Businessmodel of Talend

Customer Segments

Talend has a niche market business model, with a specialized customer segment. The company targets its offerings at firms seeking open source data integration software.

Value Proposition

Talend offers five primary value propositions: innovation, convenience, performance, cost reduction, and brand/status.

The company has embraced innovation throughout its history. It was the first provider of commercially-available open source data integration software. It introduced the first open source master data management solution. Lastly, it offers the first data integration platform built on Spark.

The company creates convenience. Its main offering is a single solution that enables users to connect data and applications with the same interface and visual tools. They can be connected in the cloud or on-premises, in real-time or in batch format, and from big data to master data. In addition, Talend’s visual design tool is an eclipse-based designer that makes it simple to build integration jobs utilizing innovations such as machine learning, Spark, and Spark Streaming.

The company has demonstrated strong performance. Its solution connects at big data scale, five times faster and at one-fifth the cost. Because the data integration platform is built on Spark, it gives clients up to 100 times better performance than any similar offering on the market.

The company reduces costs. It maintains a pricing model based on developers rather than volumes or data sources, which significantly lowers total cost of ownership. Moreover, its modern architecture decreases maintenance/installation costs, and its single design environment reduces training costs.

The company has established a strong brand as a result of its performance. It has over 500 employees operating in offices in North America, Europe, and Asia. It serves over 1,300 enterprise customers globally. These include several *Fortune *500 clients such as Comcast, eBay, General Electric, Samsung, Virgin Mobile, and Citi. Lastly, it has won many honors, including a ranking on the CRN Big Data 100 six times, a ranking on the DBTA 100 three times, a ranking on the SD Times 100 twice, several InfoWorld Bossie Awards, and an InfoWorld Technology of the Year Award (2009).

Channels

Talend’s main channels are its website and direct sales team. The company promotes its offering through its social media pages, webinars, virtual roadshows, trade shows, and conferences.

Customer Relationships

Talend’s customer relationship is primarily of a personal assistance nature. The company assists customers in the following ways:

• Support Services – The company provides 24/7, multilingual technical support for all of its products. The support is provided from a global network of centers and is available by phone, e-mail, or online. Customers who upgrade to the Enterprise and Platform plans receive enhanced service that includes guaranteed response times and increased access to experts at support.talend.com.
• Training Services – The company offers instructor-led courses on client sites, in public classrooms, and online, utilizing cloud-based virtual machines with installations of Talend software. Classes provide hands-on practice and real-world examples. Subject matter includes big data, data integration, application integration, and master data management. Certification is also an option.
• Consulting Services – The company provides professional services from experts in the areas of implementation, architecture design, strategy, delivery, and optimization to drive faster time-to-value and reduce project risks. Clients are assigned Technical Account Managers (TAMs) who assist them in the selection and coordination of the services. Despite this orientation, there is a self-service component. The company’s website features a “Resources” section that includes white papers, videos, webinars, and product information. The site also includes articles, self-paced training options, free software downloads, and a newsletter with industry trends. Talend’s YouTube channel provides tips, tricks, tutorials, and feature updates. Lastly, there is a community component in the form of a forum on its website where customers can interact.

Key Activities

Talend’s business model entails designing and developing its software for customers.

Key Partners

Talend maintains the following types of partnerships:

• OEM/SaaS/Cloud Partners - The company works with firms that embed its integration software into their OEM, cloud-based, and SaaS services in order to provide an enhanced solution for customers.
• Value-Added Resellers – The company works with firms that resell its products in order to expand its base of customers. Specific partners include Accenture, Illumination Works, Keyrus, OSSCube, Sterling, Technica, and ThunderCat Technology.
• System Integrators – The company works with firms that provide consulting services on data and application integration to its customers. Specific partners include Business & Decision, Syntel, TCS, Tech Mahindra, TESCHGlobal, Virtusa, and Wipro.
• Technology Partners – The company works with firms that ensure compatibility of their solutions with its products in order to streamline implementation. Specific partners include Appko, Bonitasoft, Cloudera, Contentserv, Couchbase, Datastax, Dataupia, Exasol, Exoplatform, and Google. All partners receive training materials and support in the areas of sales and marketing, as well as access to a partner portal where they can receive a wide variety of resources.

Key Resources

Talend’s main resources are its human resources, who include the engineering employees that design and develop its software, the training/consulting staff who provide instruction and advice, the sales/marketing staff who promote its products, and the customer service staff who provide support.

As a startup it has relied heavily on funding from outside parties, raising $101.6 million from 10 investors as of December 2013.

Cost Structure

Talend has a value-driven structure, aiming to provide a premium proposition through significant personal service and frequent product enhancements.

Its biggest cost driver is likely cost of services, a variable expense. Other major drivers are in the areas of sales/marketing and customer support/operations, both fixed costs.

Revenue Streams

Talend has one revenue stream, the subscription fees it charges customers to license its software. Subscriptions come in two levels:  Entry-Level Edition and Platform Edition.