Qld service provider seeks resellers for online business tool

A Queensland service provider seeks resellers for a new internet-based service that enables users to use telephones to receive calls and take orders from online shoppers.

Doreen Acworth, CEO of clickcalling, said the service allowed business or private users to advertise online without having a computer, internet connection or domain name.

“They place their advertisement, from a little block to a whole page [in size], and we connect the advertisement to the land line, mobile or IP phone at their physical business or home,” she said.

The business could take calls, make sales and take payment over the phone without having to be connected to the internet. “It works perfectly for an eBay-type sales environment as well as a retail or services business,” Acworth said.

The service could also prove useful in social services. For example, the product could be deployed in public booths or kiosks, containing a screen, speaker or video, and allow children – such as runaways – without any money for a call to anonymously contact their parents to reassure them they were safe, Acworth said.

“Once the password is accepted the call is placed to the registered telephone of the parent or guardian. The number is invisible and the caller ID is not retained,” she said.

Clickcalling was canvassing the idea with various child support agencies, Acworth added.

“Travellers overseas won't need to carry a phone or pay hotel surcharges on calls, just access the internet from airport, library or hotel to make a call from their link on clickcalling,” she said. “No purchases or black boxes [are required].”

The 'clickcalling' service was basically an interactive website. However, clickcalling was using its own patented communications unifying technology to provide the service, Acworth added.

She said her company Nascomms had tried fruitlessly to interest certain IT “monopoly groups” in the technology.

However, Nascomms had become aware there were many small Australian businesses with a telephone number but no internet presence, she said.

“These businesses, many of which are family-run, are therefore not able to access the quoted 6.5 percent income generated from online shopping,” Acworth said. “This is expected to increase to 16 percent in three years, according to Francesca Saccaro from NSW's Department of Education and Training.”

Many websites focused on internet marketing but none targeted the issues of businesses that operated from a small or home office with no internet connection, she maintained.

clickcalling had gone live this month and already attracted inquiries from potential franchisers and resellers, Acworth said.

“The first of these, at the paperwork stage, is a South African company in Johannesburg that will act as an agent or channel partner through its established customer base, and a software group in the US who will provide communication software custom-branded for advertisers,” Acworth said.