New solutions from Cloudx Services
The Norwegian company offers independent Skype for Business cloud service with telephony
Photo courtesy of Microsoft
The above screenshot shows some of the Cloudx Services features available using Skype for Business.
Rasmus Falck
Oslo
In early 2013, CEO Jon Sjølie was frustrated by the fact that system integrators and telecom operators were ignoring the global small and medium enterprise market when it came to offering Skype for Business activated with telephony. Based on this discovery, he left his job as a business development director and teamed up with serial entrepreneur Jan A. Solvang to dive into the opportunity. After three months of research, the two entrepreneurs believed fully in the business case and unique market position and started the planning of going to market with a multitenant Microsoft-based telephony solution.
Cloudx Services is based in Moss, Norway, and was founded in May 2014. There they are located with other startups in an old shoe factory. The two entrepreneurs own the company on a 50-50 basis. Their current operations include Norway, Benelux, France, and the United Kingdom, and they took over the Dutch company Startready, which used to be their solution supplier.
It is important for the startup to be Norwegian. The entrepreneurs want to create local employment opportunities. It is cost effective even if investments in the Moss area are real estate driven. They want to make the solutions more automatic, and they will be more cost effective as sales increase.
Entrepreneur and CEO Sjølie is proud of having been part of the Norsk Data (ND) team, which was a computer manufacturer located in Oslo from 1967 to 1992. At its peak in 1987, it was the second-largest company in stock value in Norway and employed more than 4,500 people. Throughout its history, ND produced a long string of extremely innovative systems, with a disproportionately large number of world firsts. The origin of the company goes back to the development of digital computers at the Norwegian Defense Research Establishment at Kjeller. ND collapsed after a long period of exceptional success, mostly because it did not realize the impact of the PC revolution. Although the breakup caused a large number of layoffs, a large number of employees, as well as intellectual property, lived on in various smaller companies.
After a bumpy ride on the Microsoft train, Cloudx Services changed strategy, and the service was launched. It is now positioned as the only independent Skype for Business cloud service with telephony on the market. It is independent in the way that customers can use any telephony provider and any vendor of Microsoft services without having to migrate. This makes it the most open and flexible offering to companies using Microsoft Office as their business tool. The future looks bright!
Rasmus Falck is a strong innovation and entrepreneurship advocate. The author of “What do the best do better” and “The board of directors as a resource in SME,” he received his master’s degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He currently lives in Oslo.
This article originally appeared in the Jan. 26, 2018, issue of The Norwegian American. To subscribe, visit SUBSCRIBE or call us at (206) 784-4617.
