You could argue that the best business concepts are born out of sheer frustration.

Ngareta Bassett would agree with you. The founder of business process documenting software company X-Mapping®, Ngareta says she developed the concept after a two-year search for a suitable product proved fruitless.
 
“We were working with clients at BrandNew Pacific (the Wellington branding agency Ngareta and husband David set up 11 years ago) and found that in order for them to build the customer experience, they first had to define their business processes clearly. But there didn’t seem to be any software out there that would let them easily capture and describe their own business processes.”

Ngareta admits there were some products available on the market, but none were specifically designed for the New Zealand context and none were entirely suitable for multi-tasking owner operators.   

So she rolled up her sleeves and worked with technical advisers to develop X-Mapping®, a consultancy-based software product that allows customers to capture and store their proprietary work processes and improve productivity and service delivery.

“That’s the key to X-Mapping® – to physically capture an organisation’s work processes rather than to leave it entirely to learned behaviour and memory,” says Ngareta, who previously worked as a sharebroker and owned her own massage business.

It took two years to get her online product to market and in September 2008, Ngareta launched it on the domestic and Australian markets where it was well received.

But fast forward six months and Ngareta says she realised she needed to take the business to the next level.

“I knew if I wanted to go global with this product, then I would have to develop a business plan and seek a mentor.”

And so she did, entering Creative HQ in April 2009 with support from Te Puni Kokiri. The focus is currently to create a robust business strategy which will cover the next three years.    

“Having come from a service delivery model, rather than the software or product delivery model, developing this business has been a huge learning curve for me. But I’ve had the most fantastic business strategist, Michael Elwood-Smith, who has helped me focus on market validation to identify a strong niche target and looking at appropriate business models, which has proved really positive. Plus, it’s been a great experience to be in the Creative HQ space and be surrounded by other people in the same start-up position as me.”   

Ngareta says the company’s growing base of clients is still in New Zealand, although interest in Australia and the US is growing and includes potential for a professional channel partner.