SoftSearch Finds the Right Fit for Truckers, Jewelers and Editors
No more trying to squeeze into generic software
COMPANY SPOTLIGHT SERIES

If you can’t afford a tailor, shopping for pants that fit sucks. The length is too long. The waist is too small. The fabric is itchy.

Lucky for the business owner, fitting software to the needs of his/her company isn’t as painful as zipping up a pair of poorly cut pants. SoftSearch, a Vancouver-based retailer dedicated to helping businesses find and purchase software to meet their specific needs, launched an online database in 1996 with more than 300,000 titles.

This week, The Angel Journal spoke with Kathy Woolverton, president of SoftSearch, and her vice president of sales of marketing, Paul Rickett.

AJ: What is SoftSearch?
KW: We’re an international reseller of business and specialty software. We help customers find software to meet their specific business needs instead of finding something generic.

AJ: Oh wow. I might need you.
PR: Everyone needs us! 

AJ: What are some examples of software a business would ask for?
KW: It’s been everything from newspapers or magazines for content and advertising management [software], to vending machine management software, jewelry management software, to financial applications – a wide range. All the things you wouldn’t normally find in a computer store. Retailers are carrying the same selection of generic applications like Quickbooks, Microsoft, but nothing specific for an industry. So we solve that problem in the marketplace.

AJ: Who uses your products?
PR: Look at the last week. We had order requests from individuals shopping for something they need, Fortune 500 companies, large enterprises looking for something unique. A good example is a large trucking company in the US looking for business software that integrates weight scale with computers. This is not software you can find by wandering around Best Buy. You can go to the Internet and find it, but you’ve got to do your own search. Better still, you can pick up the phone and order it through us.

KW: If you’re looking for "investment management software" and put those words in a search engine, you’ll probably get a huge number of hits. A vast majority of those wouldn’t be product solutions, they would just be articles that mention those three words. the buyers find and purchase the software solutions that they need.

AJ: What industry are you focused on and how big is it?
KW: The segment we’re focusing on is $US 56 billion [based on figures from International Data Corporation]. For the 15-plus years we’ve been tracking it, it’s been growing 5 to 12% compounded annually.

PR: We’re really an online retailer with a specialty in business software. If you were going to compare us and what we do, you would look at Amazon or Best Buy, which run huge online retail sites, but they don’t carry the type of software we carry.

AJ: Are you adding new products?
KW: We track over 60,000 software applications that are business applications. These are products that are generally in the $1,000 to $1 million dollar range like airport management or large industry-specific ERP [Enterprise Resource Planning].

AJ: Will this succeed in retail? Do you have proof?
KW: Yes. We’ve got our existing software catalogue with a wide range of products. Over the last year we’ve been opening them up to customers, and they’re coming on a regular, increasing basis. As well, we are getting great acceptance from software publishers and affiliate partners, such as industry magazines and professional associations.

AJ: What product are you replacing?
KW: The way people are finding these types of solutions. In the marketplace you’ve got the big retailers and the distributors, but they’re only carrying the mass market or low end business products.

We really help bring together the whole marketplace to allow customers find software producers and solve that whole problem.

AJ: Who are your competitors?
KW: In the marketplace, the big retailers, which carry the mass market products, and the software publishers, which are doing sales directly, but we actually help them increase their sales.

AJ: Has the company raised money before?
KW: We have raised corporate rounds of approximately $1 million and are currently raising $1.5 million to accelerate the pace of rollouts, and the number of online stores we’re running, and increase the volume. We’ve got more orders coming in than we can handle right now.

AJ: Why is this a compelling company for investors?
KW: The core essence of the business has been proven, the buyers are coming, software publishers, industry magazines, and industry associations are willing to work with us and get this information out to their members. It’s a great opportunity for investors to get on board now and receive a great return on their investment. We also got 30% refundable tax credits for anyone in the Vancouver area.

For more information on SoftSearch search under the symbol SOFTSEARCH in Genesis Exchange or click here.