There are a couple of factors that influence target geographies, including the fact that BizAutomation is only available in English, and our offices are located in California.
Most of our customers are currently located within North America, but we are able and interested in working with businesses in Oceana, and the U.K. too. (We are also interested in finding qualified partners that share our values. Interested parties should read through our Partner Inquiries page).
Generally speaking, we believe we can serve businesses from 10 users (our self imposed minimum), up to hundreds of users, which is a size of customer we have experience working with, both in terms of functionality, but also in terms of performance tunning which is important when there are hundreds of transactions per day that need to be managed.
After years observing projects that wildly succeed, those that were successful but ran over budget, and the few that failed, here’s what our most successful customers have in common:
Because it inevitably leads to hidden surprises (not the good kind) which are only compounded by long term contracts. We’re not saying any of our competitors intentionally set out to deceive customers, they don’t, but if it results in the same thing, does it really matter ? It’s just another “hairball” only this one applies to ERP/SCM software, ironically - the very systems built to solve the software hairballs businesses create using individual apps such as QuickBooks - A tangled web indeed.
Hairball #1 - Hidden Add-ons - Hidden add-ons are the bane of our industry, but they didn’t start off that way. They’re unintended consequences that evolved out of multiple editions.
Multiple editions and versions (using the terms interchangeably) are often used to communicate a system’s vertical industry applicability, such as a “Construction Edition” but they can also be used to communicate feature inclusion such as “Standard Edition” vs “Enterprise Edition” intended to appeal to the noble assumption that if you need less, you should pay less. But this approach adds layers upon layers of complexity, and eventually clever product planners will exploit the loopholes, and that’s where things start to go south in the form of a hidden add-on. The problem isn’t the concept, it’s the temptation to leverage it to force the upsell from a cheaper subscription to a more expensive one. For example, maybe today you only sell out of one warehouse, so you don’t think to negotiate or even ask if the version or edition you’re reviewing supports multiple warehouses, only to realize 3 months into a multi-year contract that you need it, and come to learn that you have to upgrade to the “Enterprise” or “Advanced” version to get it, at which point you’ve lost all negotiation leverage - oops!
The only way to avoid hidden add-ons is to flatten the suite to a single edition/version, which is what we did. We then committed to transparency by listing them on our pricing page. We invite our competitors to do the same, and if they don't we think it's fair to call them on it, and ask you to factor that into your review process.
Hairball #2 - Design compromises - Let’s say an ERP provider want to sell everything in a modular approach, the ultimate pay as you go model, or perhaps chooses to add an appealing "Starter Edition" at quarter the price of the "Enterprise Edition". As any engineer worth his/her salt will tell you (or you can ask your favorite AI) this will result in compromises (all those screens, stored procedures, business logic exponentially create complexity). Our design philosophy is based on the idea that core functionality should be an integrated unit because otherwise you end up with a compromise that may expand your market, but at a price, such as kludgy user interfaces (UIs) that require more clicks and redirects than necessary.
Not long ago, going big-tech was considered an advantage, reflected in phrases like “You never get fired for buying IBM”. That’s not necessarily true anymore.
Corporate Ethos - Running your business on a single platform requires a vendor you can trust. This is why we believe potential customers will find it refreshing that we prioritize creative individualism and merit.
We consider it a privilege to earn your business, and doing the right thing instead of taking advantage of “leverageable opportunities” when what you don’t know you don’t inevitably happens and you become professionally vulnerable. This will be even more important when AI agents which are essentially "virtual employees" come into their own (ours will be available later this year). Scary thought is that if 10% of your business depends on these virtual employees, and BigTech software employes them, does leaving that that software company also mean firing 10% of your staff, just food for thought. Point being, relying on an "ethics first" software company matters more now than it ever has.
Communication turn-around - We don’t have layers upon layers of staff so from our first meeting you’ll talk to a true product expert with years of experience able to quickly answer complex questions. At Big-Tech ERP however, it generally takes lots of people, lots of time (over lots of meetings) to get to the same place, and this is the sales phase where everyone’s on their best behavior. This is further compounded by layers of editions and add-ons. Complexity it turns out, comes at a price (How many employees at big-tech does it take to turn a light bulb?).
Professional Independence - Investors are great for start ups needing capital to get off the ground. We however decided to do it the old fashioned way - we boot strapped our way out of the doldrums, crossed the chasm, and seem to have landed in a happy place. Through it all we retained 100% ownership devoid of strings from big money, became profitable, and have an amazing suite for our struggles.