First … the news:  http://www.nintex.com/en-US/News/Pages/default.aspx#734

Often when people see a company take on an investment like Nintex announced today they scoff and wonder what luxury locations the owners will now be sunning themselves in.  They usually see it as selling out and not what that deal really represents.

I want you to take a pause for a moment and think about what something like this means for the SharePoint industry.  Think about what a deal like this says. 

These folks have decided to invest $222 million (!!  ma-ma-ma-million) in an independent SharePoint business.  They have decided that there is room for that business to grow in a huge way and to get a handsome return on their investment.

This was a business that, when I first got into SharePoint, started with a recycle bin feature for SharePoint document libraries all those many years ago and grew it into a tens of million dollar business.  Nintex Workflow is now THE singularly most widely used ISV application in SharePoint worldwide.  It’s huge.

We (the entire SharePoint community) should all be all stopped dead in our tracks and being blown away about how incredible this is.

This is awesome because it means outsiders view the space as growing and being worthwhile investing in. 

This is awesome because it means those folks out there with an idea and passion can see where it could take them.  It inspires people to make a go of it and bet on their passion and enthusiasm.

And most importantly this is awesome because it means companies like Nintex can raise money and use it to build their business with new amazing products and solve more of the tough problems facing organizations with tools like SharePoint.

Enterprise software doesn’t have the glitz, glamour and absurd hype the consumer market has … but it does have boat loads of value.  Just look at companies like Yammer being bought by Microsoft, Box taking more funding than you can shake any reasonable length stick at & companies like Splunk and WorkDay are rocking along nicely in the enterprise space.

It’s outcomes like this one for Nintex that make our space an exciting one to be in and something we should all pause, consider and congratulate the Nintex team on.  Provoke loves Nintex products and we use them to help our customers everyday.  We can’t wait to see where their next adventures takes them and look forward to being a part of that journey for many years to come.

Congrats to Brett, Brian, Steve, Mike, Ryan, Alberto and the rest of the Nintex crew!!

-Chris.