It is very demanding and costly to build a top notch exchange. We are committed to build our own and do it right. It will cost $ millions and may take a little longer. But that is a vital component of our fully integrated system. If I have my way, we will have the best customer services - something annoying lacking in our industry.
I think you may be right about a top notch exchange costing millions of dollars to set up. If anyone can do it, DNotes Global can. Good customer service is an absolute necessity, but tough to keep up with when you're growing rapidly. I think you have to over-hire tech support reps and consider it good when at times some of them are standing around doing nothing.
Congratulations on the Geneca partnership!
And Merry Christmas to you and yours!
Tech support is the life blood of any company dealing with the public. As Alan knows, I founded two tech companies, one a networking contractor and PC sales and the other a national Internet provider with several education focused physical locations. My partners and I saw eye to eye on most things except the value of tech support. They were focused mainly on the technology, which is of course important but, not if customers can't use it.
I remember us going round and round at board meetings about where to concentrate growth after new customer acquisition. Mostly we ended up spending on techs, engineers and hardware and what ever was left over was allocated to support staff. In the the end, this is what finally killed us along with the advent of cable Internet. I can't help thinking what things might have been if we had less engineers and more marketing people who understood the customer relationship and the need for a live voice at the other end of the phone. Never forget the human touch, it's what separates the winners from the rest of the pack.
As for DNotes, I'm sure you will do fine. The various talents that currently make up the "team" compliment each other nicely. If you can, at worst, agree to disagree, then you have a head start.
PS: Wasn't all bad, we sold one for a nice profit and the other was a wash.