Box.Net CEO: Thoughts from a newbie on AIIM 2010

Guest post by Aaron Levie, CEO, Box.net [1]

This was the first year that Box.net participated in the AIIM Expo, and I'm happy to say that we had some fantastic conversations and gained a lot of insight. I'll admit I was rather nervous going into the conference, thinking that Box would be pushing some touchy topics. Our "No SharePoint [2]" angle, in particular, inspires either love or hate from audiences, but this last week reaffirmed that everyone--including the SharePoint evangelists--has a solid sense of humor, and the content management space at large is open to new ideas about the future of the industry. I'm excited that Box is participating in that conversation. Overall, the event was rich in content, vendors, and conversations for the Box crew, so I thought I'd share a few key thoughts from a newcomer's perspective:

People get the cloud, but they don't have it.
All of the companies and vendors that we spoke with knew why they should be moving content to the cloud. They understood the value of external sharing and collaboration, access to content across all devices, and the cost savings associated with implementing cloud solutions. But shifting a system built for on-premise deployment to the cloud is no overnight task--solutions like SharePoint have a massive ecosystem of partners, resellers and consultants, making a full transition to the cloud rather daunting. Furthermore, what's most compelling about content management in the cloud is not just that it's delivered in a modern way, but that it fundamentally rethinks the way we approach information management and the end user experience. But despite significant hurdles, we spoke with many forward-looking experts in this space who agree that this transformation will accelerate over the next few years. I'm already looking forward to seeing what progress has been made by next year's event.

Traditional ECM solutions are having trouble keeping up with the new challenges that businesses face.
There was a general consensus among attendees that traditional ECM solutions haven't developed as rapidly as their users' problems and pain points. This is largely due to the fact that the way business is done has evolved rapidly over the past few years. The boundaries of today's organizations have exploded beyond the office walls, and the modern workforce needs to be able to share and collaborate across organizations and geographies. We need solutions that are device-agnostic and able to keep pace with other technologies that are changing the way we connect and communicate in business. For example, there were quite a few iPads floating around the AIIM Expo, but how many ECM vendors had an app?

Vision needs to go beyond the next upgrade.
For solutions that are deployed on-premise, upgrades--whether they're yearly, or as many as three years apart--represent a major milestone for both the vendor and customer. But as content management solutions make the transition to the cloud, they'll realize the benefits of bringing the latest features to customers seamlessly and painlessly. In this new paradigm, it's more important than ever to articulate a bigger vision that goes beyond the next upgrade. Customers looking to adopt or update technologies should have some glimpse into what the future of the solution will look like, whether abstractly or concretely. In Box's case, our core mission is to make it easy for businesses to access, share and manage all types of information in the cloud. Between partnerships, integrations and continuing to develop new features, we hope our platform can enable businesses of all sizes to solve their information access and sharing challenges.

Overall, I was really impressed with the level of conversations had at AIIM. I had a chance to sit down with industry experts like Laurence Hart [3] and Lee Dallas [4]--people who really get the industry, where it has come from and where it is going. They recognize the importance of standards, meaningful integrations, and end user experience. l left with a whole lot more to chew on.

At Box, we're excited to continue to be a new voice in this space, and hope to emerge over the next year with compelling technology and a compelling vision for the future of content management. Thanks everyone at AIIM for the great event.

Aaron Levie is the CEO and co-founder of Box.net, which he launched in 2005 with the goal of helping people to access, collaborate, and share all their content online. Based in Palo Alto, Box.net has since grown into a leading Cloud Content Management solution for more than 4 million users and companies ranging from small businesses to Fortune 100 companies. At Box, Aaron focuses on product and platform strategy, incorporating the best of traditional content management with the most effective elements of social business software.