As the story goes for many successful start-ups, the two brains behind managed services provider, YOURasp met after a knock on the door followed by a conversation way back in the 1990s.
Alexander Liffers, an electronic engineering and computer science student at the time, was introduced to John Algar, owner of Algar Burns Computing - a Microsoft large account reseller, through a common friend.
Algar was interested in creating an online application for users to monitor their software licenses and he had written an in-house app in the form of a database. Liffers initially created the hosting environment for the developed web application, and then rewrote it in a more manageable format.
"In 1995 we developed an online application for customers to manage their licenses online, which in the mid '90s was pretty new to the internet. It was so [users] could log-in and have a look at what licenses they have bought.
"No one could host it, so we built up our own boutique ISP purely for hosting and being able to handle that particular web application and also to provide internet services for our pre-existing customers.
"That's where it started. Since then I've been here," says Liffers.
Strong team
More than a decade on, Algar, managing director of YOURasp, and chief technology officer Liffers' collaboration continues. The business has no more than five staff and the pair attribute the business' success to skilled staff with professional attitudes who remain abreast of emerging technologies.
"Specialised staff, knowing what their doing and installing the service correctly at the beginning is the key [to success]," explains Algar.
"[Growth] is about having the expertise and investing in the research and development to make sure the latest hardware we have is in line with where the market is. It has to have the speed and it's also compatible with the vendor's software. Then we stage it, install it and once it's installed it actually runs, which is the job we are appointed to do," says Algar.
YOURasp is a managed services provider (MSP) that hosts online applications. Major vendor partners include Microsoft, McAfee, and M86. Hosted products include, Exchange, CRM and MailMarshal SPE. The MSP works exclusively with resellers in varying capacities to assist the reseller's customers.
"The resellers themselves don't need to know anything about Exchange," Liffers explains as he details YOURasp's offering. The most the reseller will do at a customer level is get the customers configured," he says.
Algar says: "If you think about it, we're engaged to take ownership to manage someone else's software for them. The amount of support calls we have is basically zero. If you're getting a lot of support calls it would be defeating the service."
Growth spurt
In 2000 when Microsoft launched its first ASP (Application Service Provider) initiative, an opportunity opened up for YOURasp. The company combined its licensing business Algar Burns with its pre-existing hosting business FoxGold Communications and became an online application service provider.
"YOURasp was launched in 2000, with the majority of the year spent doing research and development until we installed the first servers and services around November and went live late 2000 early 2001, explains managing director, Algar.
"FoxGold Communications more or less migrated to become YOURasp at a technical level. During this time, Algar Burns was generating a strong income that financed the research and development of YOURasp, which is how we remained to be a privately owned organisation without having to raise investor capital," Algar adds.
In 2001, YOURasp was approached by McAfee. The security vendor was after a hosting service to host its online managed service for anti-virus in the Asia Pacific. By 2003 YOURasp was the sole hosting company for McAfee in the region.
Growth, however, was stagnant for sometime. The technology and data links at the time weren't up to speed for a hosting business. Algar says, it took four or five years for the market to accept the managed services business and also for the vendors to get their software ready.
"Over the last two years we've had quite good growth. It's taken a long, long time to get there in a market that has developed in the last nine years. "Sales people couldn't understand the concept and another major concern was billing," says Algar.
Billing services
A pain point them was their ability to monitor usage and bill appropriately. Algar says they tried many software vendors to get the billing system going but none were effective.
So what the market lacked, Liffers developed.
"Right now our invoicing is to the reseller with all of their customers' bits and pieces itemised on that.
"We can provide it electronically so they can slice it and dice it.
"For some resellers it still leaves them with a lot of work at the end of the month. Where they've got to sub-divide customers individually on a month-by-month basis, it's a lot of work that a lot aren't geared to do. The next step for the in-house billing system is to develop a system where YOURasp can pre-generate invoices with customers' own branding taking the burden away from resellers.
"[Currently] invoices have been broken up to be a lot more friendly, resellers can break that down momentarily into an xml or Excel fiel to make their invoicing simpler," says Liffers.
"Our goal is to make the reseller look good and competent in front of the customers," he adds.
Last quarter, YOURasp quadrupled in revenue.
Timeline:
- 1977 Algar Burns is incorporated as an IT company for beauro services,hardware/software sales.
- 1994 Algar Burns Computing - Becomes a Microsoft large account reseller that sold volume licenses to corporate, academic and government.
- 1997 FoxGold Communications launches for internet services for Algar Burns clients as well as new business (they have a common owner).
- 2000 Microsoft launches ASP initiative - YOURasp is established and FoxGold Communications relinquishes all internet services to YOURasp and starts managed services.
- 2000 YOURasp migrates data centre from internal premises to Swiftel data centre
- 2001 YOURasp becomes McAfee's online managed service provider for anti-virus in Australia-Pacific
- 2003 MSP was sole data centre for McAfee
- 2006 Algar Burns volume licensing side of business is sold to Computerlec
- 2008 YOURasp adopts MarshalSPE to include in managed email service offerings.
- 2009 Signs MailMarshal-as-a-service
Source: YOURasp
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