Box fmr SVP on Enterprise Software (Part 2)
By the start of the 21st century, the landscape for enterprise software began to shift and become more exciting. For instance, Salesforce introduced the very first SaaS model that enabled software companies to deploy products to small organizations. In addition, Salesforce demonstrated the power of cloud software – which completely shifted the ways in which software is built and distributed to customers.
Microsoft’s complete dominance of the tech world began to taper in 2008 when smartphones and tablets began to take off. In fact, within a few years of their introduction, smartphones and tablets were selling at the same volume as personal computers. As a result, more users had the ability to access enterprise products more easily. Furthermore, it completely shifted the product development strategy for enterprise software. Instead of building for PCs, the market now needs products that are mobile-first.
Finally, social collaboration tools are redefining the user experience for software products. The first social product in the enterprise world was Yammer. However, when Yammer sold to Microsoft, it killed a lot of the momentum before companies like Slack emerged. Fast-forward to today; you see Slack everywhere in addition to Facebook Workplace and Microsoft Teams. Instead of being a very bland platform, today’s enterprise products operate in a much more social-friendly way.
In summary, all of these factors introduced a whole new realm of possibility for enterprise software development. This also set the stage for the creation of Box, which completely changed the ways in which information can be stored and shared.
About the speaker
Chris Yeh is the SVP of Product at Box. Chris is responsible for product management, platform strategy, partner ecosystem development and third-party innovation. Prior to joining Box, Chris was the product lead for Yahoo Groups, Delicious and other community products. Chris was also the head of the Yahoo Developer Network, a third-party developer program. Prior to Yahoo, Chris was Vice President of Marketing at Tacit Software - which was acquired by Oracle in 2008.