Helsinki-based start-up Sopima wanted to launch online solution for managing business contract life cycles, but needed to minimise its capital investment and wanted a fast route to deployment. To achieve this, the company chose the Windows Azure platform, which has removed barriers that would have otherwise prohibited Sopima’s entry into this competitive market. As a result, Sopima has introduced the Sopima Online Contract Bank which offers customers an affordable monthly subscription that appeals to a wide customer base. Furthermore, Sopima estimates that, without the Windows Azure platform, it would have had to hire additional full-time staff members at an annual cost of approximately 367,300 EUR (500,000 USD).
It is not surprising that contract management services are a fast-growing market: companies typically have hundreds or even thousands of contracts each year, covering a variety of arrangements with customers, suppliers, partners and employees. Contracts can also involve multiple stakeholders within an organisation – sales, administration and legal departments for instance - so managing contracts can quickly become time-consuming and inefficient, potentially leading to delays and complex negotiations. Also, companies often share contract documents using email, which brings the additional risk of information being stolen or compromised, as well as being unwieldy to manage.
“We could see there was room for a supplier that could make contract management easy and available for all sizes of companies, from large to small,” says Partner Riitta Raesmaa. So in early 2009, Sopima began to develop the Sopima Online Contract Bank.
As a small company with limited investment capital, Sopima took the strategic decision to base its solution on a software-as-a-service approach and deliver it in a ‘cloud computing’ environment. “By having the solution hosted and managed on the Internet through an external partner’s data centres, we could minimise hardware infrastructure and administration costs and achieve rapid deployment. It also freed the team to focus on other areas,” says Riitta.
It was important for Sopima to have a hosted infrastructure provider that had key expertise in the .NET framework. Sopima found that the Windows Azure platform matched their development needs: “The .NET framework is a great foundation on which to build up this kind of business. It’s a solid platform for highly efficient development,” says Markus Mikola, Partner, Sopima.
To aid its development efforts, Sopima joined the Microsoft BizSpark program and through this, Sopima has received valuable online training, access to software, support for Windows Azure and exposed to a rich networking ecosystem. “I’d recommend BizSpark to any start-up building on Windows technology,” says Riitta. “As well as access to technology, it gives us visibility with potential investors, clients and partners.”
Sopima is also working towards becoming a Microsoft Certified Partner. “We want to take advantage of all the helpful network of sales and marketing professional and opportunities that Microsoft can offer us. Microsoft is more than a technology partner – it’s a business partner too.”
Sopima launched its service in March 2010 to pilot customers meaning this start-up will be able to achieve early-stage cash-flow while minimising its capital investment. Says Riitta, “The launch is proving very successful and we’re attracting a lot of new customers. With Azure, we have a scalable platform that will match our growth and with Microsoft, we have a partner that is helping us to grow our business. We chose Windows Azure and Microsoft because the opportunities were so great we could not ignore them.”