Ora, a software platform that is designed for small and medium businesses (SMEs) and is meant to provide integrated business services to them on a cloud model, has been launched by serial entrepreneur Christina Domecq.
“Over the years championing many businesses I noticed a lot of similarities in the challenges that they face. Some of the major challenges include having ready access to market information, competitor changes, data filtering and delivery of business messages in a comprehensive manner through multiple channels.
“Ora can help businesses from creating a 12-month business plan to storing their assets in a single place, providing them real time ROI with cross-media results. As soon as business owners sign up to Ora for free, they are provided with a live map of their actual market and a set of deep insights. Ora tracks everything for you – all your digital, print and broadcast channels – and integrates with accounting and banking services. For the first time you can actually see whether every dollar is working or not, and make smarter decisions,” says Domecq.
Ora, which will use multiple toolsets to deliver business insight, was created across a five month time period by around 30 developers, all of whom are based in Auckland. It integrates with partner solutions at the backend, including Westpac, Xero, MYOB, 2Degrees and NZ Post, and will be available on a freemium model.
“The toolsets will be available free to SMEs. There will be a $50 a month option if they want to increase their capacity. There is also a $500 a month managed service package where we will leverage the services on behalf of the business,” says Domecq.
According to her, Ora’s focus will remain NZ for the next six months. The firm would look to promote the solution in Australia in another nine months, and rest of the globe following that.
“Our long term growth strategy is certainly to have partners in the go-to-market area. Accountants are an easy example. They are trusted advisors and Ora can provide them a platform to talk beyond numbers into actual strategy around business, and deliver ROI numbers.
“I must say we are launching version 1.0 at this stage. It has been a long journey to get here, but I am sure we will have more learning to do in the next few months,” says Domecq.