The United
States is seen as the big unknown for Jade Software but after
some recent success in Europe, the Christchurch-based company
is preparing for a push into Silicon Valley and California.
Chief innovation officer John Ascroft is busy preparing for
the visit which will be some time in February.
The product at the forefront of the marketing push will be
JOOB, with which Jade had success when presenting at a huge
technology fair in Berlin.
"We are the initial scouting party into California and
Silicon Valley before finishing somewhere on the east coast.
While others will be at the beach, we will be working through
to get prepared for the visit."
New Zealand Trade and Enterprise and the New Zealand Beachead
project had been helping Jade setting up meetings and
presentations, he said.
It was hard to get a toe in the door, so both NZTE and
Beachead had provided the connections.
"They understand the process. This is a real opportunity for
us. It is so exciting.
"We are working with those guys to put together a hit list
and target the people we want to talk to. Until you do it,
you don't know how it will go."
Last year, Jade decided to invest time and money in
travelling to Berlin to show off its JOOB product, which was
meeting with success in the United Kingdom.
JOOB was a high performance solution framework from which
customers could build databases, mobile technology
applications, a social network and analytical tools.
The analytical tools were being used by major police services
because of its ability in finding and fitting together random
patterns, Mr Ascroft said.
One of the more interesting proposals was using it on
Facebook to target what people searched for and provide
experiences that were more relevant to the user.
The user had to opt in for the product to work.
The mobile application market was a "very exciting" place to
be at present, he said.
The Jade product could let companies build their own iPhone
apps, concentrating on just their particular area of
expertise while Jade managed the back-end, he said.
The "Where's My Tribe" app, developed by Jade developers in
Christchurch, proved popular in Berlin.
A name, residential address, and (preferably residential) telephone number is required from readers who comment on ODT Online. These details will not be visible to site visitors.