By Matt Rung, World Financial Symposiums
World Financial Symposiums (WFS) recently presented a Market Spotlight on Blue Collar Software. This is an extremely important new trend we are seeing across many industries — especially in manufacturing, transportation and logistics, utilities, building and construction, restaurants and hospitality, and food and agtech.
We are seeing true renaissance with Blue Collar Software that is driving value, efficiency, reduction of waste, and significant improvements in employee happiness. Verticals are popping up everywhere, with a wealth of opportunities in the first mile, middle mile, and last mile. The WFS Blue Collar Panel included Joel Espelien from Corum Group, Phil Morris from Mariner, Ray Lubeck from vMobile, and Jeremy Holland from Riverside.
Click here to view the webcast on demand.
5 Reasons Blue Collar Software Has Taken Off
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![Joel Espelien, Corum Group]()
Joel Espelien
Executive Director – Client Services, Corum Group
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- There is a large but underserved workforce in manufacturing, transportation, utilities, construction, hospitality, and agriculture industries.
- Strong business cases (ROI) around increased productivity, better quality, reduced waste, enhanced safety & compliance, and better overall efficiency.
- More automation through IoT and APIs to legacy systems.
- Greater Accessibility on mobile devices including both Wi-Fi, and 3G/4G/5G.
- Public cloud (including data analytics and AI) tools making it possible to work with the data at reasonable cost.
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Blue Collar Software: Verticals And Value Chain
![Blue Collar Software Verticals And Value Chain]()
![Top Acquirers For Blue Collar Software Companies]()
![Top Acquirers For Blue Collar Software Companies]()
Source: Corum Group, 451 Database
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![Philip Morris, Mariner]()
Philip W. Morris
CEO and Founder, Mariner
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About Mariner
- Provider of analytics products and services for manufacturers.
- Addressing a wave of overdue modernization in manufacturing. There is $65B in equipment reaching end of life and 40 percent of manufacturers have little or no visibility in the real-time status of production lines.
- Solutions focus on the “concrete floor” with products in the AI and IoT space.
- The impact is in greater productivity, reduced waste, reduced defects.
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![Ray Lubeck, Visual Mobile Technologies, Inc.]()
Ray Lubeck
CEO & Founder, Visual Mobile Technologies, Inc.
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About Visual Mobile Technologies, Inc.
- Developer of vMobile, a mobile unified communications solution that simplifies the process of connecting field personnel with support staff and subject matter experts (SME’s).
- Focused on manufacturers and companies in skilled trades such as HVAC, Electrical, Engineering, etc.
- Solutions measurably improves “first-time fix” and in-turn the other key performance indicators that drive the success of organizations big and small.
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![Jeremy Holland, Riverside Company]()
Jeremy Holland
Managing Partner, Riverside Company
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The Blue Collar Software Space — Investment Perspective
- Tremendous opportunities in sectors where software is truly greenfield.
- Riverside is bringing SaaS applications to these markets to greatly enhance productivity. Leveraging sales excellence team to help entrepreneurs who have a good product - maybe as small as $3M annual recurring revenue – go to the next level.
- One of the main drivers in the Blue Collar Software space is better safety and compliance results. Riverside Company is experiencing tremendous success investing in all things safety and compliance.
- Riverside Company is seeing a much more powerful consolidation where complementary software systems, for the same market, come together.
- Blue Collar industries have been plagued by delays and inefficient processes for too long. But, great systems with visibility and efficiency greatly improves employee satisfaction. So, by introducing new technology systems we retain great workers in the industry and show younger workers that there is a great career path in these fields that are more efficient and forward thinking.
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Click here to view the webcast on demand.
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About World Financial Syomposiums
World Financial Symposiums (WFS) is an international organization dedicated to educating technology leaders. Renowned as the pre-eminent networking facilitator, WFS organizes and promotes forums, seminars and conferences for CEOs, CFOs, corporate investors and other deal participants for software and IT industries worldwide, with the intent to educate and encourage deal flow among industry colleagues. The firm’s one-day, flagship symposium, Growth and Exit Strategies for Software and IT Companies, is held around the world throughout the year and the 30-minute Market Spotlight Series webcasts are held monthly. Visit www.wfs.com to see our schedule of upcoming events or to view previous Market Spotlights on demand.
About World Financial Syomposiums