November 2, 2015
Dear Shareholders,
I want to preface this update by addressing the questions we keep getting about our stock price and volume. Share price is not an appropriate topic for these updates; rather the purpose of these updates is to talk about what we are doing from a development and technical perspective and about what is going on in the industry. As the CEO, my focus is to build value in the company the best way I know how. Creating value in Eight Solutions is about developing and commercializing unique technology that solve problems better than any competing solution.
In terms of our share price, what I can say is that we take it very seriously. We are all shareholders and we want to see the value we are creating in the building translate to the share price. To help do this we have hired two firms to help us market our story to the right brokers and investors. These are experts in public markets and they can do what they do best, and I can increase value by creating disruptive technology, which is what I do best.
We have evolved from a service-based strategy to a technology and product based strategy. We believe that this strategy will generate significantly more upside through licensing and product sales. In my opinion this strategy, when looking at the bigger market for data visualization, will get the share price to where we want it.
Our number one focus now is to ensure our Cumul8 offering is better than anything else out there, and aggressively sell into our target market. I know I have told you a lot about the technology behind Cumul8 so today I’m going to drive deeper into our revenue models and how we are driving sales.
We have a clear market and vision for our three categories of data narrative tools—each has a story, a market, and a revenue model. Cumul8 is about binding data together and giving users an ability to see it as one narrative. As well, it is important for you to understand we are building these products on top of one main technology base. The diagram below will help explain.
Eight Solutions Pyramid
Cumul8 Cirrus
Cirrus is at the top level. We approach this product as an enterprise product. This has the largest price tag for the client, but has the least number of clients. That is because it is custom built for clients, yet it is based on a set of tools and common code that keeps growing with each new customer. As well, we are able to deliver each new custom solution quicker and more cost effectively then the last.
We approach a Cirrus client with a starting module we call the MVP (minimum viable product). From there we build upon that as the client starts using it and learns how to get more out of it. The revenue approach is to build a yearly model from each Cirrus client. As well we are targeting key players in each industry and leveraging the initial industry success story to expand into the whole industry. Today we are have five Cirrus clients and will grow that number before the end of the year.
Cumul8 Stratus
With Stratus we have designed a digital asset system, which starts with the Digital Asset Management (DAM) module. Today we have close to 1,000 users in Vancouver and India. Stratus has processed 142,000,000 files and deals with 8,000,000 queries per day.
The pricing model is based on a site license, which varies depending on the user count. Far more people will be using Stratus, but each individual will be paying less than an enterprise customer would for Cirrus. Stratus will have a “try before you buy” component, a standard sales incentive for this type of offering. People need to see it adding value and then realize they need it and will save them more resources than it will cost. We have planned addition modules on top of DAM that we can sell into our customers. The second module we plan to sell is called Sync. The Sync module allows multiple sites to sync their assets without needing to spend a lot of money on third party FTP (file transfer protocol) services. The cost of this type of module will save the client money by not having to spend money on other services. Further, it will stream line operations for all multi-location companies that share digital assets. To jump-start the sales on Stratus we plan to work with value added resellers who know the space and know exactly what the customers need.
Cumul8 Sky
Sky is our mobile SaaS product that takes the technology base and learning from both Cirrus and Stratus and leverages it to a broader market. Like Stratus we will implement “play before you pay” strategy, this is similar to products like LinkedIn. This “freemium” model is designed to quickly penetrate the market with a base product and get them using it, loving it, and then paying for it. Although Sky will sell for far less that Cirrus or Stratus, Sky will have the largest volume of users. Because Sky is cloud based and mobile first, we believe that it will rapidly expand throughout the market.
If you have seen IBM’s new product called Watson, you will see how the model can work. Sky is not going up against IBM, as we are a different product, but it does show you that this is an exciting market and consumers are interested in data and data narratives.
Sky is differentiated on a number of factors:
Collaboration: Sky is a collaborative tool, a medium for a group of people to find insights together and make decisions. This collaboration will help create a “data-informed” culture within an organization or any group working together on a product.
Mobile First: Sky is mobile first—not mobile as an afterthought. Our beta version is coming out on IOS and Android first. This matters because your phone is the best way to collaborate in real-time, all the time.
Visual Analytics: The third key way we are going to be better in the market is through our Visual Analytics Loop. This will help you find insights. Sky will deliver analytics in a visual and innovate way, allowing you to merge data, tweak data, tweak visuals, share, repeat, all in one tool.
Community: Last but not least, Sky is a community. Sky will have a community of people sharing datasets and insights, and extending the power of the platform via our API's. We will be tap into popular culture and our community to communicate and market the benefits of the product.
At the end of the day, we believe in Cumul8. We live, eat and breathe Cumul8. I am personally betting on Cumul8 and so is everyone else in the company. We are seeing our sales grow. We are looking to go deep into forestry with our Cirrus product and we are excited about more sales meetings happening this fall. As well as our current industry focus, we are being introduced to transportation companies and more. We do hope that investors are also excited about our story and can see beyond the immediate numbers and see the bigger potential.
Thanks for reading,
rory