Talks
Beyond Saas: Building for Enterprise
Edit
#continuous-integration-ci
#docker
#minimum-viable-product-mvp
#team-building
#pricing
Summarized using AI

Beyond Saas: Building for Enterprise

Josh Kalderimis • December 11, 2015 • Chuo-ku, Tokyo, Japan

The presentation titled "Beyond SaaS: Building for Enterprise" by Josh Kalderimis at RubyKaigi 2015 explores the journey of Travis CI as it expanded from a successful SaaS product to offering enterprise solutions. Kalderimis discusses the challenges faced and lessons learned while integrating enterprise-specific features into their existing Continuous Integration service.

Key Points:

- Understanding Customer Needs: Kalderimis emphasizes the importance of listening to customer feedback, which played a crucial role in shaping the enterprise offerings.

- Team Involvement: The talk highlights the necessity of involving the entire team in the development of enterprise solutions to ensure robust architecture and effectiveness.

- Installation and Security: Kalderimis points out that ease of installation and security are pivotal aspects of an enterprise solution.

- Seamless Integration: The integration of the enterprise solution with existing systems must be smooth and maintainable.

- User Experience: Investing in user experience significantly enhances customer satisfaction, a key consideration in enterprise software.

- Packaging and Deployment: The talk discusses different methods of packaging software for enterprise use, which is essential for installation and performance optimization.

- Customer-Centric Features: Discovering and prioritizing features that directly address the needs of enterprise customers is vital for aligning products with their expectations.

- Licensing Clarity: Kalderimis notes the importance of clear licensing and operational guidelines for customers.

- Communication and Feedback: Maintaining open communication channels with clients aids in understanding their needs and continually improving services.

- Pricing Strategy: An effective pricing strategy supports long-term sustainable growth as the company expands its customer base.

In conclusion, the journey of developing Travis CI for enterprise customers has underscored the importance of building a great product that naturally attracts enterprise interest. Kalderimis encourages others to pursue this path with a focus on quality and customer satisfaction.

Beyond Saas: Building for Enterprise
Josh Kalderimis • December 11, 2015 • Chuo-ku, Tokyo, Japan

http://rubykaigi.org/2015/presentations/joshk

Travis CI found itself growing a great SaaS product, when Enterprise users began unexpectedly asking to use our product on-premise. Our small team had to quickly understand:

The maintenance implications for different ways to package our app.
How to provide enterprise customers great support, despite the new constraints.
How to prioritize Enterprise-specific features.

This talk is the story of how we added an Enterprise offering to our existing hosted Continuous Integration service, the bumps we hit along the way, and what we would do differently now.

RubyKaigi 2015

00:00:00 Hello everyone, my name is Joshua. I am the Chief Product Officer at Travis CI.
00:00:08 It's great to be here at RubyKaigi 2015 and to have the opportunity to speak with you all today.
00:00:24 Before we dive into the talk, let’s get everyone energized. I can see people are getting a bit tired at the end of the conference.
00:00:38 So, on the count of three, I want everyone to stand up. I can see you all from up here! One, two, three!
00:00:47 Great, everyone is up!
00:00:52 Let's do a little exercise. I want you to raise your hands in the air like you're creating an energy ball. Let's shout with energy on three!
00:01:12 Okay, sit back down! Thank you for participating.
00:01:20 Now, a little about myself: I am from New Zealand, a tiny island known for sheep and hobbits.
00:01:40 I come from a beautiful city called Wellington, famous for our flat white coffee. Fun fact: we were the inventors!
00:02:06 Wellington Airport is also known as one of the windiest airports in the world. I've experienced flights there, which can feel quite adventurous!
00:02:29 Now, I live in Berlin, a city rich in culture and history. From techno raves to historical significance, it's a vibrant place to be.
00:03:07 I work at Travis CI, and today I will discuss our journey in building an enterprise offering and the lessons we've learned.
00:03:28 Enterprise software can be daunting, but we found that it requires focusing on building a strong SaaS product and community before tackling enterprise features.
00:03:50 Our enterprise offering came to life as we listened to customer feedback, leading to a series of developments in our product.
00:04:06 One key point I've learned is that while building an enterprise solution, it's critical to ensure it's easy to install and secure.
00:04:31 As we worked on our Travis CI, we learned the importance of involving the whole team in this initiative.
00:04:48 Enterprise solutions must not only be effective but also maintain the capability of seamless integration with existing systems.
00:05:02 However, we encountered challenges that highlighted the complexity of building a robust enterprise architecture.
00:05:19 Over the years, our team has grown and adapted to manage the scalability of our services.
00:05:27 We've learned that investing in a good user experience significantly impacts customer satisfaction.
00:05:39 In fostering a great community, we emphasize the value of feedback through our open-source projects and developments.
00:06:01 Our journey in delivering enterprise solutions taught us about prioritizing the needs of our clients while balancing internal processes.
00:06:21 We discovered that packaging our software effectively is essential for enterprise use, which led us to explore different deployment models.
00:07:05 Streamlining our architecture enabled better performance. However, we had to keep in mind the ever-present technical debt that comes from rapid development.
00:08:30 As we ventured deeper into the enterprise space, realizing the importance of customer-centric features became central to our development.
00:09:01 This meant aligning our core product with the expectations of enterprise clients while ensuring quality and reliability.
00:09:31 Another valuable lesson was the significance of licensing and ensuring that our customers had clear and easy guidelines for operating Travis CI.
00:09:53 By collaborating with our clients, we could effectively assess their needs and adapt our services accordingly.
00:10:11 Through this, we maintained an open channel of communication to consistently improve our offerings.
00:10:26 As we strive to expand our customer base, we've learned to recognize the importance of pricing strategy in ensuring sustainable growth.
00:10:46 In conclusion, my experience in building Travis CI for enterprise has been a challenging yet rewarding journey.
00:11:01 I encourage you all to focus on building a great product, which will naturally attract enterprise interest.
00:11:17 Thank you for your time, and I hope you found this talk insightful!
Josh Kalderimis
@joshk
Explore all talks recorded at RubyKaigi 2015
+43