Profile: GloverSure

by Sali Earls

GloverSure is an innovative new media company providing services including messaging, web design and hosting to clients nationwide. The company's solutions have helped organisations from sole traders to SMEs and government agencies get the best from these internet technologies.

Sali Earls spoke to Director Richard Glover-Davies to find out about the company.

What's the history of your company?
I founded the company in the summer of 2004. After completing my First Class Honours degree in software engineering from the University of Wales Aberystwyth, and working for a large consultancy firm, I decided to start a company specialising in SMS (Text Message Services) and Web design and development.

Within the first year the company has gained many web design/development and SMS service contracts from Government Agencies (such as the Meat & Livestock Commission), national organistations and SMEs, to sole traders and farm diversifications. It is amazing that the company has done very little advertising and the majority of the work comes to us through word of mouth. We are very competitive and provide the highest level of service.

What unique products/services does your company provide?
We provide a full range of SMS and MMS services - we have a platform that allows easy integration into any existing system via XML datafeeds via http/https.

We offer our clients the use of our platform at no extra charge and it really has got all the bells and whistles. You can setup many different services within seconds. There are a number of template services which include competitions, alerts, subscriptions, feedback, auction, reverse auction, live chat, quiz, classifieds to name but a few. Then there is a module that allows you to setup a customised service via an easy to use interaction tree.

Some examples of options include communicate with a web server, execute branch n times, send email, send sms, send ringtone, log an event, add user to list.... the list goes on.

In the latest version you can even automatically display the content that has been sent in via SMS and MMS on a website just by adding a few lines of code.

With the web design and development we offer a full range of services from small brochure sites to corporate portals. We now often integrate SMS services into our clients sites such as mobile content or reverse SMS as a payment gateway. We can even take the design of your website through to all your promotional material (business cards, letterheads etc.)

We have recently launched a text to screen service for nightclubs, bars and outdoor events. We used the system at the Royal Welsh Show in the Young Peoples Village - it was a massive success using a giant projection screen and even made it onto S4C. The system even has a music visualised background and can display both picture and text messages.

There have been many enquires about the system since.

What's been the key to your success?
The key to our success to date is quite simply keeping our clients happy and providing a high level of service. We do not have one dissatisfied customer, and so all our customers are recommending us to other businesses and organisations.

We provide top quality websites at the same price other companies would charge for a poor website, and no job is too small as we have already proved that small jobs can and will lead to larger jobs.

We are also upfront with all costs from day one, there are never hidden charges. We think about the future for our clients as over the next few years more and more people will use their mobiles to surf the web, we make sure that all our websites are usable from mobiles.

We also offer different packages with the SMS services, from the client receiving the full payout and paying a monthly fee for the services, to profit share options that remove any setup cost or monthly fees to clients.

We have also been featured in many national and local newspapers and magazines for our work, and it certainly helps when the director and lead developer has a first class honours degree in software engineering.

What one piece of outside technology has benefited your company most?
When it comes to web design and development open source software has certainly been a benefit. We actively use open source and contribute back to the community on a regular basis. Open source is certainly beneficial and allows us to develop online shops and portals faster and at a lower cost for our clients.

Unfortunately there is very little open source software in the SMS arena to date. We would certainly like to release some code in the near future.

Currently we use a software portal called ice communications manager that allows us to setup services in very little time and has all the bells and whistles. This portal has certainly benefited our company. It would take many years of development to create a system of this standard and without it we would not be able to offer such services without large setup costs.

We can offer to setup services at very low costs if not at no cost by using this portal.

What one piece of advice would you give to start-up companies in your field?
Quite simply keep your customers happy and up to date - there is nothing worse than leaving your customers in the dark, a quick email only takes a minute.

Always be upfront with project costs - you will only annoy your customers with extra hidden costs.

Try and get as much press coverage as possible never turn down an opportunity even if you are incredibly busy. Its free advertising at the end of the day.

Where do you see your company going in the future?
Well I hope the company will grow and bring much needed higher paid/more high tech jobs to mid Wales. The company will always stay in Mid Wales as it is simply a great environment to work in. I hope that we will continue building on our good reputation and profile.

But one thing for sure is that GloverSure will be at the forefront of the latest technology and leading the way in Wales.

Find out more about GloverSure at www.gloversure.co.uk.