Archive for the 'Cloud' Category

Datasquirt Sale Completed

December 20, 2011

Today Datasquirt completed the sale of its assets and undertakings to LiveOps Inc of California USA. The employees of Datasquirt are now employees of LiveOps, Datasquirt’s products are now LiveOps’ products and Datasquirt customers are now LiveOps’ customers.

To me this marks the successful conclusion of a ten year journey with Datasquirt that started back in 2001. There have certainly been many interesting and challenging adventures that have involved a wide range of different people along the way.

Datasquirt was initially an experimental business that built business solutions around SMS Text messaging (which was all new and exciting at the time). We were ‘experimental’ in that we built various different types of bespoke messaging solutions for different types of businesses. After a while we started to see a pattern of what were common requirements for most of these business, so we developed a product called CONTACT that covered the common requirements, yet could be flexible and adapt to the specific needs of the various businesses that we targeted.

In 2008 we floated Datasquirt on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX), just before the global market meltdown. With the proceeds of the Initial Public Offering (IPO) we set up sales offices in Australia, Germany, USA and the UK.

In early 2011 we partnered with a leading Cloud Contact Centre Provider ‘LiveOps’ as a distributor of Datasquirt’s products – primarily focused on the North American market. Later in the year we and they realised that our non-voice product set and their voice product set (both Cloud Based Solutions for Contact Centres) belonged together, so hence acquisition discussions began.

I wish LiveOps and the Datasquirt team well going forward and will watch their progress and successes with much interest over the coming years. I think they will make a formidable combination and they will have an extremely compelling Cloud-based offering for Contact Centres.

Sale of Datasquirt approved by Shareholders

December 14, 2011

This morning I chaired a General Meeting of Datasquirt Limited, where the the shareholders voted to approve two resolutions relating to the sale of Datasquirt’s business to LiveOps Inc (a leading US-based cloud contact centre provider).

The first resolution approved the sale of the business to LiveOps for US $12.5M cash and the second resolution approved Datasquirt buying back 83.33% of its shares from Shareholders at NZ $0.499 per share (one share purchased for every 1.2 owned).

The sale transaction still remains conditional on a number of technical issues, but I’m confident that it will take place before the end of this year.

I believe this will be a great result for Datasquirt, LiveOps, their respective customers and the New Zealand IT industry, for the following reasons;

  • The sale brings together two world-class, complementary contact centre technology providers who share a common passion and purpose.
  • It means customers will be able to access all the communication channels they need to run a modern call centre – sms, email, fax, web chat, social media and voice – from one expert provider, LiveOps, via the ease of the cloud.
  • All of Datasquirt’s staff are being retained and will continue operating from their current locations in Auckland NZ and the United Kingdom.
  • The retention of Datasquirt’s development team in Auckland will undoubtedly lead to further investment and jobs within the local IT industry.
  • Datasquirt’s shareholders get the option of a return of their capital at a very fair price.

Datasquirt UK Customer Wins #1 in Service over Email

October 5, 2011

Congratulations to Wokingham Borough Council for winning #1 in “Service Over Email”, at callcentre.co.uk‘s Call Centre Focus Awards, held in London recently.

Wokingham Borough Council’s contact centre uses Datasquirt‘s CONTACT cloud-based messaging console for managing and processing their email communications.

Datasquirt AGM 2011 – Chairman’s Address

October 2, 2011

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Chairman’s Address to Shareholders
Datasquirt Limited
Annual General Meeting
30 September 2011

FY11 has been a hard-working and productive year for Datasquirt, which has seen us increasingly selected as a best-of-breed provider by clients and channel partners internationally. We were delighted to achieve a profitable result for the last quarter of the year, and take the loss from ordinary activities for the year down to $NZ 599,000; a 51% improvement on the previous year’s loss of $NZ 1,233,000.

Our Cloud-based solution “CONTACT” is giving Corporate Contact Centres around the world the ability to communicate easily in real-time with their customers through increasingly popular channels, such as SMS, Web Chat, Email, Twitter and Fax.

Datasquirt is well positioned from a technology standpoint and is capitalizing on some major growth drivers in the marketplace, including;
• The growing preference for Cloud Computing and Software as a Service
• Rapid Smart Phone adoption
• The increasing use of Social Media by businesses
• The growing demand for faster, more immediate business communication.

This year saw continued growth in sales through reseller partners internationally, culminating in Q4 with an agreement to supply a leading North American call centre provider with CONTACT under their own branding; a deal worth over US $1M, which will see Datasquirt’s software deployed across the United States and Canada. The global technology search that preceded this organization selecting CONTACT illustrates the quality and differentiation of the Datasquirt product offering.

In October 2010 Datasquirt became one of the first software providers in the world to offer a call centre specific platform for managing Twitter interactions with customers. Datasquirt clients such as Royal Mail Group and Wokingham Borough Council in the UK are now using CONTACT to manage Twitter-based service delivery in their call centres.

Only this month (September 2011), we were delighted to be voted first in the “Top 25 Contact Centre Technologies” by readers of a leading UK Contact Centre Magazine called “Call Centre Helper”. This affirms that our product offering is in tune with the needs of our target market.

The company expects sales from both current and new clients to continue to increase and we anticipate on-going growth in the strength of our reseller channel. We will maintain a continued programme of product enhancement to deliver further social media and reporting functionality in line with client demand.

The directors remain confident in the success of Datasquirt and wish to thank our customers, staff, shareholders, suppliers and partners for their on-going support.

Mark Loveys
Chairman, Datasquirt Limited

Datasquirt voted #1 by readers of UK Specialist Call Centre Magazine

September 22, 2011

UK's Call Centre Helper Magazine

Readers of leading UK Call Centre Magazine “Call Centre Helper” have voted Datasquirt‘s Cloud based CONTACT Multi-Channel solution as #1 of the top 25 Call Centre Technologies.

CONTACT is cloud-based call centre software – for adding text messaging, email, web chat, Twitter and fax capability to contact centres.

This is a fantastic endorsement of Datasquirt’s offering by the Call Centre community and Datasquirt’s UK customers.

www.callcentrehelper.com

www.datasquirt.com

Datasquirt turns the corner

June 5, 2011
Datasquirt Logo

After years of innovation to its cloud-based corporate messaging product CONTACT, developing its international distribution channels and building up its global base of customers, Datasquirt has reached the point where it is cash-flow positive and profitable.

The company has also signed a white-label distribution deal with a very large American business that will give it sales coverage throughout the USA and Canada.

Today the Sunday Star times has posted an article on Datasquirt’s recent announcements.

A further article was subsequently published in the NZ Herald.

Datasquirt moves into Profit and Eliminates Cash-burn in Q4 FY11

May 31, 2011

The following is an extract from the Financial Statements that Datasquirt (ASX:DSQ) has lodged with the ASX this evening (for the full version, refer to the ASX site);

By the end of FY11 Datasquirt had eliminated cash burn as forecast and moved into profit for the fourth quarter. The company achieved this through growing revenue by 37%, excluding other revenue and foreign exchange gains and losses, making significant, strategic improvements in global distribution and by continuing to innovate, as well as through prudent cost management.

The adoption of Social Media channels as ‘business as usual’ for most corporations, the ongoing growth of SMS and web chat communication and the international interest in cloud-based technologies mean Datasquirt is well placed for FY12.

The company expects sales from both current and new clients to continue to increase. It also anticipates an ongoing growth in the strength of its reseller channel and has budgeted for an ongoing programme of product enhancement, to deliver further social media and reporting functionality in line with client demand.

September 2010 saw Datasquirt become one of the first companies in the world to offer corporations a call centre platform for managing their Twitter communications with customers. This created additional revenue streams from existing clients, such as Royal Mail Group (UK), as well as positioning Datasquirt as a future focussed provider and generating new business enquiries.

Demand from current clients during the 2011 financial year broadened from email and SMS to increased demand for the fax and web chat functionality in CONTACTTM, as well as social media. Corporate businesses increasingly recognise the commercial importance of integrated communications, while customer expectations for real-time replies and multi-channel communication are continually rising. Both these major trends are demand drivers for Datasquirt.

FY2011 saw continued growth in sales through reseller partners internationally, culminating in Q4 in the agreement to supply a leading North American call centre provider with CONTACTTM under their own branding; a deal worth over US$1million which will see Datasquirt’s software deployed across the US. The global technology search which preceded this organisation selecting CONTACT illustrates the quality and differentiation of the Datasquirt product set.

In a climate of ongoing economic uncertainty, corporate businesses are increasingly seeking pay-as-you go hosted (cloud-based) software solutions, such as CONTACT. They are increasingly driven by their customers to provide more sophisticated, integrated and real-time customer service, across multiple channels, and to be better than their competitors at responding to enquiries and complaints. In an environment where businesses want more efficiency, security and control, and are investing in products which offer a clear competitive advantage and good return on investment in the short to medium term,

Datasquirt is well placed for continued growth.

The Directors are very confident in the success of Datasquirt and will now be buying more shares.

Datasquirt Strikes Deal with Leading US Call Centre Provider

May 2, 2011

Datasquirt (ASX:DSQ) has just signed a white label supply deal with a leading US Call Centre Provider for its Cloud-based multi-channel messaging console “CONTACT”. This is an exciting development for Datasquirt, opening the opportunity to gain significant traction in the expansive US market and beyond.

The following press release has gone out this morning.

Leading US call centre provider chooses CONTACT – April 2011

Citrix acquires EMS-Cortex business

February 23, 2011

This week Enprise Group is very pleased to announce that the assets of EMS-Cortex (one of the businesses of the Enprise Group) were acquired by global technology leader, Citrix Systems Inc. Citrix has approximately 5,000 staff worldwide and annual revenues exceeding US $1.8 billion.

We are absolutely delighted with the deal and I think this is a very positive development for all stakeholders in EMS-Cortex including customers, staff, management, shareholders and investors.

Citrix has hired all of the staff from EMS-Cortex and intends to continue developing the Cortex Cloud Control Panel from Auckland New Zealand. The business unit will continue to be led locally by former EMS-Cortex General Manager, Colin Williams, who will in turn report directly to Bill Burley, a Citrix Vice President based in Florida, who is the General Manager of the Citrix Cloud App Delivery Group.

The Cortex Cloud Control Panel, which is used by Hosted Service Providers around the world to provision and manage Cloud applications, is now owned by one of the world’s most innovative and respected technology leaders.

Another outcome of this deal is that it will result in Citrix having a bigger presence in New Zealand in the form of a local development arm. I’m optimistic that this will result in a further New Zealand-based jobs and opportunities being created going forward.

It is great to see our investors, who include TMT Ventures and the NZVIF realise a great return on their investment in EMS-Cortex and the Enprise Group. The millions of dollars returned to them through this EMS-Cortex deal will no doubt end up being re-invested back into the New Zealand IT industry, creating further jobs and opportunities for New Zealanders.

I look forward to seeing the EMS-Cortex team and the Cortex Cloud Control Panel go from strength to strength as part of the global Citrix business. For my part, I shall now be focusing my energies on the remaining two great businesses of the Enprise Group; Enprise New Zealand and Enprise Software.

For Citrix’s perspective, refer to the blog of Vice President and General Manager, Citrix Cloud App Delivery Group, Bill Burley.

Enprise Press Release re EMS Cortex and Citrix

NZ Herald, 9th March 2011 – US giant shows the Lovey with buy out

TELUS of Canada sees growth in hosted services double with Cortex

December 22, 2010

“Cortex typically supports new Microsoft releases within 90 days – which is twice as fast as our previous control panel vendor.”

TELUS hosted service customers are embracing the self-service capability provided by Cortex software. TELUS Customer Solutions is using the Cortex cloud control panel to support hosted Exchange, SharePoint, Microsoft Office Communications Server, and Blackberry Enterprise Server.

“Cortex is supporting TELUS’ strategy of differentiating itself in the market by giving customers the tools to combine new products with existing ones,” says Renaldo Scalabrino, Marketing Director TELUS Customer Solutions.

“We offer our customers the ability to add hosted Exchange to business Internet or Blackberry services, for example,” he says. “With Cortex self service,TELUS customers can add or remove users and select the services and service levels they want for each of their employees. These changes are automatically reflected in their monthly bill. Customers can try things on a smaller scale because it is so easy for them to self provision. Blackberry add-ons to email is one example: people are adding the Blackberry service to their existing email account. It’s a very good growth path.”

TELUS Case Study

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