Reflecting on my Time at Alfresco

[resplin]

After 8 great years at Alfresco, it is natural to explore new roles. Over the last few months I slowly made the decision to join a friend’s company near my home town. I will be leaving Alfresco Software at the end of March 2018. This is a good opportunity to reflect and celebrate how Alfresco has changed during that time.

When I started at Alfresco Software in January of 2010, the company was exclusively focused on ECM and we had just released Alfresco 3.2. There were around 100 employees. Most of our customers used Alfresco Explorer to work with the product, and Alfresco Share was almost ready for mainstream use. Our small development team worked with a single Product Manager and Product Marketer. We were about to ship our first attempt at Records Management, but hadn’t yet considered a BPM offering. My role was very focused on sales support in the western United States. How times have changed …

And yet, I’m glad that some things haven’t changed over the past eight years. At Alfresco DevCon this year in Lisbon, I found that the enthusiasm, friendliness, and open culture was still the same as when I joined.

My time at Alfresco has been great. Whether my position was in Sales, Marketing, or Product Management, I have been able to work with intelligent and fun people who are employees, partners, customers, and community contributors. They care about the quality of their work and the quality of their professional relationships. They are open, transparent and love to help customers use our products in all sorts of organizations around the world.

Whether I was working the booth at developer events, hosting tech talk live, arguing over an issue report, assisting in the forums, laughing in online chat, staying up all night during a hack-a-thon, or working on a difficult customer problem with a stressful timeline, I have enjoyed the people Alfresco has allowed me to work with.

The announcement of the acquisition by Thomas H. Lee caused me to delay my transition, as I can see the benefits the change in ownership brings. They recognize the strength of Alfresco Software’s vision of a Digital Business Platform that unifies Content,Process, and Governance coupled with a cloud-ready architecture. They understand the strategic advantage that open source provides the company. They recognize the opportunity Alfresco has to grow. I have been impressed with the management team that has met with us, and I expect that under their leadership Alfresco’s growth and rate of innovation will continue to accelerate.

Though Alfresco’s positive outlook and my strong friendships have me feeling conflicted, I decided it was time for me to go. For those who are interested about my next opportunity, I’ll share more details on my personal blog in a few weeks.

I am proud that Alfresco’s products are in great shape. Alfresco Content Services has become a market leader and Alfresco Process Services has matured into a robust offering. The Activiti and ADF teams are setting new standards for innovation and open source collaboration. Alfresco Community Edition has an exciting roadmap for investment and a team that is positioned to execute faster than ever. More people at Alfresco understand the value open source gives to the world and to the company than at any time previously. Alfresco’s developer and open source community will continue to be watched over by passionate employees and the contributors in the Order of the Bee.

I will miss working daily with my friends at Alfresco Software, and in the larger Alfresco community. But I don’t plan to disappear completely. Working for an open source company means that I can take my skills and relationships with me. I plan to keep participating, even if my role is greatly reduced as my focus has to change. I’ll proudly continue to wear my Alfresco wardrobe and sip from my Order of the Bee mug. And I will gratefully take with me all I learned by associating with you.

When I ask a question about Alfresco Community Edition in the forums, I hope you will help me out.

With gratitude,

Richard Esplin