What would you say if I told you Snowflake software had changed? by changing it's approach to business and customers!
I don't mean we sell different software now, we have changed our approach to business because we know what we are as a software vendor, a solutions provider in data exchange that makes a difference to it's customers!
Many of you who know Snowflake software, have been great supporters of what we do and have been watching the company grow for many years, some since it started in 2001. But it's true, we have changed because we realised that we don't just sell products, we sell solutions. We have become a "Data eXchange company" providing transformation solutions with GML/XML data into relational databases or publishing to the web to customer requirements. Its that simple.
At the GSDI conference in Rotterdam last week we launched our new market sectors and "The Data eXchange Company"as the company headline and it went down exceptionally well with the GI community. In fact we had more people talking to us from the GI world about the broader IT perspective of the technology of data exchange, than we had expected. So it was us who had to keep with level of knowledge and appreciation of data exchange because you are demanding it.
This wave of knowledge became very evident when Eddie Curtis our CTO gave a workshop at the conference on Monday regarding "data translation". We had over 80 people listening with some standing outside the door taking note of Eddie's presentation and talk. I would say that at least 50% present were from the commercial side of their businesses and not just technical people. At the end the session the level of questioning showed that indeed people there were looking into the issue of "data translation" as a business issue not just a GI technical issue, wanting business answers to their business problems.
With our new markets launched, a new Snowflake Software company look and feel now visable in the business world, plus on the web, where are we going to take our solutions? Well that's up to you our customers. We are developing a product development programme that all our customer who want too, can get involved in to help shape our products and their solutions. This is one of our Managing Director Ian Painters dream, to involve the customer at the heart of our solutions and push the boundaries of what we do. We know developing customer solutions never stops. We also know some corners of the market are not quite ready for us yet, but at least they are looking in our direction and asking the right questions of us. Watch this space for the "Product Development Programme" and future solution developments.
A big thanks to the GSDI organisers for a great conference this year and to all the people who dropped by the Snowflake stand or attended this years workshops. We had a great conference and time the Netherlands and met lots of new and interesting people and hope to see you all again soon.
For more information on our markets and enabling INSPIRE please check out our website.
