Niels Anderson of Kontactintelligence.

Local entrepreneur Niels K. Andersen has seen technology change quickly.

His ability to recognize those changes has made his company, KontactIntelligence, a leader in its field.

Andersen was working as a physician-recruiting executive at Sacred Heart Health Systems in 2000. Back then, he had to spend time manually updating status reports in Microsoft Excel and tracking the progress on paper.

Andersen’s frustration led him to begin working on an online software solution that made the tools needed to accomplish the necessary recruitment tasks easier and less clunky than relying on multiple software programs, spreadsheets and sticky notes.

“At that time, the notion of wrapping a Web-based system around the problem in recruiting just didn’t exist,” Andersen said.

Entrepreneurship is a crucial piece of the Pensacola metro area's economic development. Supporting small business and highlighting the success of Pensacola's entrepreneurs is part of the mission of the Studer Community Institute.

According to data from the U.S. Census Bureau, 98 percent of the businesses in the Pensacola metro area have 100 employees or fewer.

Since the time that Andersen founded his company, it has become common for businesses to turn to Web-based solutions/services to tackle tasks ranging from simple inventory to managing their entire client base. And that technology shift has created a new paradigm.

“It’s created an on-demand mentality among consumers,” Andersen said. “When I began, software was something you had to install on a computer – a server, desktop or laptop. There was no concept of software as a service.”

Andersen points out that there were no tablets or Internet on phones at that time. As the hardware landscape changed, so did people’s expectations.

“Now, people want to use technology immediately,” he said. “It’s a different cognitive perspective that surrounds the industry.”

“Everything about starting and managing a business is different now,” Andersen said. “From the needed initial research to the licensing – even accounting –are all available online. It used to require significant capital – not anymore.”

Andersen said the real challenge is bringing something unique to an ever-changing landscape.

“While it’s easy to bring an idea to market now,” he said. “The challenge comes when you have to adapt.”

Many technology-based businesses that start strong and build large audiences often fall out of favor if they can’t change quickly to meet consumer needs. There are many examples, Andersen notes, but one social network’s collapse stands out to him.

“Remember MySpace?” he said. “They were a huge factor less than a decade ago, and now no one talks about them. Their focus was ultimately too narrow and the audience left them because they lacked the capacity to adapt.”

Andersen notes that while there are millions of apps available to consumers, most users stick to about ten core apps they use regularly.

“It’s a crowded market,” he said. “It’s tough to stand out if you are doing something else unless you have a very unique idea.”

But even having a new and groundbreaking idea is not enough to be successful.

“You have to be smart about how you market your product. You need a clear call-to-action,” Andersen said. “You have to appeal to early adopters and have the stamina to convert the laggards. You need product videos that engage viewers and you have to be able to push information to your audience constantly.”

As technology’s availability increases, however, so do the prospects for economic growth, Andersen said.

“There is a tremendous opportunity now in areas like Pensacola,” he said. “The people starting these businesses now are doing what people in Silicon Valley did in its early days with regards to networking and spinoffs of new companies.”

Andersen also sees a marketplace of ideas developing as more entrepreneurs move forward with projects.

“In the next few years, we are going to see many ideas coming from small markets,” he said. “And the greater the volume of new ideas and startups, clearly the higher the probability one or two new quality ideas and companies a year could grow into making a significant economic impact.”

The forward momentum these new startups have is also crucial to the development of the area as a whole.

“That energy leads to a magnetism that leads to interest,” Andersen said.

And Andersen believes that even though getting ideas to market is hard and fraught with risk, these new businesses shouldn’t be afraid to fail.

“When you fail, you learn. You figure out what works and what doesn’t,” he said. “But the more you try, the more you will succeed. The only way to fail is to quit, and I don’t see our community quitting.”

Andersen has also launched a new venture: VetCV. The company began working with the Veteran’s Administration in 2014 and is developing new resources for veterans and their families.

“With our VetCV product, we are creating a technology portal that addresses eight of the 13 challenges that the agency has identified as issues for vets,” Andersen said. “These are things like storing and sharing their own service and medical records, assisting with timely access to care, re-integration, substance abuse, homelessness and even suicide.”

VetCV will not only help veterans monitor their health and mental state, but involve their personal support systems – family and friends – as well.

“Most people have 11 or 12 others around them that care about their well-being,” Andersen said. “Our software is going to allow the veteran to monitor and help themselves and their loved ones to do the same.”

Meetings with officials at the VA have gone well, according to Andersen, with the portal being referred to as a “game-changer.”

“In cases where someone might be considering suicide, with VetCV, we believe we can use the speed of technology and data exchange with big data to create the ability to deliver disruptive variances in message type, tone and tenor to a network and directly to the person at risk through timely intervention before it’s too late,” Andersen said.