Real IT with Enterprise 2.0

Over the past few months, I’ve had the opportunity to meet with over 30 start-ups in the web 2.0 space. These meetings include multiple interviews and information exchanges. The companies in this list range from middle ware to applications, to providers to social networking products.

Of the 30 or so start-up companies with whom I met, the following is a list of the companies that have a great chance to succeed.

Before, I get started I want to explain that my predictions are based on the following criteria.

• Product/ solution. I don’t care what you call it, does it work?
• Customers – customers are real – no customers – no list
• Revenue – Does the company have revenue? Can the company make money?
• Management – does the management team “get it”? You can have all the IT background in the world, but without the management team, it is a big hill to climb.

Ok, let’s get to the companies

Social Networking

The clear leader in this space is Mocospace. Mocospace provides a wireless social networking portal for users of any age. The fact that this is done on your cell phone puts Mocospace well above the rest of the social networking companies. Also, they have customers, ad revenue and some solid partnerships. Finally, the management team is very smart and has a passion for delivering the best product on the market – look out other social networking companies, this is the real deal.

Web Services / SOA

The leader in this space is Crosscheck Networks. This is hands-down leader. Testing web services and security is the next big thing in Enterprise Web 2.0 and Crosscheck has the easy to use product, strong management and solid revenues. Unlike many other companies in this space, they are a strong standalone company with the opportunity to dominate in 2007

AJAX

I think every company out there claims to have an Ajax Web 2.0 product. However, Backbase has arguably the best product and the most revenues to date. For a start-up, they understand the market and the customers. They have top name “paying” customers and a revenue stream unparalleled in the market place. Watch as they explode in 2007 and become one of the clear leaders in Ajax development and support.

Security

Securent is the leader in Entitlement Management. It has delivered the industry’s first XACML-standards based Entitlement Management solution that has been proven in mission-critical enterprise environments. Strong product, great management and customers make this a company that may not be alone for long.

BPM/ Document Management and ECM

The clear leader in this space is Document Advantage. DocuVantage provides enterprise document management software designed to help organizations streamline their document and information management processes, share and distribute information between employees and customers while maintaining regulatory compliance. DocuVantage products electronically capture and manage information that include paper documents to electronic files and information.

Another one to watch in 2007 or 2008

Pramiti is one of the first companies to recognize the need for solutions platforms. They have a management team that understands the space and can help direct and create the future. Pramati Technologies is an end-to-end Enterprise Java platform vendor with a product suite that includes application servers, component development tools, and an extensible web based management framework. Pramati helps customers build and manage robust J2EE^TM solution environments with a service suite of architecture, deployment and performance engineering. The result is invariable: faster time to market, lower engineering expenses and superior performance.

Coming up, I’ll take a look at some big software vendors.