Small Business Profile: eSay

Networking was the key to getting a software database company off the ground. By Guy Clapperton

Suggested Topics

Sometimes David doesn't so much kill Goliath as start selling him products and services. It can be daunting at first: the larger, established concerns are seen as unapproachable by the little guys. So it seemed for software database company eSAY when it was founded in 2001, but slowly its view has changed. It has now contributed to solving water leaks in its area by selling systems to established market leaders – and has some ideas on how others can do the same.

Dr Moneeb Awan, co-founder, explains that the key to securing this sort of contract has been meeting people on equal terms. "One of the fundamentals of what we do is network – we go to events organised by the Chamber of Commerce and other organisations like that. Through that networking we meet directors who are turning over hundreds of millions, on an equal level." Remembering that just because your service or product might cover thousands of people, you don't need thousands to develop and produce it.

It was at one of these networking events that the team met United Utilities, which supplies a lot of the water for the North of England, who had a lot of field engineers looking for leaks and used an old-fashioned means of reporting them when it found them. "They were finding X number of leaks per week, filling in pieces of paper and then scheduling the repairs. That whole process was ready for technology to take over," says Awan.

A pilot of 30 engineers tried eSay's software, called PinPoint, and the whole organisation of 90 engineers now uses it full-time. "What happens now is that when they switch their device on it has details of the job including directions on how to get there," he says. "They haven't had to go to the office; they're productive immediately." Meanwhile, other engineers are looking for leaks and communicating them to the office immediately through the same devices, so the jobs get raised in real time.

Becoming known to the senior directors was key, believes Awan. "Otherwise you end up writing so many 'dear Sir or Madam' e-mails, most of which will end up in the bin – and which we wouldn't have the resources to follow up anyway!"

He and the two other founders put the company together from a simple wish to stop working for other people. They were software engineers still on a high from the skills demand around the turn of the century. "The technology bubble hadn't quite burst in 1999 and there were people writing cheques for someone with a business plan on the back of an envelope," explains Awan. It wasn't as simple as that, though. "If you've always been an employee, it's quite something to think of going into business. Especially then – now everything in the media's telling you to start your own business, but it wasn't then."

They discussed and researched the business in depth, and one day met a man from Business Link. "He really laid it on the line," says Awan. "He basically said, you lads have never run a business before and you're looking to dot every 'i' and cross every 't'. If you grow your business you can't take that view forward with you." He advised against doing any more research – either they were going to go into business or they weren't. They elected to concentrate on quick wins for six months, forswearing sales to the National Health Service, for which the men had worked before. They took no clients from their previous employer, and set up from scratch in a spare bedroom. "We didn't borrow any money," he confirms.

The organisation has been making money ever since, and in May won an innovative technology prize in the Water Industry Achievement Awards, but has elected to remain small, learning as it went along initially."The best thing we did early on was to take on a bookkeeper so we could find out what we should be doing and shouldn't," he says. He and his colleagues learned to recruit people with the right attitude rather than the right skills, on the grounds that you can teach skills but not attitude. They eventually learned not to take projects on from agencies because by the time you were subcontracted to a subcontractor you'd end up with next to no margin. "It took us six years to really get to know our business."

Staying small – the company still doesn't employ 30 people – has been an advantage; if a client wants to get through to a decision maker the chances are they will, and if something has to change it doesn't have to go through umpteen approvals.

eSAY continues to look at the larger client and is even rewriting its own internal rule book as a result. In spite of the belief that the NHS was too big a client at start-up, there are talks afoot to get it buying software and services within months. Who knows, maybe sometime eSAY will need to employ as many as 30 people after all.

Independent Comment
blog comments powered by Disqus
Career Services

Day In a Page

The 50 Best beachwear

The 50 Best beachwear

The hottest summer gear for men and women
Still standing: George Galloway reveals why his staunchly Leftist outlook is still invariably right

Still standing: George Galloway

Written off, ridiculed, wrongly accused of taking bribes the honourable member for Bradford West, has never bowed to the critics.
How will Daniel Radcliffe's fans react to his latest turn - as a damaged, drug-taking Beatnik poet?

Daniel Radcliffe as drug-taking Beatnik poet

His decade as the boy wizard may be over, but that hasn't hexed Daniel Radcliffe's enchanted life.
For whom the bell tolls: £20m 'Memo' project takes shape on Dorset's Jurassic coast

'Memo' project takes shape on Dorset coast

It started as a stonemason's visionary idea – to commemorate all the species that have ever existed and are now extinct.
Just add sunshine: Bill Granger's Turkish delights

Just add sunshine: Bill Granger's Turkish delights

Turkish cuisine is perfect for those long, sociable weekend meals with friends. It's just a shame that money can't buy the key ingredient.
Objets czar: David Usborne’s collection of myriad objects is quite the mystery

Objets czar: David Usborne’s collection of myriad objects

To others, they're junk. To David Usborne, they are his life: useful gizmos, mysterious thingamajigs and anonymous articles that dominate his home.
The iron ore lady: Why the world's richest woman is mired in controversy

World's richest woman: Gina Rinehart

Family feuds, attempts to control the Australian media and bitter public disputes are keeping the mining magnate in the headlines.
We just click: How Lego keeps building on its success

How Lego keeps building on its success

This year, Lego announced record profits. Gerard Gilbert visits its Denmark HQ.
The other bits: Mark Hix creates delicious and economical meals with cheaper cuts of meat

Mark Hix cooks with cheaper cuts of meat

Our chef creates delicious and economical meals on a budget
Strokes of genius: How to create summer's bold make-up look

Strokes of genius: Summer's bold make-up

From coral lips to fly-away fringes, make-up artist Kim Brown and hair stylist Richard Scorer reveal how to create the look
Marking his territory: Kilian Hennessy creates fragrances designed to provoke the senses

Marking his territory: Kilian Hennessy

The perfumer creates fragrances designed to provoke the senses
Photo essay: Britain's 1948 Olympians today

Britain's 1948 Olympians today

Photo essay
The top five E3 2012 triumphs: From Ubisoft's suite of titles to Dishonored and The Last of Us

The top five E3 2012 triumphs

The games and moments that left us grinning like the Cheshire Cat
The green movement at 50: Can the world be saved?

Can the world be saved?

Population growth and climate change are the big problems facing the earth in the next 50 years. But are there any solutions?
France: Will xenophobia go mainstream?

France: Will xenophobia go mainstream?

In the beautiful Rhone delta, John Lichfield visits a village where a dangerous new political landscape is taking shape