Aspose started trading in 2002. A decade later, the company has gone from a couple of people working on one product to teams across the globe developing and supporting over 20 products across five platforms. The software industry changes quickly, so what has Aspose done to adapt and grow in the last 10 years?
1. We listened to our customers
It is great fun to come up with a new product or service but if you can’t sell it, you shouldn’t spend too much time developing it. One of our selling points is the quality of our support. We listen to our customer’s needs and issues. When we hear the same thing repeatedly, we know that we need to do something: issue a patch if there’s a problem, or develop a new product if there’s a gap in the market.
2. Employed smart staff that work intelligently
Aspose has teams across the globe, each specializing loosely on an area of the business. There’s some cross-over and a lot of cooperation. Ten years ago, distributed teams existed, of course, but they were not as common as they are now. When most of your discussions are mediated by digital tool you need a very particular employee: a self-motivated, well organised self-starter with good communication skills.
3. Took our own advice
Or, as it is also known, “eat your own dog food”. Components of the kind that Aspose develops save developers time and effort. That’s the point: we put in the time and expertise so that you don’t have to. The components we create don’t just save you time: it does the same for us. Our developers use our software in internal and external projects. This way we understand how our products are used even better, and get a strong understanding for what our users really need from our products. And we save time and money.
4. Constantly looked to the future
To stay current and relevant in a market place you need to look at where you’ve been and where you are. It is also important to keep a steady view of where you are going. Aspose looks to the future constantly. We think about ways of making our teams more efficient, our products more performant. We look at new technologies and try to predict what is happening in the industry.
We have grand plans and look forward to another 10 years in business.