I met Tensoft’s other co-founder, William White, when we were both attending graduate school at UCLA. I was working at Deltek at the time, and had a background in the business and user experience side of software applications, while William came from a technical and systems development background at IBM. William and I worked on several business plans together, along with keeping up with our studies and ongoing employment. We found that we shared common values and that we both viewed starting a business as a combination of craft – knowing something deeply that is also of commercial value – and business execution. We had the experience and ability that we needed for the craft component – what was needed to move forward was to execute on our business plan, which we did. Twenty years later, our roots in application design, implementation, and development still influence Tensoft’s focus and direction. Along the way, we’ve crystallized our original vision into our current model, which is to provide industry specific business applications to the technology industry.
From the beginning, we knew that we wanted to be an enterprise software company. We had worked with a variety of clients on ERP projects, all the while examining potential product concepts and markets. In 1999, one of our clients, VxTel, asked us to design and build a semiconductor management supply chain application. We built and sold the first generation product a few times, and then began the challenging process to build a commercial product the following year. We formed a steering committee of four fabless semiconductor companies and an industry analyst to review our product designs over the following year. The result was Tensoft Fabless Semiconductor Management (FSM) – now known as Tensoft SemiOps, which today is a leading product for semiconductor operations management. This product continues to evolve and advance based on industry feedback and the core systems knowledge that is Tensoft’s heritage.
In 2005, we introduced Tensoft Revenue and Deferral Management (RDM), the first product in our Revenue Cycle Management (Revenue Lens) suite. We had been working with software companies for several years on ERP solutions and application development, and were interested in building a solution to fit the needs of these customers. The timing and the market interest came together, allowing us to build commercial applications for these – and other – customers. The requirements for the software industry have expanded since then, and now include multiple go-to-market models, multi-element arrangements, and significantly advanced revenue and billing system requirements. Over the past few years, Tensoft RCM (now known as Tensoft Revenue Lens)/RDM has grown significantly and we are continuing to make our mark in the industry.
Tensoft’s core identity revolves around our deep focus on specific industries, combined with extensive system design expertise. Instead of trying to serve a broad range of industries, we’ve chosen to specialize. In doing so, we have much greater understanding of the markets, people, and customers in our areas of expertise. While Tensoft’s business model and business execution has evolved with current market requirements, our core market focus and values has remained constant.
It’s been a substantial investment and has taken discipline to become experts in the technology industry. We’re constantly striving to increase our knowledge in our fields of expertise. Many of our clients are also specialists in their industry, so we have a mutual understanding and appreciation of what a vertical market focus means for a business. For us, it means that we can continue to help these highly specialized companies hit their numbers and achieve their goals.
For more information about Tensoft’s products and services, please contact us.