One of the nine value propositions of B2B platforms I have written about least is #8:  Collaborative Project Management.  I have always been troubled by three aspects of these type of platforms that are designed to facilitate inter-company interaction on a complex project:

1.  Many of these platforms automate the initial design phase of, let’s say a building, but then do not keep track of the changes made to the building as it evolves. They do not lend themselves to on-going relationships.

2. These businesses tend to be most oriented to large, capital projects like commercial real estate, oil rigs, and other very lumpy, non-recurring types of projects that again do not lend themselves to recurring SaaS revenues.

3.  For the same reason as #2, many of these businesses, while certainly platforms, have very limited network effects.  As I noted in that post , “If the platform provider brings a unique industry process or best practice to the industry may overcome this issue, but otherwise the collaborative project manager may just be a “souped-up” version of SharePoint.”  (And yes, for the first time in my life I did something I promised I’d never do, I quoted myself. All is lost.  Please forgive me.)

Smartling

A recent Forbes magazine article, however, clued me into a collaborative project management software company that appears to have solved all of these problems in the collaborative project management space:  Smartling.  I fell in love with it immediately.  Let the fawning begin.

The projects Smartling automates are the localization–translation– (and optionally the hosting) of websites.  No big, lumpy capital projects like buildings, just continuously evolving websites that Smartling tracks through-out their lifecycle in real-time.  Problems #1 and #2 above solved.  Smartling solves problem #3 by bringing a whole set of tools, including translators, local hosting, a growing database of translated phrases, and a slick user-interface to greatly enhance network effects.  According to Forbes, the company has $25 million in revenue, is doubling in revenue each year and has a last valuation (in May) of $250 million–which seems cheap to me these days–then again, it is probably $1 billion now! 😉  Clients include Tesla, GoPro, SurveyMonkey, and Apple–not a shabby list.  It is not yet profitable.

As you can see,  Smartling has strung together technology, workflow, human translators, editors and crowdsourcing into a neat little platform.  In a way, it is a very specialized elance, but it provides perhaps a stickier on-going service–rather than discrete projects which might be taken off platform more easily.  You can learn more about Smartling here.

Smartling would seem to have so many opportunities before it–they could add several of the other B2B platform value propositions–from managed services (which they already are) to a matchmaking/credentialing and even transaction financing.  Not to mention the fact that almost any company that wants to sell globally faces this issue some day–making the target market sizeable.

This seems like one to watch and see if they can translate (bad pun intended) their growth into profitability.