Businessmodel of WSO2

Customer Segments

WSO2 has a mass market business model, with no significant differentiation between customer segments. The company targets its offerings at firms of all industries and sizes.

Value Proposition

WSO2 offers four primary value propositions: convenience, accessibility, performance, and brand/status.

The company offers convenience by making life simpler for clients. It operates a 100% open source enterprise middleware platform that enables users to re-compose code or make additions and changes to meet specific requirements over time. It is easy to assemble with and works seamlessly with other components. Also, all of its products are pre-integrated, saving clients time.

The company offers accessibility by providing a wide variety of options. Its platform enables users to build, integrate, secure, analyze, and manage their APIs, Web services, applications, and microservices—on-premises, on mobile devices, in public or private clouds, and across the Internet of Things.

The company demonstrates strong performance through tangible results. Specific positive outcomes for clients include the following:

• eBay used WSO2’s Enterprise Service Bus to handle the traffic of its growing customer base, resulting in 24x7 customer service availability and the processing of over one billion calls daily
• SUVA used WSO2’s Enterprise Service Bus to implement an integrated Web services platform, enabling it to manage over 100 web services overseeing 2.2 million calls per month
• iJET International used WSO2’s middleware to implement end-to-end microservice architecture, resulting in the processing ofover 110 million travel transactions per year The company has established a strong brand due to its success. It has numerous prominent clients, including Cisco, eBay, StubHub, Wipro, and the American Automobile Association.

Channels

WSO2’s main channel is its direct sales team. The company promotes its offerings through its website, social media pages, and participation in webinars, meetups, workshops, and conferences.

Customer Relationships

WSO2’s customer relationship is primarily of a personal assistance nature. The company assists customers in the following ways:

Support Services - The company provides customer service on a 24x7x365 basis. It also offers access to WSO2 Update, a service that gives clients continuous, automatic access to improvements and bug fixes for its products.

Training Services – The company provides training in public spaces and also at the client’s site, where it can be personalized to the client’s preferences (data, systems, processes, etc.). Course participants can also enroll in a certification program in order to provide confirmation of their expertise.

Professional Services – The company offers the following professional services:

• QuickStart Package – WSO2 places two consultants at the client’s site to conduct a week of agile work so the client’s team can get a project off the ground efficiently.
• Strategic Consultancy Package – WSO2 assists clients with complex projects spanning multiple products that need to be completed in a specified period of time.
• WSO2 Managed Cloud – WSO2 offers this hosted service for all of its products. The service sets up virtual machine (JVM) or containerized environments and tailors the deployment to run any combination of its products according to client need. Despite this orientation, there is a self-service component. The company’s website features  a “Library“ section that includes useful resources such as articles, white papers, analyst reports, case studies, tutorials, webinars, and videos. The site also provides self-paced training materials, product documentation, answers to frequently asked questions, and access to a monthly e-mail newsletter providing information on middleware news and events.

There is also a community element in the form of a user forum where clients can interact.

Key Activities

WSO2’s business model entails designing and developing its middleware and delivering related services to its customers.

Key Partners

WSO2 maintains the following types of partnerships:

• Premier Partners – The company indicates that these firms “have a demonstrated the highest levels of commitment to the WSO2 platform, have the capacity to repeatably deliver successful projects to their enterprise customers, and operate globally or across a significant region.“ Specific partners include Capgemini, Wipro, Chakray, Virtusa, and Yenlo.
• Preferred Partners - These firms “have demonstrated the capability to deliver WSO2 solutions, through dedicated WSO2 personnel.“ Specific partners include Avintis, Belatrix, Ciber, Emoxa, GoNet, IndustrieIT, KV Consultants, Marlabs, Profesia, Quinnox, RealDolmen, Sensei, and SmartWave.
• Community Partners  - These firms “have taken the initiative to building a practice around WSO2 technology.“ They represent WSO2’s entry-level partners. Specific partners include Advanced Global Resources, B2B Commerce, Core Networks, Hexaware Technologies, Infosys, and Trask. ### Key Resources

WSO2’s main resources are its human resources, who include the engineers that design and develop its middleware, the sales employees that promote it, the training/consulting staff that provide instruction advice, and the customer service employees that provide support.

As a startup it has relied on funding from investors, raising $20.04 million from seven investors as of August 2015.

Cost Structure

WSO2 has a value-driven structure, aiming to provide a premium proposition through significant personal service and frequent service 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

WSO2 has two revenue streams: revenues it generates from fees it charges for subscriptions to its products and revenues it generates from the sale of related services (support, training, consulting).