商的成功和成长,而不仅仅是一家CEM提供商。 这些年来,当人们终于对CRM的云服务产生兴奋时,Salesforce又开始开发其他产品了。现在,他们不只是通过CRM服务传播其愿景,他们还开始通过其PaaS平台向其他开发人员传达愿景。同时,他们开始大量投资收购其他SaaS公司。这让更多的人有机会接触到Salesforce。 Salesforce的新平台在SaaS领域也属首创。它提供了恰当的功能和支持,让新的云项目滚滚而来。通过平台,Salesforce将外部开发人员的SaaS合法化,并鼓励人们进行开发。Digital Clarity Group的Alan Pelz-Sharpe说:“按需服务和ASP(应用程序服务提供商)都没有成功地推动我们现在所说的云计算模型。但是将一个开放的B2B交换平台提供给开发者就意味着可用的应用程序数量将呈爆炸式增长。” 由此,Salesforce的价值再次得到了提升——除了通过云端为用户提供优质产品外,Salesforce还帮助用户开发和运行自己的优质云端产品。以下是Salesforce的网站介绍: Salesforce.com不仅提供强大的、易于使用的CRM产品。我们还提供了一个完整的结构体系,帮助企业在整个组织中体验灵活的服务。 这一价值主张彰显了Salesforce在SaaS行业中的领先地位,以及他们将继续致力研发更加易于使用的软件。 与他们的第一款产品一样,Force.com友好的定价方式带动了购买和分销。每次登录只收取99美分,这个价格标签提升了企业在Force.com上进行研发工作的意愿。按次收费的方式意味着用户开发的应用越成功,Salesforce也能获得越多的利益。 Salesforce通过其CRM产品、Force.com、Data.com、Desk.com、以及Social.com构建了许多的赢利点。在此期间,他们的收入增长比公共SaaS中位数高出了数亿美元。 现在,Salesforce还在拓展CRM以外的产品,为用户提供了许多跨越式服务。而CRM则成为Benioff和Salesforce对未来设想的起点——一个不需要软件的世界,一个仅依靠云端便能顺利运转的世界。 2015年至今:不断创新 在Salesforce成立的第15个年头,它已成为业内的领头羊。当它向前迈进时,它发现市场上出现了更小更灵活的创企,它也发现了来自其他大企业如微软和甲骨文的竞争,这些公司也逐渐将产品转移到云端。 对了应对微软和甲骨文等公司的竞争威胁,Salesforce适时地改变了策略。他们与那些威胁到Salesforce发展的企业进行了激烈的竞争。他们将重心逐渐从开发工具、资源和社区,这些任何人都能办到的事情上转移至利用最新技术将竞争对手的举措直接反映在自己的产品中,从而改善自己的产品。 这引起了公司横向和纵向的扩张。他们专注于通过快速利用和整合最新技术并将其提供给不同规模的客户来改善他们的CRM。同时,他们需要不断添加新的云服务来扩展用例,并与微软和甲骨文等企业提供商竞争。 2015年:Salesforce发布了SalesforceIQ,这是一个面向小型企业的CRM。随着Salesforce成为企业解决方案提供商,他们为其他公司进入SMB市场留出了空间。为了解决这一问题,Salesforce在2014年收购了RelateIQ的关系情报平台,并将其更名为SalesforceIQ。其价值取向与Salesforce在1999年的初代CRM十分相似:一个易于使用且开箱即用的解决方案,用户还享有几分钟的免费试用期。 2016年:Salesforce收购了Quip,一家生产率软件公司,允许用户创建文档和电子表格。这一工具得到广泛的应用,并与Microsoft Office和Google Docs产生了直接的竞争。 同年,Salesforce收购了电商平台Demandware,这有助于他们建立Commerce Cloud,并开始在Salesforce Suite中提供电商服务。 在2016年,Salesforce还发布了Salesforce Einstein。这使AI技术在其产品中得到了广泛应用,并且允许Force.com的用户开发基于AI的应用。Salesforce发布该产品的同时,甲骨文也通过自适应智能应用程序发布了他们的AI计划。几个月后,微软通过Microsoft Dynamics 365发布了AI开发进展。 由于Salesforce面临来自其他CRM系统和其他商业软件的竞争,他们需要不断开发更多的云服务产品,来获取用户。一旦用户开始使用某一种产品,那么针对其他产品的交叉销售就能水到渠成了。产品扩展也是与其他大型的云端CRM供应商竞争的必要条件。 利用AI等新技术完善现有产品,并为开发人员提供用于开发基于AI的应用程序的工具,Salesforce让人们更加轻松地享受到高科技带来的福利。 但这并不意味着像AI这样的新技术足以使Salesforce具有竞争力,特别是在其他公司也强力推出了AI服务时。但是,通过收购其他的云计算产品,为用户提供更多的功能和产品,Salesforce可以进一步扩充平台和套件,并远远超出了CRM的范畴。 Salesforce确实面临着来着多方面的威胁,但依然向前推进着。 Salesforce路在何方? 现在Salesforce已经是一个首屈一指的SaaS公司。这也意味着他们需要做很多的取舍。他们在其SaaS生态系统中投入了大量资金,在很多方面帮助了其他公司的发展,同时也为许多公司将其传统产品转移到运动创造了空间,并为小而精的解决方案提供商提供了客户群。 由于Salesforce已经发展成为多用途的云服务提供商,而不仅仅提供个企业CRM,他们仍然有很大的扩展空间。例如: 1.在其云产品套件中提供网络服务。一次次的收购已经帮助Salesforce进入许多新的领域,但是Salesforce尚未大幅度扩展到网络服务中。在去年与微软竞标领英时,Salesforce失败了。通过Dreamforce会议、AppExchange和Force.com平台,Salesforce事实上已经为拥有强大的社区网络奠定了基础。创建内部网络有利于获取销售、营销和协作云的数据和网络层。 2.为用户带来更好的AI效用。Salesforce已经将AI整合进许多产品中。一部分原因是在2017年与IBM的合作将Einstein与Watson合并,以便用户扩充数据。但是随着数据越来越复杂,很多人都认为Salesforce过于繁杂。同时许多同类产品都开始关注易用性。Salesforce可以利用AI来让用户更轻松地获取他们所需的信息,特别是Salesforce还提供了一款名为Optimus Prime的内部工具用以组织和清理数据。通过分析用户在Salesforce上已有的数据来添加服务对Salesforce来说是一个很大的机遇。 3.关注国际市场。Salesforce的发展基于对美国市场的关注,而现在他们有机会通过扩展海外业务进一步发展。就在去年,他们与AWS达成协议,扩大合作关系,因而Salesforce不必在数据主权法律国家建立数据中心。即便如此,他们仍然在建立自己的数据中心,今年早些时候他们就在日本建立了第二个数据中心,以应对亚太地区的使用量增长。在持续发展的国家和地区建立自己的数据中学可以使Salesforce更具优势,使他们能够更好地服务更多的区域而不依赖亚马逊和微软等公司的租赁资源。 Salesforce对云端SaaS的统治将取决于他们能否不断创新,并提供更多的云端解决方案。这似乎已经成了Salesforce的准则,这也在过去的18年里为用户带来了最大的收益和成功。 从Salesforce中学到的3个关键点 Salesforce将整个软件行业完全迁移到云端的方式是革命性的。一旦用户购买了一个拙劣的产品,那么他就不会对云计算产生任何兴趣。 因此,Salesforce开发了一款CRM并将其植入云端,以便让用户对云产品产生。然后,他们将自己定位为云端领导者来构建更多用户想要的产品,促进自身发展。 1.如何完善当前的工具或程序? Salesforce的云端CRM和他们的“无软件”活动完全基于企业预置型软件难以安装升级的弊端。而想要开发引人注目的产品,你必须要优化当前的解决方案。以下是找到减少产品摩擦的方法: 逐步细分你的客户体验。亚马逊音乐部主管Kintan Brahbhatt认为,产品的摩擦点要比开发人员想象的要多得多。他建议产品经理列出客户需要做的所有决定,并逐一询问。 通过评估其与产品的相关程度进行删减。你会发现有些功能可能并没有达到你的预期或并没那么受欢迎。评估和删除那些影响用户体验的功能非常之重要。 2.你公司的品牌是什么,它对你的产品有何影响? Salesforce强调要让产品更易使用,他们被视为创新者,随着他们的成长,他们的产品决策也得到了充分的理解。一个定义明确的品牌可以帮你保持产品开发的重心,也有助于你在众多企业中脱颖而出,告诉用户他们可以对你的公司抱以怎样的期望。以下是认识和进一步定义品牌的方法: 发送NPS调查,并专注于定性答案。除了要求用户打分之外,你还需要给他们留一些开放式的区域,供用户留下关于对你的品牌的用户反馈。然后你可以使用单词云生成器来组织调查这些回答。 创建一个电子表格对这些数值进行分类。在表格中,将产品与用户价值、品牌价值一一对应,这样可视化的方式能让你了解你的产品营销是否有效。 3.随着竞争的加剧,怎样让自己更具价值? 正如Tom Tunguz所说,SaaS公司的三个持续竞争优势是网络效应、数据网络效应和生态系统的构建。Salesforce创建了一个生态系统,因为在当时新兴的SaaS市场中,这一举措是最明智的。 根据公司的具体情况,你可以通过许多方式产生竞争优势。以下是评估方法: 了解用户选择竞品的原因。选择一个对你的产品来说极具竞争力的产品,在论坛上发布问题,向真实用户询问“为什么有人使用这一产品?”提出这一问题也能让你了解到竞品的一些缺点,取长补短。 发布免费工具让用户认识到你的价值。在一个竞争如此激烈的环境中,仅仅是让人们尝试你的产品就已经很困难了,更不用说获取大量用户或是让他们立即了解产品的价值所在。免费的工具,或是像Salesforce的免费试用期,可以让更多人接触到你的产品,让他们自己去探索产品的价值。 贝尼奥夫在他的书背后写道: Benioff在Behind the Cloud一书中写到: “一个想法解决一个问题,那它仅是个策略,但当它成为万金油时,它将成为一个伟大的策略。” 世上无捷径。你需要的是一个梦想,并一往无前地为其奋斗。 如果Salesforce只停留在销售CRM,那么他们觉不会有今日的辉煌。CRM对他们来说是一个闯入云端市场的撬棍,最终使他们成功的是他们一直以来不断寻求创新并传播他们的愿景。 Salesforce作为一家SaaS公司身居高位,从1999年开始成长并从未减缓脚步。现在他们必须不断向前才不会被超越。 【猎云网(微信号:ilieyun)】10月31日报道 (编译:王潇宵)
    观点
    2017年10月31日
  • 观点
    An Email From Elon Musk Reveals Why Managers Are Always a Bad idea By Chuck Blakeman    Founder, Crankset Group  @ChuckBlakeman Survey.com's annual "Wasting Time at Work" report revealed that if you eliminate managers completely, you remove 75 percent of the reasons someone will leave your company. There is a simple reason for that. They're in the way, literally. Elon Musk knows that, and isn't alone. Before Elon Musk, There Was Gore Bill Gore, co-inventor of Gore-Tex and founder of the $3.3 billion company W. L. Gore, understood the idea implicitly and built his entire company around self-managed teams and the absence of managers of any kind. In 1976, he published a simple paper called "The Lattice Organization" that described how a company of any size (Gore has 10,200 staff) could run much better without managers. He expressed the simplicity of an organization designed around the Lattice concept in the following illustration. The message: collaborate with whomever you need to, whenever you need to, without ever going through a manager to get to anyone. This brilliantly simple illustration of an organization built around efficient and effective communications makes it very clear that if you need something from someone else in the organization, you go to that person. If your team needs something from another team, you go to that team. In the Lattice Organization, there are no managers, or inboxes and outboxes at multiple levels, or politics and departmental fiefdoms to wade through. Today, there are nearly a hundred very large companies like W. L. Gore that operate this way and thousands of smaller ones. An Enduring Truth The Lattice Organization continues to spread. An internal email, revealed only recently, from Elon Musk to all Tesla staff shows that Musk intuitively understands that managers add no value in pushing great ideas forward, but instead are more likely to slow down innovation, communications, and production. It's the Lattice concept clearly articulated once again, 40 years later by a business leader of the next generation: From: Elon Musk To: All Tesla Staff Subject: Communication Within Tesla There are two schools of thought about how information should flow. By far the most common way is chain of command, which means that you always flow communication through your manager. The problem with this approach is that, while it enhances the power of the manager, it fails to serve the company. To solve a problem quickly, two people in different depts should simply talk and make the right thing happen. Instead, people are forced to talk to their manager, who talks to their manager, who talks to the manager in the other dept, who talks to someone on his team. Then the info has to flow back the other way again. This is incredibly dumb. Any manager who allows this to happen, let alone encourages it, will soon find themselves working at another company. No kidding. Anyone at Tesla can and should email/talk to anyone else according to what they think is the fastest way to solve a problem for the benefit of the whole company. You can talk to your manager's manager without his permission, you can talk directly to a VP in another dept, you can talk to me, you can talk to anyone without anyone else's permission. Moreover, you should consider yourself obligated to do so until the right thing happens. The point here is to ensure that we execute ultra-fast and well. We obviously cannot compete with the big car companies in size, so we must do so with intelligence and agility. One final point is that managers should work hard to ensure that they are not creating silos within the company that create an "us vs. them" mentality, or impede communication in any way. This is unfortunately a natural tendency and needs to be actively fought. How can it possibly help Tesla for depts to erect barriers between themselves, or see their success as relative within the company instead of collective? We are all in the same boat. Always view yourself as working for the good of the company and never your dept. Thanks, Elon W. L. Gore never had to send such an email, and if Musk is serious about keeping managers from being obstructionists, he would do well to eliminate them altogether as Gore and many other companies have done. But clearly Musk gets that they don't naturally add value to the communications and innovations chains. To the contrary, their natural obstructionism must be mitigated against as a firing offense. Loyalty to the Hierarchy Is your company addicted to serving hierarchies or getting things done? Musk warned that managers will get fired for even allowing communications to go through them. In almost all companies, people get fired for going directly to the source of an answer instead of paying homage and worshiping at the feet of the hierarchy. In companies with managers, Dilbert reigns, and the only solution is an email from the top of the pyramid demanding that managers stay out of the way. As Musk says and Gore illustrates, this is all incredibly dumb. Yet most companies continue to allow managers to exist, slow things down, and gum up the works with power struggles and politics, in the face of simple logic that says they don't add value. Musk warns that people should get fired for getting in the middle of collaboration, yet that is at the very core of a manager's job -- to get in the middle of everything. Unencumbered Communications Do you want yours to be a great company with 100 percent engagement where everyone works for the company, instead of some incredibly dumb, departmental fiefdom? Eliminating the requirement to communicate through managers is a great step in that direction. A hundred large companies and thousands of smaller ones have already figured that out. It's your turn. 原文链接:https://www.inc.com/chuck-blakeman/an-email-from-elon-musk-reveals-why-managers-are-always-a-bad-idea.html
    观点
    2017年10月31日