The life of a start-up company is as unpredictable as the weather, and sometimes the plotted course turns out to be the wrong path to success.
Such was the case with Reason Inc. Just eight months ago, the company launched as Reason Wireless Ware, selling wireless services and products to consumers over the Web at its site, reasonware.com.
Now, the company has a new name-Reason Inc.-and a new mission-to develop Web-based applications to manage wireless products and services.
“It made more sense for us to be the experts in the maintenance and development of the sites,” said Jeff Kohler, chief executive officer of Reason. “It was a natural evolution.”
Reason offers a service for both corporate and retail customers. The retail service, ReasonForRetail, launched last week, and the corporate offering, ReasonForWireless, is set to go Nov. 1.
The ReasonForRetail software is designed to make online wireless retail available to retailers that otherwise would not have a presence on the Web in the wireless segment, such as electronics and stereo stores, the company said. Kohler estimated that start-up costs alone for an e-commerce site selling wireless products and services easily can range from $200,000 to more than $1 million, and the wireless business is so complex that more retailers prefer to outsource that segment to experts.
Kohler also found that retailers were very good at opening stores and selling products and services, but they lacked the necessary information technologies to keep the business running efficiently. ReasonForRetail provides a single source for information, helping to synchronize stores.
“We fill that IT gap for them. We can make them technologically proficient in a very short time,” Kohler said.
With ReasonForRetail, users access information on wireless products and rate plans from a variety of service providers, select which items they wish to sell online and add customized options and special promotions to suit their needs.
ReasonForRetail also changes the branding and identity of the reasonware.com site-which houses all the data and information on the wireless products and services-to match the brand of the company.
ReasonForWireless
In just a few weeks the ReasonForWireless product will be available for corporate and carrier customers. Reason said it recognized the need for a program that could coordinate all the wireless devices used by employees and track their usage. A typical corporation has an unknown number of employees using many different kinds of handsets, pagers and handheld devices, all with different rate plans and roaming areas.
ReasonForWireless provides an online help desk featuring instructions, tips and shortcuts on how to use specific devices; information to help employees choose and purchase wireless equipment from company-approved selections; and wireless asset tracking for corporate management use. Each employee is given a personalized Web site on the corporate intranet to access the help desk.
According to Kohler, ReasonForWireless is in line with an emerging carrier trend for helping corporate customers manage their wireless assets.
“For example, AT&T (Corp.) will give major accounts a piece of software for companies to put on their intranets,” that virtually performs the same functions as ReasonForWireless, Kohler said.
Reason is targeting those carriers that are not yet offering this kind of service.
Reason said it intends to license both software packages on a monthly basis as application service providers.
