SLI Sytems

Christchurch hi-tech company SLI Systems is helping large and small websites and
e-commerce firms around the world increase sales, using intelligent software to drive more people to their websites and ensure that when they get there they can find what they want.

The company has been in business for six years and is enjoying strong year-on-year growth as the benefits of site search becomes more widely appreciated.

Their flagship product is Learning Search, a hosted site search service for websites and on-line stores that learns from the people who use it to continuously improve the user experience.

Vice President of Marketing Geoff Brash says it is the only search product in the world that has the ability to learn from such things as the terms, spelling and language people use when searching for a particular product, and gets better at helping them find it. 

“This is our core competitive advantage. For an e-commerce company our service increases their sales because a better site search means their customers are more likely to find what they’re looking for and more likely to make a purchase.

“If you search on a website and it doesn’t know what you are looking for you’ll be frustrated – you’ll either know they’ve got the product and you can’t find it or you’ll assume they haven’t got it, either way it’s a lost sale.”

In 2004 SLI Systems released what has become its second major product, Site Champion. This hosted service uses the data collected from Learning Search in order to increase traffic to the customer’s website by automatically creating landing pages that are optimised for search engines such as Google and Yahoo.

It takes the guesswork out of a company’s search engine optimisation (SEO) by using the common search terms of their site visitors.

Mr Brash says a key driver behind SLI Systems’ growing success is its focus on delivering customers with solutions, not just software products. He says flexibility and responsiveness are key competitive advantages.
 
“We are a very client focused company, very involved with working with clients and delivering the service they need. We basically build solutions to suit them – it’s not a case of one size fits all. Our software is delivered remotely so there is nothing for the client to install or manage. Our engineers are experts in producing search solutions that exceed our customers’ expectations.”

He says the software products are very scaleable, meaning SLI Systems can help small e-commerce firms of just two or three people, and companies who are getting millions of people a month visiting their website.

Customer numbers are increasing rapidly – up 60 percent in the past year. Mr Brash says growing so quickly has challenges as well as rewards, in particular staff recruitment, with SLI Systems putting a big effort into finding the right people for the job.

To take its products to market the company has direct sales teams in target markets – the United States, UK/Europe and Asia Pacific, which is currently covered out of New Zealand. It also has a partnership programme, working with other people in the ICT industry such as web designers, web analytics companies and SEO firms to offer clients added value.

“We reach potential clients through direct mail, industry conferences, webinars, newsletters and online marketing,” says Mr Brash. “Customers also help significantly with our marketing – having happy customers is a great way to attract new customers. Customer testimonials and case studies are used along with our logo on their site search results page.”

SLI Systems’ five founders, including Mr Brash, are all still working in the business.

One thing that was in their original business plan was a focus on the North American market - that’s where they could see the opportunities to establish and grow the business, and why from day one they’ve put so much energy into developing the United States, the biggest market for site search products.

SLI Systems is an American company, with offices in California, London UK and Christchurch, New Zealand.

“It’s all about removing barriers,” explains Mr Brash. “We don’t want to put any barriers in the way of a company doing business with us. When someone researches you, you’ve got to look like you’ve got scalability and that you are reliable. Then they’ll give you chance to prove yourself.”

SLI Systems is planning to extend its clients base in the United States, and expand its recent entry into the UK and Europe where it already has a growing customer base.

Mr Brash says exporting brings rewards beyond the obvious financial ones.

“We work with some very big international companies and are a respected player in the site search market, especially in the United States, and that’s very satisfying.”

Contact: Geoff Brash, Vice President Marketing, SLI Systems, phone 03 961 3247, email geoff.brash@sli-systems.com