Beyond Saas: Building for Enterprise

by Josh Kalderimis

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.

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!