Brian Murphy ... ; Director of software development company RentPro

Brian Murphy

RentPro is a software product developed by K-Point InternetSolutions. Its primary target is residential letting agents, thoughwe're expanding into the commercial sector.

RentPro aims to reduce the admin burden of running a lettingagency through the generation of landlord statements and rentreports, marketing available properties and tracking propertyrepairs. As head of RentPro development, I co-ordinate and approveplans for new features and drive business growth.

We're about to introduce text features so that letting agents caneasily contact tenants, landlords and sub-contractors.

These will remind tenants about overdue rent, or notify sub-contractors of repair works. RentPro is a web-based product. Lettingagents can exploit this by giving landlords accounts on the system -- cutting the time taken to field queries from their clients.

We have to differentiate our product by making it easier to useand more innovative. We have to convince potential clients toentrust development to us, as we become the engine driving theirbusiness forward.

The UK and Ireland have relatively small numbers in rentedaccommodation compared to other European countries -- so we aim tobreak into these markets soon.

The main ones are language and legislation. We're lucky to havesupport from Invest NI to help us understand legislation and we willuse their expertise to research new markets.

Our most effective medium is online, via Google Adwords, and byimproving our search engine rankings. We don't ignore traditionaladvertising routes and through marketing agency Pulse PR we'vedeveloped new adverts aimed at the trade press.

No company can ignore cashflow. We decided to license the productrather than sell it. Subscribers pay a monthly fee to use ourproduct. This has advantages to everyone. Our clients receiveongoing support and updates.

Lord Sugar. He achieved massive success through hard work and afinely tuned business brain. He has the know how to survive whateveroccurs in the economy.

CAPTION: What is your business?

CAPTION: What interesting projects are you engaged in?

CAPTION: What are your greatest challenges?

CAPTION: How will you develop the company?

CAPTION: What challenges do you have accessing internationalmarkets?

CAPTION: How do you market your business?

CAPTION: Is cashflow an issue?

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