Canva targets enterprise with collaborative software

Canva is zeroing in further on the enterprise market but selling enterprise offerings may not be the pushover that its original consumer package was.

Canva is further targetting the enterprise market with teams and whiteboard solutions.

Canva is zeroing in further on the enterprise market with new teams and whiteboard solutions but selling enterprise offerings may not be the pushover that its original consumer package was.

The company previously had released Canva for Enterprise about two years ago which offered brand management and workplace tools such as security and sharing settings.

Canva says its rejigged Canva for Teams package builds on this by incorporating features from Canva Pro such as content management workflows along with collaboration features and access permissions. It is also rolling out a collaborative whiteboard feature.

Its Australian-built graphics design platform has been a sensation with more than 80 million monthly active consumer users in more than 190 countries, and the value of Canva stretched to about $US40bn before dropping back to $US25.6bn

Canva now sees the enterprise market as fertile turf for further expansion, spurred on by the pandemic and features that aid working from home and hybrid work.

Nevertheless, taking on the enterprise market more forcefully won’t be the pushover that Canva enjoyed where it filled a huge gap by offering free and affordable graphics development to everyday consumers.

It faces the might of well developed and popular applications from Adobe, Microsoft, Google, and many others. A Canva spokesperson was bullish about the opportunity, saying that many existing users of Canva who work for enterprises would be keen to have their business adopt an enterprise Canva package.

Collaborative whiteboard design with Canva.

Canva says Teams offers an all-in-one workplace design solution which lets companies produce and manage internal communication and customer-facing content from one platform.

“As companies embrace flexible and hybrid work models, there’s an increasing reliance on technology to communicate and collaborate,” Canva says in a blog post.

“Create high-quality content at scale and tell compelling visual stories, in any format. From social media videos to investor reports, sales pitches or recruiting materials — Canva for Teams seamlessly brings ideas to life, at scale.”

Canva said it had spent more than a year developing its whiteboard solution which also has just been rolled out. People in different parts of the world could join together to create a presentation or brainstorm online.

But digital whiteboards are nothing new. There are plenty of apps in the Apple and Google apps stores that offer a whiteboard environment on phones and tablets. Microsoft, Cisco, LG, Hisense and a host of larger companies go further with interactive whiteboards that let dozens of users at different locations contribute to the same brainstorming session.

Some contribute to a whiteboard conversation from a laptop, tablet screen or phone.

Canva’s whiteboard, demonstrated to The Australian, didn’t look suited to a team of people collectively working up a free-form piece of art.

But it seemed suited to collaborating together to create slides, with multiple people adding text and bringing in pre-developed graphics designs for presentations and videos. Canva also sees it as a tool for brainstorming sessions.

Canva CEO Melanie Perkins said the right visual communication tools would fuel greater collaboration and productivity in the workplace. “This is at the heart of whiteboards and we’re excited to see the magic it will unlock for our community around the world.”