Few months ago, I speculated if Box can become a platform for PLM. Navigate to my previous article to read more details. In a nutshell, it was about aligning Box industry strategies with the opportunity to use Box cloud storage for engineering data.
Business insider article yesterday Box and VCs have created a $40 million fund for startups building on Box’s platform made me think again about the potential opportunity for Box to be a platform for engineering applications. The article is stressing the point of use storage for business applications. Here is the passage from article explaining why Box is looking for startups.
If Box wants to rule the business software market, it needs a lot of people using it. To get a lot of people using it, it needs apps that use it as the storage service on the backend. To get apps that use the service, it needs more startups willing to do it.
So, how to start? Navigate to the following TechCrunch article to learn more about Box development edition. The cost of storage is decreasing and companies like Box are looking how to create future business differentiations.
Box has recognized for some time that cloud storage is a commodity. Knowing that and noting it on stage, the company pressed its various services that it has built on top of storage, like permissions, access statistics and content management. Box Developer Edition is a bet that developers want to integrate storage and file management into their apps, but don’t want to bother with all the hassling details, something that Box has spent significant time and resources figuring out.
More details about Box development edition is here. On the following picture, you can see a possible template for enterprise application on top of Box platform.
Take a look on many enterprise PLM applications and you can recognize similar pattern – groups, folders, content, permissions, collaboration.
What is my conclusion? I like the idea of turning Box towards a platform to build enterprise applications. The barrier to get in the market of enterprise applications is high. Enterprises’ preference to work with large trusted companies is well known in the market. And most of startups are dying because they cannot reach customers. Having investors and neutral horizontal service like Box as a foundation can be an interesting start for new PLM company. Just my thoughts…
Best, Oleg
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