Interview with Shahab Kaviani, EVP Marketing & Product Marketing at HyperOffice
05 November 2010 - We asked Shahab Kaviani, EVP Marketing & Product Marketing at HyperOffice, a few questions about the company and his view of the markets they serve.
GETAPP.COM: Who are you and what is your role in the company?
KAVIANI: EVP Marketing & Product Marketing.
GETAPP.COM: Can you briefly present your management team?
KAVIANI: Starting with our Board we have Bill Wade who is the Founder at Company.com and previously served as the CO-Chairman at Sage Software. Nate Davis was most recently CEO at XM Radio and prior to XM he was COO at XO Communications. Our CTO is Drew Morris, President is Farzin Arsanjani, and Chairman is Kamyar Kaviani.
GETAPP.COM: Are you a cloud or a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) company?
KAVIANI: SaaS.
GETAPP.COM: How do you use and promote usage of cloud computing?
KAVIANI: You mean internally? We use hosted VOIP, we depend heavily on Hyperoffice for our cloud email, document management, project management and other collaboration tools. All our business applications are in the cloud.
GETAPP.COM: What are the points of difference of your solutions?
KAVIANI: HyperOffice is aimed at SMBs. For more than 10 years we have listened to our customers to provide just the right blend of features while maintaining an intuitive interface. We also provide free training, support, and setup assistance so we tailor our offering to SMBs with little or no IT resources. We like to say there are "No Geeks Required". Furthermore, we pride ourselves on being liberating. By that I mean you can get your email pushed to any mobile device, we synch with Outlook, you can open files from Windows Explorer or Mac finder, and work with any browser. Most recently we are seeing Google & Microsoft come out with offerings which try to emulate what we have been doing for more than 10 years, however the level of integration which exists across all our collaboration tools is unmatched.
GETAPP.COM: How would you like to be evaluated by a prospect?
KAVIANI: We offer live webinars daily. Join a webinar, then speak with one of our Tour Guides, they'll honestly tell you if you're a good match. We only seek long term customers so you can count on an honest consultation. Sometimes we'll refer you to a better provider if we're not the best solution for the problem you're trying to solve. Then take a free 30-day trial. See it for yourself with a fully functioning messaging & collaboration platform.
GETAPP.COM: Why do your customers buy from you?
KAVIANI: There are lots of web 2.0 products that come and go. HyperOffice is a platform you run your business on. Email, schedules, documents are mission critical. HyperOffice has the reputation for delivering a service which continues to lead the market with cutting edge improvements. Your not just subscribing to software, you are outsourcing to a partner who will ensure you always are on the latest technology. I think the other reason customers choose HyperOffice is we are simple to use, adoption is key with any technology, and we're there with you every step of the way with free training & support. We deliver the software, set you up, support you, and take feedback to improve the product. No other Messaging & Collaboration company particularly the big guys are accountable for every part of that equation.
GETAPP.COM: Can you mention some of your key clients?
KAVIANI: Many of them you may have not heard of. These are the small businesses that are the backbone of our economy. However, we are in divisions of some well recognized names including Coldwell Banker, PTA, Ohio State University, State Bar of Nevada, and Siemens - just to name a few.
GETAPP.COM: What do you see as the key trend emerging in the industry?
KAVIANI: Integrated Suites. Businesses want to go to one place to do their work. I think you will start to see more traction amongst the platforms where small businesses are already in, i.e. QuickBooks is the most successful small business software. I expect to see small businesses reaching into Intuit's Workplace platform to plug in more applications and access them from a single place.
GETAPP.COM: What is THE most important message you feel you should get across to someone considering buying your solutions?
KAVIANI: Think long term, don't just try to solve a part of the problem, think of this as a modernization effort, you don't want to do this frequently. Consider how document sharing fits into project management, and how email can be tied in, think about mobile access. Really take a long term view and matchup your requirements to the product that best matches them exactly. Not more than you need because that just complicates the experience, and adoption becomes a problem. Sorry was that two things :)
GETAPP.COM: Thanks for your time, Shahab.