By Allan Maurer
WINSTON-SALEM, NC—About five years ago, serial entrepreneur Andrew J. “Flip” Filipowski, who had already had significant successes with software companies Cullinet and Platinum Technology, saw human resources as a business area much in need of benefits software could provide.
In 2003, Filipowski founded SilkRoad technology inc., funding it to the tune of $23 million through SilkRoad Equity, which handles his personal resources. This week the company raised $10 million from Azure Capital, its first institutional investor.
SilkRoad technology sells software that helps companies manage their talent from the recruiting stage through on boarding, training, evaluations, and post-employment. “Companies are very interested in becoming preferred employers,” says Filipowski, CEO and executive chair of SilkRoad technology.
“They’re willing to spend a reasonable amount of money to address this area of recruiting and keeping the best talent and shape the brand of the business. Everyone wants to be the Google, not the Yahoo. There’s a push from the boardrooms for companies to position themselves as preferred employers.”
The advent of selling software as a service (SaaS) helped push adoption along, he adds. “SaaS opened up the consumption of what was once licensed software used by only the largest of Enterprise businesses. Now, small and certainly medium-sized businesses have access to the same type of software previously available only to the largest enterprises. It’s really fueled the growth.”
SilkRoad, he notes, “has Fortune 50 customers and customers with fewer than 50 employees.”
Most people have worked for employers who do one or more human resources functions poorly, whether allowing new employees to languish without anything to do or conducting compensation evaluations. SilkRoad technology’s suite makes sure managers stay on top of HR.
In on boarding a new employee, for instance, Filipowski says, the software would let a manager know he still hasn’t received a laptop because Joe, who handles that, is on vacation and no one backed him up.
Letting employees go presents other problems. Some keep email addresses long after they are gone, don’t return company laptops, and “similar breeches of security,” explains Filipowski.
“CEOs ‘get it’ right away,” says Filipowski. “I can’t tell you how many I’ve met who ask why no one has done this before. They say, ‘Of course we’ve got to do this.’ It’s a gratifying experience.”
On top of everything else, he notes, “Cost savings are dramatic.” Companies can justify the cost of the suite just by what they save sending out employment and other forms online rather than through Fed Ex, he says.
Customers include Boston University, woman’s apparel maker Eileen Fisher, FTD.com, gettyimages, Navarre, Net Q, Perrigo, Urban Outfitters, among others. “We’re adding about a customer and a half a day,” says Filipowski.
The 150-employee company experienced rapid growth and expects to double its size on the heels of the current funding, Filipowski tells TechJournal South. It may seek additional funding. “We don’t consume a lot of capital, but supporting this kind of growth takes a lot of fuel,” he says.
Filipowski had good results with Platinum technology, which he founded and grew into the 9th largest software company in the world prior to its sale to Computer Associates for $4 billion, the largest such transaction for a software company at the time. He was named an Entrepreneur of the Year by both Ernst & Young and Merrill Lynch.
Filipowski is aware that SilkRoad has considerable competition in the HR space that will eventually be consolidated. Now, however, he says SilkRoad tech is focused on “becoming the leader.”
On the Web: www.silkroad.com
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