Urgent Couriers Pivots Into Software With Exsalerate

As Rob O’Neill recently wrote in his article Riding the Xero Horse on Stuff.co.nz, “There is a term to describe a sudden and radical change of business strategy: to ‘pivot’. But for a parcel delivery company to expand into developing and selling customer relationship management (CRM) software, the term hardly seems adequate. In May, this somersault saw Urgent Couriers’ exsalerate.com software enter the Xero add-ons ecosystem.”

The idea for Exsalerate began in 2010 when Urgent Couriers went looking for a CRM system to replace what founder, Steve Bonnici describes as ‘add-ons to a database masquerading as a CRM system’. That need was driven by expansion of the sales team and the urge to boost their effectiveness on the road by providing a mobile CRM tool. Bonnici looked around for such a tool, but found complexity and high costs everywhere.

Urgent Couriers had already created its own software systems and had developers in-house. It could either enhance that thing hanging off the side of the database, or start again and build something new. Bonnici sensed that if he couldn’t find a suitable product, other businesses might be having the same problem. He asked around his industry mates and found few using CRM, but many needing to. The entrepreneur in him kicked in. Development of what was to become exsalerate.com began. “It has to be the sales rep’s best friend,” Bonnici says. “The reason CRMs fail is because sales people hate them.”

The software can be used by any business but starting by selling to other couriers made sense because it was a business his team knew, Bonnici says. In May exsalerate.com became an accredited Xero add-on partner, allowing it to coat-tail into Xero’s large and growing customer base. Xero integration is easy and makes life simpler for customers, who can immediately input customers from Xero and upload sales into the system as well. Becoming an add-on partner takes just six to eight weeks, Bonnici says. Exsalerate is also integrated with WorkflowMax.

This year saw exsalerate.com win the Hellaby’s retail conglomerate and pick up customers in Australia, Canada, Ireland and even a coffee distributor in Myanmar. Exsalerate.com is growing in excess of 20% per month with profitability a way off yet, but the team has an exciting ride ahead of it. “We just have to make sure it doesn’t distract too much from our other business which is making money,” Bonnici says.

For more information please visit the website at http://www.exsalerate.com.