Posted: Thu, February 22, 2007
 Profile: Karova Ltd
by Sali Earls
North Wales based Karova Ltd assists both commercial and non-profit organisations in online trading and fundraising activities. This
assistance takes the form of bespoke website development, transaction based e-commerce software, back office software integration, search engine optimisation, pay per click management, email
marketing management and website hosting services.
Clients include notable names such as the World Wildlife Fund, the Woodland Trust and MENCAP, as well as smaller clients such as St David's Hospice and Frocked.
Sali Earls found out more from Karova's Managing Director, Peter Roxburgh.
What is the history of your company?
We incorporated the company in July 2003 with the objective of developing an e-commerce application that website developers could use to build accessible standards compliant websites. During our
first year of trading we developed Karova Store and gained some good exposure with promotion by the RNIB. Early in our second year of trading we moved into the development of e-commerce websites,
managing to win contracts with the World Wildlife Fund and Disney UK. We have since continued to develop e-commerce and fund raising websites for organisations such as Lloyds TSB, Nectar, the
British Heart Foundation, Save the Children and the Woodland Trust. In parallel to website development we have built UK based hosting services and have developed online marketing services such as
pay per click management clients.
What unique products/services does your company provide?
We strongly believe in providing products and services, which give our clients a solid demonstratable return on their money. Although we provide a wide-range of services such as website hosting, online
marketing services and back office integration we know that our services do not exist in a vacuum. This is why we work closely with clients and the key stakeholders in any project to ensure that the
client always gets the best service combination that is good for them. Delivering solutions that are good for our clients and then monitoring the performance of those solutions is principal to our business'
philosophy. We find that this gives us happy clients who continue to use our services and recommend us to their associates.
 What's been the key to your success?
These are still early days for Karova, but on a personal level I believe our success to date centers on three key elements. The first is our approach to only making the sale when we know that we are
providing something that is genuinely good for the customer, even if this means occasionally losing a sale.
The second is that we have collected together a group of bright, talented and loyal individuals who deliver stand out solutions, which harness both best practice and the latest technologies.
The third element to our success is that we have been fortunate to have excellent customers who have helped and supported through our growth.
What one piece of outside technology has benefited your company most?
There are so many technologies that have allowed our business to exist, for example, the adoption of Broadband, online payment providers and of course the web itself. However, if I was to single out
one particular technology it would be XML (extensible markup language), which is a technology that allows us to tie together information from a number of sources and present that information in a familiar
way to website users. For example, XML technologies easily allow us to provide bilingual e-commerce websites even if the second language uses characters not found in the English language. In fact
using XML means that we do not even have to have the content for both languages stored in the same location. This provides exciting opportunities for content management and the sharing of
information.
Another very important thing that XML technologies allow us to do is share information between different programs running on different types of computers. For example, many of our websites
communicate directly and seamlessly with a number of third-party systems, such as, online credit card processors, stock control systems, customer relationship management systems and accounting
systems. These communications provide an enhanced visitor experience and can save the owners of websites significant amounts of time and money.
What one piece of advice would you give to start-up companies in your field?
Our field encompasses so many different types of business' from hardware provision to software development through to brand building, but in all businesses certain things hold true. For those starting up
new companies I advise recruiting the best people you can find, develop them and recognise their successes. In Karova we always look to recruit people that are bright, passionate about their field and
have a propensity for getting things done.
For those working within start-up companies I believe that if you work to provide products and services that are truly good for your clients you will succeed. Developing open relationships with clients
not only ensures sources of repeat business, it also provides an extended network of people and organisations that can help and assist you as you grow.
Where do you see your company going in the future?
We have gone through a lot of change and growth over that past couple of years and this has helped us all to share a vision of where Karova is going and how it is going to get there. We will continue to
build on our successes in bespoke website development by continuing to develop websites for our clients especially in the e-commerce and transaction-based fields. On the hosting side of the business
we are currently investing in increased capacity, which will allow us to offer web developers and small to medium businesses well supported scalable UK hosting. In terms of products there is a number of
exciting Karova Store developments that will roll out during the year and we have a totally new product that we are all really excited about and which will launch this spring.
Find out more about Karova at www.karova.com.
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