The Story of EvoluData
How It Began
Like many businesses, EvoluData was the idea of one individual; in this case, Marc Laporte, CEO of EvoluData and Founder of WikiSuite.org.
Marc had an ambition to create a computer services business founded on fairness and opportunity for all, with a central ambition to create and share wealth across a convergent Open Source community of individuals around the world – with a passion for technology and the shared belief that Open Source software is itself a positive force in commerce.
Where We See the World of Enterprise Computing Going
Faced with unprecedented change in the way markets are structured, companies around the world are having to constantly re-visit their business processes and the software applications that support them.
An over-reliance on inflexible Systems of Record means that enterprise IT teams have been unable to keep up with the pace of demand for new apps. Many of these come from the departmental needs of individuals and teams. The consequential impact of this has been the widespread adoption of self-authored spreadsheet apps and the proliferation of "quick-fix" Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions.
The World Is Going to SaaS Silos
There can be no doubt that Software-as-a-Service solutions have risen to a high degree of influence in enterprise architectures over the past decade.
But that’s plain crazy. SaaS software dramatically increases the code base and complexity of your enterprise software stack. It also splits up your corporate data into tiny bits, this at a time when corporations are trying very hard to reduce their IT complexity and maximize the value of their data.
Follow our logic argument
Ours is a data-driven world
You can’t grow your business without knowing how it works
You can’t know how it works without good data
Adopting lots of SaaS is plain crazy
You can’t get good data when it’s not accessible for analysis
Enterprises Are Getting Locked In, Software Moguls Are Hoarding the Wealth
Large, proprietary software companies are increasing their influence in the business software market. The result is that an increasing amount of the world’s wealth is being reaped by a smaller group of individuals.
As Marc Andreessen puts it, "…many of the prominent new Internet companies are building real, high-growth, high-margin, highly defensible businesses." Enterprise finds itself short on choices, and is required to pay large ransoms – in the form of annual service charges and software upgrades – to stay in business and remain competitive.
Software Is Eating the World
While more of the software wealth is being shared by fewer people, the world of software is growing. Everything is increasingly computerized.
For these reasons, it's of the utmost importance that commercial organizations regain control of their business-critical software platforms and data. Excerpts from the pivotal document “Software is Eating the World" written by the investor Marc1. Andreessen in August 2011…
Software is eating the world. Why is this happening now?
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Six decades into the computer revolution, four decades since the invention of the microprocessor, and two decades into the rise of the modern Internet, all of the technology required to transform industries through software finally works and can be widely delivered at global scale. With lower start-up costs and a vastly expanded market for online services, the result is a global economy that for the first time will be fully digitally wired – the dream of every cyber-visionary of the early 1990s, finally delivered, a full generation later.
But too much of the debate is still around financial valuation, as opposed to the underlying intrinsic value of the best of Silicon Valley's new companies. My own theory is that we are in the middle of a dramatic and broad technological and economic shift in which software companies are poised to take over large swaths of the economy.
What We Want To See
We believe the efficient use of data creates a data-driven organization. That means all organizations should:
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Control their data
Manage data in a single place
Have the ability to source software without a lock-in
Ours Is a Shared Purpose – Not a Vision, or a Mission, or a Movement
More than an empty gesture to set a vision for our business, or a set of values that appears once in a while during corporate pitches and presentations, ours is a single ambition:
We ask our people and followers to join us in helping to harness the selfless efforts of those individuals creating Open Source software to create "a feeling" in the work-teams that make our customers successful.
That EvoluData Feelin’
What is it?
Having a purpose that extends beyond yourself
Being energized and equipped to perform at your utmost
To follow an idea that extends beyond self-reward.
We know that the world of work can do that. It can be a force for good. But it needs good software (and the energy of a great team) to achieve it.
What Powers Our Success?
We call it the Wiki Way. What is it? It was originally a book that talks about how to install/customize/manage wiki systems, followed by a perspective on the nature of wiki-style online communication.
Everyone knows Wikipedia nowadays. While Wikipedia is the largest unified body of knowledge, ‘Wiki’ is the largest unified body of software features. The Wiki Way is more than Free / Libre / Open Source Software. Open Source is about the license. So a project can be Open Source but not collaborative. Also, many Open Source projects have models which lead to fragmentation: It is Open Source, but not the Wiki Way. Tiki Wiki CMS Groupware, a primary component of WikiSuite, is "software made the wiki way". At its foundation is a focus on the convergence of useful technology building blocks into solutions that work out of the box; blending the power of loosely-coupled communities around a common goal and set of operating protocols.
How We’re Getting On
We’re beginning to create that EvoluData Feelin’ in corporate offices around the world, and we’ve only just begun.
Today, EvoluData has established itself as an International provider of enterprise Open Source software services in support of WikiSuite (and Tiki) deployments. The team is composed of over 50 business analysts, developers and graphic designers supporting blue chip accounts located in North America, Asia and Europe.
Where We’re Headed
We will continue to operate as dispersed remote teams, except for onsite work with our customers (in the enterprise) and occasional all-team gatherings at the head office in Montreal.
Our aim is to
Use our own software in our own business
Improve our ability to bring value to enterprise departments
Master data management for enterprise departments
Become good at promotion
Need help?
Get in touch with EvoluData to find out how we can help you
to fast-track your program by taking care of the high-risk data governance areas.