Posts Tagged ‘Datasquirt’

Enprise’s team has a long history in building business value

November 18, 2014

Enprise Group and its team have a strong track record in building valuable businesses. Here are some high-profile, high-value businesses that form part of Enprise’s value-creation history.

PC Direct

PC Direct (1989–1998)
PC Direct manufactured, distributed and supported personal computers under its own brand in New Zealand. Its sales channel was the direct, phone-based, channel by-passing the reseller network. Growth of PC Direct to become the #1 reseller of desktop computers in New Zealand was leveraged off the company’s integrated system – linking design, inventory, production, sales, despatch, service and accounting. The systems developed by PC Direct provided one of the company’s main competitive advantages.
Enprise CEO Mark Loveys, Enprise CFO Elliot Cooper and Enprise Datagate COO Steve Southon were all members of the executive management team of PC Direct and all made significant contributions to building the automated systems of the business.
Business sold in 1996 for NZ$ 27M

Exonet

Exonet (1998-2000)
Exonet was an ERP software company founded by Mark Loveys, Maurice Bryham and David McKee Wright that developed the Exonet suite of business software that is the top-selling mid-market ERP in Australia and New Zealand, owned by MYOB and known as MYOB EXO. Enprise Solutions is the top reseller of MYOB EXO in New Zealand with sales offices in Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington, Sydney and Melbourne.
Enprise CEO Mark Loveys was a founder and original developer of Exonet. Enprise CFO Elliot Cooper was CFO and a product designer. Enprise Datagate COO Steve Southon was Development Manager.
Business sold in 2000 for A$ 30M

Datasquirt

Datasquirt (2000-2011)
Datasquirt was a Cloud software company that developed a non-voice multi-channel messaging solution for corporate contact centres. Datasquirt floated on the ASX in 2007 and had offices in Auckland, Sydney and London. The business was sold in 2011 and the remaining listed shell acquired the Enprise businesses, renaming itself to Enprise Group Ltd.
Enprise CEO Mark Loveys was a founder and original developer of Datasquirt. Enprise CFO Elliot Cooper joined as CFO. Enprise directors Lindsay Philips and Jens Neiser were directors and investors in Datasquirt.
Business sold in 2011 for US$ 12.5M

EMS Cortex

EMS Cortex (2006-2011)
EMS Cortex was a Cloud software company that was acquired by Enprise in 2006 for NZ$ 2.52M as part of an investment in Enprise by TMT Ventures. EMS Cortex created a Cloud Control Panel for provisioning Cloud Software. Key customers were Telecom NZ, Telus of Canada, Melbourne IT and other major Telcos & Hosting Companies around the world
Enprise CEO Mark Loveys and Enprise CFO Elliot Cooper were CEO and CFO respectively, while EMS Cortex was a division of Enprise.
Business sold in 2011 for US$ 11.5M

The Future
Today our focus is on building the businesses of Enprise Group, which are Enprise Solutions, Enprise Software and Datagate Innovation.

Enprise Group Ltd will be listed on the NZAX stock exchange under the code “ENS” from Monday 1st December 2014.

DSQ – Enprise acquisition, cloud & growth strategy approved

September 24, 2012

Last week, on Friday 21st September at DSQ Holdings Ltd’s Annual General Meeting, shareholders voted to approve the acquisition of Enprise. This is the beginning of a major new chapter in the evolution of both Enprise and DSQ (formerly Datasquirt), which will now become one and the same.

The new combined business will be named Enprise Group Limited, which will be a public New Zealand company, listed in Australia with over 350 shareholders.

This is a very positive development for all stakeholders (customers, partners, staff and shareholders) of both Enprise and DSQ.

The new Enprise Group will retain its focus on all aspects of delivering high-quality business software, solutions and services to small and medium sized enterprises. It will have offices throughout New Zealand and Australia (Auckland, Sydney, Melbourne, Wellington and Hamilton) in addition to its international channel of around 100 reseller partners throughout the USA, Canada, UK, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand.

Enprise is a stable and profitable platform for growth, with three business units; Enprise Solutions NZ, Enprise Solutions AU, Enprise Software plus the joint venture, 2Cloud.biz.

Enprise Software is an SAP Gold Software Solution Partner that develops solutions for SAP Business One which is sold through an international partner channel.

Enprise Solutions is a top MYOB Platinum Partner in both New Zealand and Australia, which sells and supports the market leading MYOB EXO suite of business software.

2Cloud.biz is a joint venture, offering Cloud delivery of popular ERP solutions through established reseller channels. Presently, the business is focused exclusively on Cloud delivery of MYOB EXO and associated solutions to the Australasian market.

The new Enprise Group will exploit a range of growth-driving opportunities for its customers and for itself; including the shift to Cloud Computing, Mobile Solutions, Regional Expansion and new “Big Data” processing technologies.

I will be discussing various aspects of the new Enprise Group and its growth opportunities on this blog, over the coming weeks.

New Era for Enprise and DSQ

September 5, 2012

On September 21st at the Annual General Meeting of ASX-listed DSQ Holdings Limited, shareholders will vote on a proposal to acquire the Enprise Group of businesses. If accepted, this will effectively enable the back-door listing of Enprise where it will transform from being a private company to becoming an Australian-listed public company. DSQ Holdings Ltd will transform from being a publicly listed “cash-box” (with no business operations) to becoming the Enprise Group.

For me, the idea of DSQ and Enprise becoming one and the same is certainly an exciting prospect. I have always wanted to build an innovative, expansive and profitable public company and I have been extensively involved in both of these two businesses over the last decade, being a founder and director of both.

In the past, Enprise & DSQ have been successful in building up international software businesses which were then acquired by major American companies. In 2011, Enprise sold its EMS-Cortex business to Citrix and DSQ sold its Datasquirt business to LiveOps.

The new Enprise will maintain a strategy aimed at sustainable growth, running the business as a cash earner rather than a cash burner. Enprise is the perfect platform for growth with its extensive global channels-to-market for business management software.

2Cloud.biz
Included in the proposed Enprise Group acquisition is a one third share in a great new start-up business called 2cloud.biz which is a specialized Cloud Hosting Service provider aimed at the SME ERP market. At present it offers automated provisioning of hosted MYOB EXO systems and is marketed through the channel of MYOB EXO resellers throughout New Zealand and Australia. This business is experiencing rapid early stage growth and is a perfect example of how the Enprise Group can leverage its existing channels-to-market to launch new opportunities.

Enprise Solutions
Enprise Solutions is a Platinum MYOB EXO reseller in both Australia and New Zealand. It has offices in Auckland, Hamilton, Melbourne, Sydney and Wellington. The business is experiencing considerable demand from customers in Australia and our two Australian offices which were established earlier this year are driving a significant portion of our growth. Enprise’s goal is to achieve full regional coverage of Australia and New Zealand within the next 24 months.

Enprise Software
Enprise Software is a Gold Certified Solution Partner for the globally-marketed SAP Business One ERP platform. Enprise’s solutions include the popular Enprise Job Costing and Enprise Rent packages, amongst others. Sales and distribution is via a global channel of SAP certified resellers. There is much growth potential in this business unit as new demand grows for Cloud-based and mobility solutions in addition to SAP’s exciting new in-memory HANA platform.

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.