Published on the 10/07/2014 | Written by Newsdesk
Technology entrepreneur and ex-Localist CEO Christina Domecq last night launched her latest project that has the potential to turn the small to medium business world on its head…
Christina Domecq launched her free business navigator, named Ora, with the help of Economic Development Minister Steven Joyce at an event hosted by Westpac’s downtown Auckland headquarters.
Ora business navigator, which Domecq affectionately referred to as she, “because she can multitask”, is a cloud-based software platform for SMEs that is designed to help them do better business via a set of features and algorithms provided by Ora and its partners Westpac, Xero, MYOB and Vend.
“Underpinning business is technology. Technology is the enabler, the method by which we solve a problem,” she said of the Ora business navigator.
Ora “lends business a hand” by tracking all relevant information across all platforms and consolidating it into a centralised live information feed. Competitor information and activity, market insights, business leads and relevant information from digital, print and broadcast channels are all captured and turned in to actionable items within the platform’s dashboard. Based on this, Ora’s team of experts provides the best growth solutions matched to the businesses specific needs. Ora also integrates with accounting and banking services and enables users to produce a 12-month plan.
Domecq, who has a list of tech successes behind her and has been in New Zealand for three and a half years, said she continues to be impressed by New Zealand’s unique untapped opportunity in the SME market and feels “compelled to disrupt this market”.
Ora has the potential to be quite revolutionary, putting the kind of technology previously reserved for enterprise companies in the hands of small business owners. Most powerfully, perhaps, Ora can learn from its community and the businesses that use it.
Most of Ora’s features are free, supported by advertising, but there are options to upgrade for more storage and to reach larger communities. There is an expectation that a good proportion of SMEs will choose to invest the managed services for $500 per month. To celebrate its launch Ora will be giving away 10 $50,000 dream grants between now and Christmas.
Ora’s full set of features includes four separate areas: Ora i for monitoring market and competitor activity; Ora Expert for branding, marketing and campaign management; Ora Tracker for reporting on business performance and Ora Community for online networking.
