Bitrix24.com

Bitrix24 is a comprehensive business collaboration platform. It contains robustly constructed tools like a CRM, calendars, file sharing, tasks, and project groups that are enhanced and unified by an intuitive social-style interface.

  

We have really enjoyed interviewing the entrepreneur Mr. ‘Dmitry Valyanov‘; President of the US (Virginia)-based start-up “Bitrix24″.

“Bitrix24″ is a new SaaS product based on the Company’s on-premise product – Bitrix Intranet – and features flexible collaboration modules, highly simplified deployment procedures, and advanced security mechanisms.

Below is the full interview that we have conducted with Mr. ‘Valyanov’ regarding his web-based company “Bitrix24″;

1. What is it exactly that you do and what “Bitrix24″ is all about?

Bitrix24 is a comprehensive business collaboration platform. It contains robustly constructed tools like a CRM, calendars, file sharing, tasks, and project groups that are enhanced and unified by an intuitive social-style interface. These social features make communications concerning all company operations easier and more transparent, with the added benefit that company knowledge is always searchable. It is the aspiration of Bitrix24 to present a practical solution for management of the entire company.

2. When has “Bitrix24″ been founded? And what stage is “Bitrix24″ currently at?

Bitrix24 began in 2011, having jumped from the shoulders of Bitrix, Inc. The product itself came out in public beta in May 2012. Bitrix24 is in validation stage, although judging by the number of users, there seems to be little doubt that it can find a niche. Financing has thus far been completely internal.

3. What is “Bitrix24″‘s business model and how does it work?

Bitrix24 is a cloud service with a typical freemium pricing model. However, unlike rival services, the paid versions have no limit on the number of users, but pricing is very reasonable and oriented on the amount of space used. More formal business tools, such as reporting and time management, are available in the top plan.

4. How did your team meet? And who in your team does what?

The founders represent a majority of a small Russian bank’s former IT staff. Forging out on their own, they found success in developing an online software vending service and content management solutions. Sergei Rizhikov is the CEO and business strategist; Dmitry Valyanov is President and product development tsar; Yury Tushinsky is CTO, and Vadim Dubravanu is Head of Development.

5. What, exactly, makes you different from existing options, what will make your product and/or service stand out in the marketplace? In other words what’s unique about you and what’s new about what you make?

First of all, Bitrix24 is focused on small business. Other products which offer a unified social collaboration platform have a strong leaning to enterprise level clients. It is worth noting that there are few very many products which offer the set of tools present in Bitrix24, or even a reasonable likeness. Secondly, Bitrix24 has a pricing model that is ahead of its time, since we only charge for space used and some additional features, not users. Objectively, it is hard to explain why 10 cloud users incur more cost to the service provider than 9; Bitrix24 does not look for artificial answers to this question.

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