Email is not dead (read: Why Still Do an Email Startup?) and while there is a huge opportunity to build business using email as a communication platform, the reality is that email based workflow management tools haven’t proven to be very useful (especially from monitoring/tracking perspective).
Bangalore based Postoz has launched a SAAS based service that offers web based workflow management. Postoz is a web-based business process system that enables enterprises to create (using drag & drop web form components) and deploy business processes (like helpdesk, procurement etc) in few minutes.
As of now, Postoz is integrated with Google Apps and offers no integration with existing enterprise systems. Given that CIOs are known to go for bloated software, Postoz does offer a lean product and pricing is done as a function of number of business processes in the system, storage and number of users per business process.
The bigger question for the team is whether to sell a platform or packaged products (which is what TCS’ iON is doing).
Here is a quick QnA with Postoz team
QN: Please share team background.
The core team consist of selvan (http://softonaut.blogspot.com/) & ananth (http://ananthakumaran.in/). Before we joined hands to create Postoz, we worked as consultant in business process automation space for large NY based bank, worked with Chicago based technology consulting & product development firm and also worked with technology services startups based in India.
QN: Moving away from email based workflow will bring in behavioral change (and hence, friction). How do you plan to educate your customers?
Email based workflows are painful when the team size is not small and business process requires
- Transparency among team members (who is working on what & how long).
- Traceability of work item across various departments.
- Quantitative data to analyze existing process structure for improvements.
We are hoping that value propositions & benefits offered by our product will encourage customers to embrace it. Feedback from customers so far is encouraging.
QN: Target segment? How do you plan to market to US (assuming that’s in your radar).
Postoz is focused on automating “human centric” business processes such as Help desk, Procurement, Employee on boarding. Our target customers are managers & business owners of SMEs with limited/zero tech knowledge ( No coding, No IDE, No IT infrastructure ), who runs their business on SaaS.
We will market our product outside India by listing at SaaS marketplace such as Google Apps and via social media marketing (Google Adwords/Twitter/Linkedin groups/Blogs).
QN: Future plans?
Our future plans include Internalization, Payment gateway integration within business processes and integration with other enterprise apps based-on customer demands.
