For many businesses, finding the right software solution can be a jungle. If you Google, you’ll be greeted with countless ads, and if you ask your network, your opinion is subjective. DigiMatcher wants to change that. Using needs analysis and artificial intelligence, the start-up will match companies with software solutions.
Why can’t you match companies and software solutions in a more objective way? Julie Maja Nielsen had that thought in March 2021.
As a consultant in the Software as a Service world with 15 years of industry experience, she has advised companies countless times on which software solution was the best fit for their particular business. And that requires ice in the stomach. Because companies spend a lot of money and a lot of time implementing a new system. That’s why the idea for the DigiMatcher platform was born.
“The idea is to take the user by the hand, because it is typically difficult for the user to understand what they are looking for or what features they need. And so they either ask their network, which has a biased attitude, or Google, where you can quickly spend hours on solutions that are only presented to you because they have the money to be at the top of the search results. So this is an area that lacks transparency,” says Julie Maja Nielsen, CEO and founder of DigiMatcher.
DigiMatcher went live on 1 January this year, and launched the beta platform on 1 March. Companies can therefore already carry out the needs analysis. When DigiMatcher is ready to further develop the platform after the beta stage, companies will automatically be presented with their best SaaS match. At the moment, the process is therefore handled manually to learn the exact matching mechanisms.
More customers for suppliers
However, DigiMatcher will not only act as a recommendation tool for companies. The platform will also be a way for SaaS providers to acquire new customers.
“We are creating a whole new marketing platform for SaaS providers. They have all tried advertising on Google, various websites and social media with fluctuating results. We offer them a new way to get customers that suits the vendors and their business,” says Julie Maja Nielsen.
She adds that once a company has gone through the needs analysis, they will usually be ready to invest and implement their new system(s) here and now. Therefore, the leads that DigiMatcher generates are of high quality.
“Currently, we get about six enquiries a week from suppliers who want to join. We experience a lot of interest from foreign suppliers who want to enter the Danish market and Danish suppliers who want more customers,” says Julie Maja Nielsen.
Werner Valeur as a partner
Julie Maja Nielsen knew early on that she would not launch DigiMatcher alone. So she reached out to serial entrepreneur and investor Werner Valeur, who at the time had just sold Salary, a user-friendly payroll system for small and medium-sized businesses.
“Early in the process, I approached Werner Valeur, who thought it was a mega cool idea. He immediately understood that even though several accounting systems look similar on the surface, users will still experience different interfaces, functionalities, support and integration possibilities with other digital systems,” says Julie Maja Nielsen, adding that Werner Valeur today owns a percentage of DigiMatcher, and contributes with sparring, know-how and contacts.
Serial entrepreneur Werner Valeur and Julie Maja Nielsen.
The next decision to be made was which area of the SaaS world DigiMatcher should first offer to match companies and suppliers in. However, Julie Maja Nielsen quickly realised that if she was to get to know more than 45 different suppliers on a detailed level, she would need a partner who was also prepared to take the entrepreneurial journey with her and Werner Valeur.
“I made a post on LinkedIn that got 30 shares, 30,000 views and 18 candidates in a few hours. It was amazing. Benjamin Raun wrote to me after a few hours. He’s a digital manager at an Aarhus-based company, where he matches companies with payroll and accounting systems, so he knows more or less everyone in the industry. We are a perfect match – and we stand for exactly the same set of values,” says Julie Maja Nielsen.
So it was only natural that payroll and accounting was the first area DigiMatcher threw itself into. After that, the plan is to add HR and recruitment as well as sales and marketing to the platform.
“In five years we will be in a place where all digital systems are united on the DigiMatcher platform across all industries and national borders. We have big ambitions to help companies all over the world to digitise and automate – and to create transparency in the digital market so that it is easy to choose your system landscape,” says Julie Maja Nielsen.
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