When Central PA native and Penn State grad Treff LaPlante left for California to get his MBA, he landed smack in the middle of the tech boom of the late 1990s. He worked with a large video game company and for eBay. The one problem he kept seeing was software for business was just plain bad. It cost too much, took too long to develop and the results were usually less than stellar.
So LaPlante started working on an idea that he brought back home in 2003 and now WorkXpress, which operates out of the Murata Business Center in Carlisle as the worlds only 5GL Platform as a Service (PAAS). The platform allows non-programmers to create limitless, sophisticated business applications using five building blocks in an intuitive environment–as easy as drag-and-drop and point-and-click.
We wanted to make customization easy, fast and affordable and take the traditional concepts out of the loop, says LaPlante.
WorkXpress offers consultants who can build software for clients, but its goal is to make the process self-serve, so it has put a lot of effort recently into developing its online training materials. It will roll out WorkXpress University in the next couple of weeks.
The company has been largely regional, so many light manufacturers, healthcare providers and insurance companies have taken to the service. The growth of cloud computing has made it easier for the company to venture into to other regions and sectors. In the last few weeks, it has received inquiries and sign-ups spanning the globe, from New Jersey to Latin America.
For five years I would pull my hair out giving my elevator pitch, and have someone look at me and say I dont get it, says LaPlante. Now that Platform as a Service and cloud computing are more mainstream, it makes it so much easier to pitch.
The company employs eight and LaPlante envisions growth there by the end of the year. LaPlante, who worked for a company at the famed IdeaLab incubator in Pasadena, said hed choose Murata and its host of services in a heartbeat.
Source: Treff LaPlante, WorkXpress
Writer: Joe Petrucci
