WorkXpress builds platform for growth

WorkXpress, a technology company at the Murata Business Center in Carlisle, is poised to break out of the recession armed with partnerships that will garner it a steady stream of business and revenue.

For the fifth time in three weeks, WorkXpress has signed contracts to partner with software developers who will exclusively use the company’s technology to create software applications for other clients.

Among the most recent deals, WorkXpress signed a contract June 25 with MicroVerticals, a Hartford, Conn.-based software developer that will use WorkXpress to design its pre-packaged applications. On June 19, the company signed a contract with Harrisburg-based custom-software reseller Collective Intelligence Inc., and on June 12, it penned its first reseller agreement with Cleveland-based MCF Technology Solutions. 

 WorkXpress will collect a monthly commission from the developers every time they use its platform to create an application for a client. As the software developers grow, so will WorkXpress.

The company is negotiating with several other developers for similar agreements, President and Chief Executive Officer Treff LaPlante said. 

WorkXpress’ success comes after nearly seven years and a $2 million investment to perfect its product, which is a software program offered on secure computers over the Internet to build customized business software. LaPlante launched WorkXpress 2.0 in April.

“We bet the farm on our second launch,” he said.

That included investing most of the company’s excess cash in programmers and necessary hardware, completely changing the company’s sales model and hiring a marketing expert, LaPlante said.

“I used to be up all night worrying about this, but I learned you can’t do that,” he said. “You just have to put your best foot forward and trust in what you’re doing.”

While it’s signing contracts that could provide windfalls, WorkXpress does not have excess capital coming in. The company is looking optimistically at the next six months, as more companies use its platform and more revenue flows in on a constant basis, LaPlante said. From there, the business will grow fast, he said.

“We’ve constantly been a company with limited resources, yet big dreams,” he said.

LaPlante declined to release specific revenue figures.

On face value, WorkXpress’ newfound success looks like it’s paper thin, but tech entrepreneurs and software developers said there’s a perfect storm of technology brewing on the horizon that will catapult WorkXpress and similar companies.

That storm is cloud computing, a broad range of software, hardware and other tech services delivered via the Internet. It reduces the cost of buying software licenses, computer servers and services, said Charlie Crystle, a start-up tech adviser and entrepreneur. Cloud-computing companies also provide automatic upgrades when new software is available, instead of having to run to the store to buy the newest version.

Crystle created Lancaster County-based Mission Research and ChiliSoft. Mission Research sells software that allows nonprofits to organize their fundraising campaigns. ChiliSoft is a platform for Web-based applications. Crystle sold ChiliSoft to Cobalt Networks in 2000, and Sun Microsystems subsequently bought Cobalt the same year.

WorkXpress operates in the cloud-computing realm. It provides a platform so other companies can build software using WorkXpress’ computers over the Internet.

Amazon, the tech company and online retailing giant, is a big player in the data-storage and server realm of cloud computing, Crystle said.

As more businesses use cloud-computing services, the potential for companies like WorkXpress to grow is huge, he said.

“WorkXpress only has so much reach. But those third-party developers have an extended reach because every time they get a new client, they’re dependent on WorkXpress,” he said.

Such options can be better for clients, too, said Ryan J. Peterson, principal of Derry Township, Dauphin County-based Serenity Software, a tech-consulting and software-development firm. It’s easier to build software tailored for clients at reduced cost using cloud computing.

“Each business has its own unique needs, so instead of using a pre-packaged software, they’ll use a platform that’s customized to meet their needs.”

Cloud computing also makes applications, hardware and information portable by allowing users to connect through the Internet. Desktop and portable computers become simply terminals to open programs and databases hosted elsewhere, he said.

“Cloud computing is going to almost replace all other (technology) assets,” Peterson said.

It will not replace everything, Crystle said. But, five years from now, cloud computing will certainly be important and help to spur economic development. 

Existing and start-up companies will still take advantage of these growing technologies to create bigger and better ideas, he said. Those companies will be dependent on ones such as WorkXpress. That’s tens of thousands of potential clients.

Billions of dollars are also up for grabs by even small companies that produce quality products, LaPlante said. Cloud computing is growing so fast that it could be an industry worth between $40 billion and $160 billion a year by 2012, he said.

“Prior to today, something like this wouldn’t be possible,” LaPlante said.