Xait 20-year anniversary!

September 1st marked Xait’s 20-year anniversary. Just like many other technology companies, it started with a problem that needed to be solved, and an idea for how to solve it. Viking Venture invested in Xait in 2016 and are Xaited to be part of their continued journey. We have had a chat with Eirik Gudmundsen, CEO at Xait, about the company, Covid-19 and his thoughts going forward.

Xait is 20 years this fall and just like many other technology companies, it started with a problem that needed to be solved, and an idea for how to solve it. What is Xait and what value do you bring to your customers?
–Xait is a technology company, headquartered in Stavanger, delivering a solution called XaitPorter. XaitPorter enables companies to create high quality documents with contributions from many authors simultaneously. The documents can be large and complex, and the contributing authors could be 10-20 people spread around the world in offices or at home. Already written content can be reused, and the process can be managed as a project with reviewers, approvers and deadlines. With XaitPorter, you no longer need to send documents back and forth in emails or via file sharing services. Also, the design and layout for any document can be easily managed, and will remain consistent throughout, even when parts of the content are copied from another document. The powerful features of XaitPorter have allowed many of Xait’s customers to deliver proposals in bid processes very fast, and with very high quality. The solution is industry agnostic and can be used for any high value documents like bids, proposals, contracts, annual reports, white papers, etc

We are all talking about adapting to the ‘new normal’ and if we look ahead, what do you think the workplace post-Covid-19 will look like and what does this mean to Xait?
–I believe the workplace will continue to evolve and change. I don’t believe in a «new normal» post-Covid-19. Instead, I think we have to learn to live with an evolving and continuously changing environment. And in such a changing environment, I think the flexibility of modern cloud solutions will be critically important. I believe the more companies manage to adopt modern cloud technologies in a secure and efficient way, the more likely they are to succeed. And we of course think XaitPorter is one such technology.

You have been with the company since 2018 after many years abroad at Emerson. How would you describe the last two years with Xait? What surprised you the most with the company?
–I have truly enjoyed the last 2 years in Xait. In Xait, we have a solution that adds a lot of value to our customers, and when I started here I could see a lot of potential for further growth. In 2018, together with the whole team, we quickly established a strategy for accelerated growth. In 2019 we could already see the results. My biggest surprise coming into Xait was the power of XaitPorter. I have participated in many bids and tender processes prior to Xait, and I always remember spending a lot of time on the collaborative document writing process, especially the final hours of trying to adjust the formatting in order to make the document consistent. I think many people experience the same, not knowing that solutions like XaitPorter can significantly improve both the experience and the output 🙂

What is the big hairy goal going forward and what are important steps for Xait’s to get there?
–Our vision is: «Let’s Make The World More Xaiting!». We really want every business in the world to discover the power of XaitPorter. We still have room to grow many times our current size, and we want to have a fun and exciting journey along the way! There are still many industries we haven’t explored enough yet. We have just dipped our toes into Construction and IT so far, and we see a lot more potential there. Similarly, we believe industries we already have a lot of experience with, like Life Science and Energy, can grow a lot more for us. Another opportunity for Xait is to continue to develop new and Xaiting features and solutions that can further add value to our customers. We are currently running a project where we apply AI and Machine Learning to help our customers get more value from their content. We are also looking at how we can improve the whole process from when a request for quote is received to when the contract is signed. At the end of the day, and throughout Xait’s 20 year journey, the ultimate goal is to help our customers win with Xait!

Take a look at Xait’s brand new video on how to handle document collaboration anywhere and anytime.

Curious to learn more about Xait’s powerful co-authoring solution? Check out this article from Dagens Næringsliv  on how XaitPorter allows much more agile collaboration between people and resources both inside and outside of the organization.