Helping businesses to manage riding stables in Sunderland or sell a penthouse in Phuket is all in a day’s work for growing Sedgefield software company Global Management Platform.
GMP develops customer relationship management packages, helping its clients to save money and run their businesses more efficiently. It enables them to control client or prospective client information records, manage diary and booking systems as well as controlling processes such as sales administration, mailshots or the paying of sales commission to agents.
And now, thanks to a £200,000 investment led by Northstar Ventures, it is recruiting three staff to its 11-strong workforce and looking to break into new markets. The company, based at Netpark in Sedgefield is spending some of the money on exhibition and marketing materials and has just secured one of six places on a UKTI-sponsored mission to the United Arab Emirates as guests of the Dubai Government.
GMP managing director Kevin Maddison sees huge potential in the Gulf states, in the property and financial services sectors. And he has found that much of his business comes from attending exhibitions and events in the UK and overseas.
“The UK has a global reputation in this sector, and we have found foreign buyers particularly keen to deal with companies that store their critical business information in UK data centres – it’s an important selling point particularly for customers in the US,” he said.
“A lot of my time has been spent recently at trade shows in the Middle East and Asia – areas with fast-growing financial services sectors and where property developers are making massive investments in projects like golf complexes and residential housing schemes.
“But our products and services are equally relevant in the UK and Europe. We have developed a reputation in the equestrian market where we can create sophisticated booking systems for riding schools that ensure the client’s favourite horse is available when they want it and the right instructor on hand to offer tuition.
“We work with the basic principle of taking a hotch potch of data from spreadsheets scattered across an organisation and putting all of that information in one place, building cloud-based solutions to control complex sales administration processes and help maximise efficiency. That is equally relevant to a wide range of industries and we could have a client needing to manage sales worldwide of penthouses in Phuket, or a property company building a golf resort in Spain – with villas available for sale or to rent – who can use GMP’s bespoke products to ensure that sales agents always have up-to-date availability in real-time.”
Michelle Cooper, investment manager at Northstar Ventures, added: “Although GMP has had a number of recent high-profile client wins in the Far East and Gulf states, they have a truly scaleable product that is relevant to virtually any business in the UK that has client data it needs to manage more efficiently.
“Storing data in a central location in the cloud rather than scattered across a number of fragmented databases also means it can be managed from a computer, tablet or smartphone from wherever the client might be. It’s a great concept that we were delighted to be able to support.”