The project that changed everything.
What began as a telephone directory-assistance competitor quickly became a lesson in telecommunications, call-centre engineering, business data and the emerging digital economy.
After the Christchurch earthquake
In 2011, following the Christchurch earthquake, David left Christchurch and began developing what initially looked like a straightforward opportunity: build a telephone directory-assistance competitor to the established 018 service.
The result became 0199 Directory Assistance.
Much more than telemarketing
By this stage David's experience had developed well beyond basic telephone sales. He was building outbound systems, developing scripts, training people, managing teams and focusing on conversion as an operational discipline.
0199 pushed that development further. David built a Wellington-based VOIP call-centre operation capable of both inbound and outbound activity around the four-digit 0199 Directory Assistance number.
The project crossed telecommunications, numbering/access, call-centre infrastructure, customer service, sales teams, directory information, business relationships and marketing.
Discovering the value of data
0199 also introduced David to the commercial value of organised business data. A directory was not simply a list of phone numbers. Business names, categories, locations, contact information and customer relationships became useful infrastructure when structured and maintained properly.
That lesson still strongly influences his work today.
The first website customer
Then customers began asking a different set of questions: could 0199 provide email, websites and hosting?
David spoke with the in-house developer about whether those services could be delivered, expanded the development capability and personally signed the first website customer.
That first sale changed the direction of the business.
From directory assistance to digital services
The logic became obvious. A business that needed to be found through directory assistance also needed to be found online. It needed a domain, professional email, a website, hosting, search visibility and advertising.
The directory created the relationship. Digital services expanded it.
From roughly 2011 to 2016, David became increasingly immersed in websites, hosting, business email, online advertising, data and the wider digital economy.