Featured Startup Pitch: New Zealand-based EzPSA is targeting small, service-based businesses with a cloud-based, integrated management platform

By Greg Nixon, EzPSA co-founder and managing director

Elevator Pitch: EzPSA, or Easy Professional Service Automaton, is a software solution designed to help anybody who is running a service-based business manage day-to-day tasks effectively. It is a complete toolset for your service-based business: from any device, at any location.

Product/Service Description

EzPSA puts the information you need to run a successful service company at your fingertips. Putting all of your daily business processes together means you don’t have to manage your workflow through a combination of manual processes, spreadsheets, off-the-shelf software products and customized software solutions. By unifying all your systems, EzPSA will make business processes, such as invoicing, timesheets, and project management much faster and so much easier. Creating a synergy between client-facing and back-office applications is one of the greatest benefits of EzPSA. EzPSA also makes it simple to analyze data about your business operations, which will help drive improvement.

Founder’s Story

I have been doing software development for 20 years and running an IT services business (MSP) for 15 years. My co-founder, Michelle Crompton, had worked with me at a prior software company and was keen to help create our quality product. EzPSA was firstly developed for my own use—my business had grown and it came time to get some better systems in place. This was in late 2009 when the only solutions were expensive, had to be installed on a local server, and were bloated with features, meaning the investment required outweighed the benefits of having them. I wanted to have a cloud-based solution, and that has really paid off because now it can be used by field staff with smart phones.

Marketing/Promotion Strategy

We were using the product ourselves, and continually improving it to meet our growing needs, so it was never ‘finished.’ We decided to get it to market early and continue to develop it while it was being used. We have not done a huge amount of marketing, and have been happy with slow-and-steady organic growth. We focus on telling our story, blogging, and using social networks like YouTube, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Being self-funded limits what we can invest in this area, so our goal is to have people refer us.

Market Opportunity

There is an opportunity to sell to clients who are not our primary market. Different features will be applicable to a variety of businesses—we already have some quite different verticals, including a home-based childcare business and a liquidation business, among others.

How We Differentiate From the Competition

Many similar products are complex to set up and use, so we have made simplicity the key with EzPSA. EzPSA only includes features that are core to managing the business, and we aim to make the user experience as intuitive as possible.

Business Model

Our clients pay monthly or annual fees based on the on the number of users. There are no additional charges. We believe that you shouldn’t pay a penalty because you don’t have many users or don’t need many features.

Current Needs

Currently we need to increase awareness of EzPSA to be able to grow our customer base and continue to further create a fantastic offering.

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Website: www.ezpsa.com