Millions of reasons to export

The revenue of Julian Smith's company grew 912 per cent in a year. Picture / Martin Sykes

With New Zealanders sending 13 million texts a day, it's no wonder message management specialist Datasquirt feels it has enough experience to try its hand at exporting.

The company last month showed off its Contact product - which manages and integrates text messages, email and faxes into call centre processing systems - at the UK Call Centre Expo.

Datasquirt general manager Julian Smith says the key to selling the Contact system in Europe is convincing centre managers it's a tool that will make their lives easier.

"The text message channel seems to be a solution that fits the call centre industry really well" because it can improve access to customers and is about 80 per cent cheaper than voice, he says.

The internet-based data management product is aimed primarily at business applications including transport information systems, fast food retailers, mail order companies and television shopping channels.

Datasquirt hosts the software at its Auckland data centre, so Contact requires only an internet connection to use.

The company was formed in 2001 and focused initially on customer-specific text message products, such as text-to-win campaigns. Since then, Datasquirt has moved onto bigger projects such as Contact, and has reaped several accolades.

In August, the company won the Contact Centre Innovation of the Year Award bestowed by the Telecommunications Users Association, and last week was recognised as New Zealand's fifth fastest growing company in the Deloitte/Unlimited Fast 50 Awards.

Datasquirt has also won the Higrowth ICT sector award as Auckland's fastest growing information communication technology company and ranked second nationally with annual revenue growth of 912 per cent.

Chief executive Aaron Ridgway attributes the company's success to "maintaining focus on key areas that drive growth and avoiding all other distractions".

Contact was developed to cover different business types by examining successful projects for a common thread, which was the use of call centres.

A prototype launched last year was sold to the Elections Enrolment Centre for use in the general election enrolment campaign.

Smith says an unexpectedly high 51 per cent of people chose the text message channel, despite the availability of an 0800 phone service, internet, email and free-post options.

New Zealand has been an ideal test bed for refining Contact into a robust export product, he says.

"New Zealanders are also high users of call centres and texting, with a high level of acceptance of new technology."

A $198,000 investment from the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology helped the company to instil greater business discipline and reduce the technology's development time.

Smith says Contact "compared very well" to the competition in the UK, where he says 221 million ($559 million) is spent each year on multi-channel enablement. "I guess it inspired us and gave us more confidence in what we're doing."

Datasquirt

Who: Julian Smith, general manager.
What: Mobility and SMS services.
Where: Auckland.
Why:"It's cool technology."