Central Desktop's Rising Success

Around the world and across the nation, Q4 of 2008 was a tough quarter for everyone.  The month of October was a haze - filled with panic and fear with no end in sight.  November wasn't much better, but at least the stock market free fall ended before the Thanksgiving holiday.  

At Central Desktop it was no different than at most companies:  we were concerned about our 401ks, our customers, our families, our jobs and our future.  But, after the sick feeling abated, we looked around and realized that we made it through the trough of the slump.  Don't get me wrong, we know that 2009 is going to be a tough year and we know that that we can't be sure of an economic turn around anytime soon - the daily news, our spouses, our friends and even our investors are all quick to remind us of the difficulties ahead of us (rightfully so).

But overall, we are positive about our future, mainly, because in spite of the gloom - and in spite of the pain that we experienced and witnessed all around us - that there was a beacon of light; a glimmer of hope.  The truth and facts are that we had a record November and December and a record fourth quarter!

Yesterday, we issued a press release spotlighting our recent success - not to rub it in anyone's face - but to share some good news in a blogosphere filled with dearth, gloom and doom.  

In the worst quarter of the new millennium, Central Desktop not only grew in revenue, employees and customers - but we also released a new product (Central Desktop Enterprise Edition) and added 10 mid-market customers in December alone, including IBI Group, a multi-disciplinary consulting firm providing a range of services focusing on the physical development of cities, and Workday, Inc., the leader in on-demand enterprise solutions for human resources and business management.

I wanted to make sure that we issued the release to also assure our customers that Central Desktop is doing very well, growing and trustworthy in these tough economic times. I also wanted the release to remind our employees of the great job they've been doing during these times and to let them know that they should be proud of their hard work.

You can read the entire release here; but I wanted to highlight some key quotes:

"...tripled its staff and reached over 250,000 users in 2008, a 150 percent increase in both user count and revenue."

"Our Fortune 500 customers have multi-phased, multi-geographic implementation projects with a multitude of stake holders, and we need to get each implementation up and running fast," said Jeff Langenfeld, Delivery Assurance Group, Workday. "We are 100 percent SaaS, so even when our customers want to work with us on an on-premise platform, we ask that they collaborate with us via Central Desktop because we understand that SaaS is so much easier to use, manage and get-up-and running. No one has the time or resources for on-premise solutions in today's environment."

"Businesses, non-profits and government agencies are all being forced to reevaluate and reduce IT costs wherever possible in today's weak economy," said Mark Levitt, VP for Collaboration and Enterprise 2.0 Strategies, IDC. "Recognizing that work must still get done, organizations are turning to SaaS, particularly for collaboration solutions that can be deployed with minimal internal IT resources and paid for out of operating expense budgets."

Even through difficult economic times, Central Desktop is continuing to grow as a SaaS leader in the social technology market.  We know that 2009 will remain to be a difficult year for everyone, including us; but we are confident that we will continue to succeed and make thousands of customers happy over the course of 2009 as well.

So far, January is shaping up to be another stellar month building on our Q4 momentum - propelling us forward to another record year.  We are carrying the momentum into February with new product features that many of you will enjoy very much.  Stay tuned and learn more here. 

Thank you all for your support, your business and your trust.

Update:  Phil Wainwright has written an entire post about SaaS surging in the downturn. It is good to read about other companies like Xactly and Marketo doing well in these times as well.