Hundreds of big corporations are using Kinetic Data software to automate business processes, from ordering computers for new employees to handling consumer contacts. Now the St. Paul company is concocting a version for small and midsize companies.
CEO and co-founder John Sundberg hopes the move will drive growth for Kinetic Data while raising awareness of what he has termed "enterprise request management,'' or ERM, which he describes as a business-efficiency strategy that can lower the cost of service delivery while making for happier customers by helping to ensure first-time fulfillment of service requests.
Kinetic Data's leading product, Kinetic Request, and its other ERM applications offer a holistic approach to centralizing and automating business processes and service requests, according to Sundberg. Internal and external customers can request shared services from human resources, information technology or other departments in an organization, from a single Web-based portal.
Easier to use
The focus now is on making its software easier to use for companies with 100 to 1,000 employees, Sundberg said. Those could be independent companies or smaller groups within big organizations, which can lead to multiple sales within the same company.
Appealing to smaller companies will require Kinetic Data to create libraries of sample business processes, such as the personal finance and other database templates that come with spreadsheet software (like Microsoft Excel), Sundberg said.
"I can't give them something as raw as it is today," Sundberg said of Kinetic Data's current software. "It needs more, I'll call it 'cooking,' to be successful. A larger company can spend some energy to put in their processes, while the smaller companies will go, 'just give me a PC ordering process.' "
The smaller-company strategy has gained some traction and could fuel explosive growth over the next three to five years. "We want to make it drop-dead easy for them to move forward and for us to sell it," Sundberg said.
Kinetic Data, which has 30 employees, has added five people in the last six months and is continuing to hire developers and salespeople. Last year's sales of $5 million represented a 25 percent increase from 2011 after three flat years coming out of the recession. The company is self-financed and, though it routinely receives offers, has taken no outside money.