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Enterprise technology is the technology used in organizations, such as businesses, governments and non-profits. It’s different from consumer technology which is designed for individuals. The next wave of high growth companies will emerge from the enterprise technology industry, mainly because the market is mature – enterprise users are ready to use technology at work.

Consumer technology prepared enterprise users for automation technology. One of the most prominent consumer internet products, social network, automates our personal life. This past Thanksgiving I had a great time at my friends’ house in Tennessee, but unfortunately one of them fell off her horse and broke her wrist. She updated her family using a Facebook group of family members. By going to the group and posting the message, she mass distributed a message to a selected group of people, and those people can read it at a right time. Before Facebook, she would have to call or text each one of the family to mass distribute, and search in her memory to be sure to cover every one of this selected group of people, and think of a time that’s right for them. Facebook automated all those into a simple action, saving her time and energy. Half of Americans are on Facebook, and have experienced this form of automation technology.

It’s hard not to use the same concept at work, especially those that involve frequent communications. In a movie set for example, directors coordinate hundreds of people – cast members, sets, props, camera, sound, electrical, etc. getting a message across selected group of people at the right time can be challenging. If the director wants to shoot some interior shots instead of the planned car-chase, because the highway permit application was not successful, he needs to cancel the stunt drivers, get the extras for interior shots, and update the production office. Right now the work is done by associate directors calling and talking to the crew, but I have been working with a company trying to automate the process. The entrepreneur told me that movie producers and directors loved the product, because the concept is just the same as in social networks. Just as in film industries, companies are innovating in other sectors of our economy, such as advertising (sidecar), insurance (Compliance Assurance), and even law enforcement (Appriss).

The mature user base is not the only market driver for enterprise technology’s future growth. And automation of communication is not the only way it creates value. I will write more about the dynamics of the industry in future posts.

iPhone 4S is released today, with advanced voice recognition, Siri. It synthesizes search results into natural English, and executes multi-step commands such as moving a appointment for another new appointment.

The advanced functionality may not be the biggest impact of Siri, however. Yes, Because of iPhone 4S, there will soon be similar voice products on Android, and maybe windows phone, in 6 months. But the more substantial change it brings could be the popularization of voice control. People could voice dial 10 years ago on feature phones, but most people still dial mechanically when they are driving. Subconsciously people are evaluating: voice dial doesn’t divert my attention to the road, but it’s weird talking to a machine (same thing for the T-mobile automatic customer service). Apple with it’s magical marketing may again unlock another customer need, after mobile music and mobile internet.

Scinfotek is looking for a co-founder! Scinfotek makes web applications for mid-sized biotech companies, to help collect, process and visualize data from their research instruments. Scinfotek will revolutionize the biotech industry, which is still using Flash drives and Excel. Current team includes Marshall Yang, who worked at Merck and Robin Hood Ventures, and Tom Harkins, Who worked at Wyeth and Merck. We are looking for a techie familiar with LAMP stack, and interested in biology and/or chemistry. We are getting serious interest from the Dreamit 2011 Fall program. Please send your resume to marsh@scinfotek.com.

I have been working with startups in the financial vertical and learning the future of the industry. I like startups that put financial services at one place – Mint.com is a good example. Congrats on their 2011 Webby Award.

Going beyond just financial statements and budgeting offered by Mint, BankSimple aims to harbor saving, checking, and credit services in one place, without the traditional bank structure. They provide the customer-friendly frontend system, and send the transaction data to partner banks through API (such as BancBox). The backend traditional bank is invisible to BankSimple’s customers. It’s a new model of banking. Josh Kopelman invested in BankSimple.

Ziptr focuses on the integration of security. I have been working on my startup for a month, and often need to send documents and messages to accountants through secured document deposits. It’s a pain to memorize logins for different deposits. Ziptr provides a portal where you can send secured messages and files through different deposits. The founder, Firdaus Bhathena has successfully started 2 companies before Ziptr.

I believe in the economic value of integrating financial services, as it improves the communication between people and their financial institutions. Next time I will blog about how startups are changing the financial interactions among people.

At the June Philly Tech Meetup, TableSparks and ElectNext will demo. There are still 2 more slots available. If you think your startup is ready for spotlight, submit an application.

Last week, I co-hosted the Philly Tech Meetup with Brendan McCorkle and Jacob Dreyfuss. Over 100 people came to the event, for 3 awesome startups’ demo. Tim Griesser presented Get On Social, a social media integrator. Sean McCloskey presented Lavahound, a geolocational service for campus tours. Adam Palmer demoed Food For Thought, a new way of rating restaurants. At the after party, entrepreneurs, investors and enthusiast got to mingle together, and I know a couple of people who found their tech guys and lawyers there. We are preparing for the next meetup, so Philly, ready for impact?

Thanks to the sponsor of the event, Dreamit Ventures and Robin Hood Ventures (where I proudly work).

I am co-hosting the next Philly Tech Meetup.

Join your colleagues for some awesome start-up demos, question and answer period and time to network with fellow entrepreneurs! This event is being co-sponsored by DreamIt Ventures and Robin Hood Ventures!

RSVP here: http://bit.ly/l2uMFJ

Care to demo? Please submit an application.

To add on to my previous post Getting Things Done with Start-ups, RIM just announced its acquisition of Tungle. Here is more.

xkcd on Time Management

I am a big fan of David Allen’s “Getting Things Done” time management methodology (his book on Amazon). Now we can implement his system using startup technologies, such as Tungle.me and Followup.cc.

Tungle.me is a social calendar application. It syncs with my Outlook calendar and publish it online (tungle.me/marshyang). It’s cheaper than Exchange Server, and its sync program is much more light-weight than Google sync. Now every time my teams schedule a meeting I just give my tungle.me link, ignore the rest of the back-and-forth emails, and wait for the final time. Thanks to Yodle’s founder Nate for introducing tungle.me to me.

Followup.cc is a to-do list living in your inbox. To-do list is a very practical system of multitasking with our single-threaded brain (Yes, your brain is single-threaded!). It gives tasks a safe place to stay with proper reminders, and makes a person to focus 100% on one task a time without worrying about others. Followup.cc uses a creative method to make emails bounce back to your inbox at a time you desire, creating the reminders of the emails. I met Chris (Twitter) in Boston at the webinno29 (click for their website). They have a very energetic team.

Enjoy the productivity brought by the entrepreneurial community.