Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Yesware is distributed as a free plugin for the Google Chrome and Firefox
browsers. This plugin provides templates for various kinds of sales emails. It also
shows when emails were opened and which embedded links were clicked. Email
information can also be reformatted and routed to CRM packages.
Yesware uses a form of
freemium
business model (the term is a combination of
the words “free” and “premium”). In this model, a basic application is provided to
clients for free, but additional features are available on a premium-fee basis. Oth-
er applications using the freemium model include Dropbox, CCleaner, LinkedIn,
WebEx, and several newspapers such as the
New York Times
and the
Providence
Journal
. The freemium model is also a concept of the open-source community,
where applications are free, but services such as training and consulting have
charges.
The freemium model is deserving of business school case studies. It is made
possible by the power of the web to reach enough clients so that respectable rev-
enues might accrue from users of a basic free tool or service. The freemium model
does not work for only a few clients but can also be effective for millions of cli-
ents. The internet and the web are the incubators of the freemium model.
The Yesware concept has gathered favorable comments in business journals
such as
Forbes
,
TechCrunch
, and
CNN Money
. Yesware has received at least one
award for being an effective sales tool.
As computers and software become universal business tools, there are thou-
sands of new niches waiting to be exploited. Yesware is a good example of a spe-
cial niche for sales personnel built on top of slightly older technologies such as
email. Yesware depends on the internet and World Wide Web plus the existence of
email clients. The company could not have been formed more than about 20 years
ago due to the fact that the underlying technologies are all recent.
Predicting New Companies and Products from 2013 to 2019
One of the most interesting aspects of working in the software engineering field
has been the numerous inventions of exciting new products, some of which are of
life-changing importance. Some of these key inventions include medical devices
such as cochlear implants, credit cards, GPS mapping, smartphones, social net-
works, and antilock brakes on automobiles.
Looking forward from today to the end of the decade, current momentum leads
to the conclusion that cloud applications and crowd-based applications will be-
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