Where are the Solutions for Service Based Businesses?

Over the years, innovation has spurred both growth and efficiency in the distribution sector for products. Today, as a product maker, it is easier than ever to market and sell your offerings. The above graph shows the significant innovations for products which include  mail-order catalogs (Sears), superstores with optimized logistics (Walmart) , speciality superstores (Dick’s, Staples, Bass Pro Shops..etc), and finally into the world of ecommerce with Amazon/Ebay.

Service providers have seen no similar increase in efficiency. At best, one can say that Yellow Pages has provided a directory (online and in book) and review systems (Yelp, Google) have provided a method for lowering the barriers for engagement. However, largely suppliers of services are still in the same position that product makers were decades ago.  

There is a great need for services-based businesses to get the tools to manage their business as well as network with complementary businesses to build larger more interesting value statements.  Why has this not been done already ?   Services are hard and complicated. In contrast to products, services are:

• more complex to describe, and typically involve a two-way dialog with customer.

• more complex to manage time/space/capacity.

• more complex payment relationships (deposits, paid after job is complete)

• more complex legally with liability agreements to cover on-premises issues

• small, so have to be interlocked with other services to build a more interesting value statement for the final customer.

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Ocoos is unique in solving the above problems. Specifically, Ocoos:

1. offers a broad set of capabilities to market services which includes an ability to engage with the customers before commitment. All customer interactions are managed through integrated CRM.

2. offers a scheduling function which respects capacity/space, and a patented technique to balance workloads.

3. offers more complex models for payments such as deposits and quote/point-of-sale.

4. integrates legal agreements for digital signature and storage.

5. enables b2b marketing interlock through a patented technique for marketing interlock. With this capability, several small service providers can provides a powerful co-marketing solution allowing businesses to partner for success.  Example: wedding planner, limousine service, caterer, and florist can go to market together.

6. supports all of the above with an integrated database built for analytics, customized reports and data mining.