Compendia: New Mobile Collaboration App Sets Sights on NYC
The rise of the mobile device spurred a wealth of mobile applications boasting a range of unique and precise functionalities. The mobile enterprise now faces the challenge of pulling the best-of-breed functionalities into as few applications as possible to keep users from straying to new but unsecured applications.
One software title making a name for itself as a secured, enterprise-ready, all-in-one application is Compendia, a startup that is moving from Ireland to New York City.
Compendia markets itself as a secure platform for mobile enterprise collaboration. CEO and founder Tony Prylowski says the tool contravenes the functionalities of multiple everyday essential apps, including Office document editing, document management, security, collaboration, PDF annotation, electronic signature, and voice recording. With connectivity right back to the desktop itself, permissioned users see the same view of Office documents and spreadsheets on their tablet as they do at the desk. The software is very focused on areas where information security is critical to the organization while allowing people access to tablets.
"Enterprises are enticed with mobile rich experiences, but the most significant element is security," Prylowski says. Relying on cloud technology, Compendia leaves nothing on the device itself, and it keeps an audit trail of changes. "And there is document-centric security in which the generator of the document is responsible for its permissions. This was a role traditionally left to IT. Even in many places today, if somebody wants access to a particular document, you call up IT and request it, which is a waste of IT resources completely."
A closed system
Due to regulatory concerns and data sensitivity, financial advisers require secure information systems. Because enterprises want the advisers to modify spreadsheets and word documents while out on the road, today's applications must ooze mobile convenience, he says.
Someone can simply scribble something and send it back. It's that productivity that they're looking for that's not there at the moment. There's an app for this, an app for that, and none of these apps are secured, per se. So what we've done is wrapped all that security and collaboration around a couple of core applications. Think of people marking up PDFs with an application like this, as opposed to typing, and coordinating all of those comments into one place. Or the possibility of executing a trade in a broker dealer situation, whereby you not only have the instruction recorded in the contract document; you also have the electronic signature. It's very powerful.
To the concrete jungle
Compendia is moving from Ireland to serve the financial sector better. Research and development will remain in Ireland. Prylowski is hiring UX and UI staff in New York, along with sales and marketing teams.
"We've come to NYC for enterprise customers. We intend to target the top 100 investment banks and insurance companies here and the surrounding area," he says. "At the moment, we have a couple of the large investment banks trying the product, and we've only been here in a couple weeks, and it has raised a few eyebrows to say the least."
Becca Lipman is Senior Editor for Wall Street & Technology. She writes in-depth news articles with a focus on big data and compliance in the capital markets. She regularly meets with information technology leaders and innovators and writes about cloud computing, datacenters, ... View Full Bio
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