Parker Software Nominated as Finalists for the 2009 Sentinel Business Awards - Small Business of the Year
Monday 1 February 2010
Parker Software may be small - but it reckons to be in the world's top three when it comes to internet live chat solutions for businesses. Its WhosOn product, one of many in its stable, enables clients to monitor who is using their web sites and to conduct live interaction with chosen visitors.
The Tunstall-based firm has spent six years developing and selling solutions intended to improve companies' ability to do business on the web. Those solutions are frequently market leaders, and selling them around the globe has been instrumental in helping the company increase its latest full-year sales by almost 50 per cent. And, currently exporting to 53 countries, Parker's bosses expect to maintain or increase that growth rate throughout 2010.
Now a finalist in the Business Link West Midlands-backed Small Business of the Year Award - part of The Sentinel Business Awards presented in association with the North Staffordshire Chamber - the firm has also tripled its workforce to eight.
"Despite the global recession 2009 was a very exciting 12 months for us," said business development manager Ian Rowley. "It was a year of opportunity which saw us winning some of our biggest orders to date and successfully penetrating new and larger customer accounts including Aviva, Samsung and Message Labs to name just three.
"We have also increased sales within our existing customer base, and developed strategic partners in Europe covering territories from Germany to the Adriatic."
"Our most significant development however was setting up a US-based subsidiary and registering trademarks for our products in the 'States, which is our biggest market." That Parker Software Inc subsidiary now has a permanent base in Florida from which it can offer both technical and sales support.
Another of Parker's solutions is its Email2DB, a niche market tool which, among other things, can convert incoming emails into database entries while the latest version can also send auto-responses and SMS messages.
Continually looking to add more features to its products, a succession of innovative developments now enable integration with two of the largest customer relationship management solutions in the world.