I was recently speaking to Jon Eilers, SVP of Business Development at FileBound Software about the recent acquisition of FileBound by Upland Software (formerly PowerSteering Software) and its implications for the channel. Here's what he told me.
JM -- What do you see as the key synergies in the Upland acquisition?
JE -- The Upland family of products brings together best-of-breed cloud solutions in the project, portfolio, and work management space. Upland is the only cloud software provider that can address a comprehensive range of needs from strategic planning to work execution. Upland solutions enable organizations to align their goals, projects, programs; optimize resource utilization and workflows; and empower teams to collaborate and work more effectively. FileBound represents a key component of the work management idea. Information and documents drive project management, portfolio management, and of course, strategic planning. The addition of FileBound to the Upland family is an important piece for the execution of the overall strategy.
JM -- How will the acquisition improve Filebound's ability to add value to customers?
JE -- While we understand the end-user derives the ultimate value from FileBound, our primary customers are our channel partners. Upland’s strategy of investing in each product to maintain key areas of strength and looking for new ways to innovate and a major focus on Customer Success is what drove FileBound to the partnership. We passionately believe this acquisition will provide significant benefits to our channel of partners. Upland is committed to providing every additional resource required to achieve success.
With the additional resources, we will be able to invest in the development of enhanced sales and marketing tools, product training, documentation, and services packages that inevitably help drive greater value to our partners. Additionally, the other project, portfolio, and work management software products in the Upland family create the opportunity for FileBound partners to sell a broader range of products and services. With the backing of Upland's scale and financial resources, we are, of course, better positioned for long term viability and market leadership.
JM -- What solution areas will Upland focus upon?
JE -- Upland’s project and portfolio management solutions are currently market leaders, and we will continue to integrate the product suite to deliver even more value to our customers. In regards to FileBound, we are currently working on solution-specific products that we believe will help our partners recognize even more success. Check back often as we will be releasing more information at our upcoming events!
JM -- How do you see the cloud changing content management?
JE -- First, I’m not sure content management will be a relevant term in the future. Yes, all organizations must manage their content effectively to succeed. I think we all recognize that. From our perspective, we see organizations interested today in a continual effort to drive costs out of the business and in improving their efficiency across the enterprise. The Upland family of cloud-based solutions allows organizations to bring efficiency to everything from strategic planning, product and portfolio management, to work execution. An organization's ability to efficiently collaborate, execute, and manage work ultimately drives success, and our family of solutions delivers all of that.
I believe organizations of all sizes will continue to push toward the cloud for a wide variety of reasons. The ability to quickly ramp up a cost-effective, robust, highly secure, and enterprise-class solution is a compelling value proposition. Cloud content management allows organizations to sidestep a tremendous amount of overhead and costs. For more and more organizations, the cloud has moved beyond just being an option to being the first, or the option. We feel that is a hard trend and one we are prepared to take advantage of.
JM -- How are your channel partners responding to the acquisition? What will change for them?
JE -- We recognize with change there is always uncertainty. The acquisition thus far has been met with optimism amongst our partners. Our industry has seen so much change over the years, and much of that change wasn’t very productive for partners. We recognize that and understand that our actions always speak louder than our words. So, we have to work hard and prove to our partners that Upland is a great place to be! In regards to what will change...the primary changes will be added resources across the board and new products for our partners to sell into the marketplace.
