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BUSINESS | ZURICH INTERIORS<br />
passing trade. At the same time, he secured<br />
a vast but cheap space for storage and<br />
built up strong relationships with private<br />
dealers, securing a much higher level of<br />
sought-after design objects.<br />
An essential step to making the business<br />
a success was the need to provide a top-rate<br />
service. So he focused on fi nding out what<br />
his customers wanted, and how to make<br />
sure they were informed when he found it<br />
for them. Within six months, he had nearly<br />
600 search orders. After a diffi cult parting<br />
with a business partner, Dubler struggled<br />
to give the shop a structure that would<br />
enable it to grow rather than just exist on a<br />
daily basis. “The biggest change came from<br />
developing a database that fi nally enabled<br />
me to control and handle the business.<br />
I hadn’t found any system that really<br />
fi tted with what I wanted, so in the end I<br />
invested nearly CHF100,000 (€65,900)<br />
and built my own one,” he explains. The<br />
shop’s sales potential tripled thanks to his<br />
website database development. “We could<br />
now reach clients all over Switzerland.”<br />
BWARE IS A remarkable online content<br />
management system. It’s a database, it<br />
can track client orders and even predict<br />
what the customer might be interested in<br />
purchasing in the future, by recommending<br />
and informing customers of new stock. In<br />
this diffi cult economic climate, a successful<br />
business needs to be more than just a<br />
bright idea and have a desirable location<br />
in an up-and-coming area. Dubler has<br />
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106 | TRAVELLER | DECEMBER 09<br />
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Simply plug the adaptor<br />
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“I CAN BE<br />
ANYWHERE AND<br />
HAVE MY ENTIRE<br />
SHOP WITH ME”<br />
cottoned on to this, and responded by<br />
creating an application that has keyed<br />
into the blossoming trend for managing<br />
businesses online.<br />
“What BWare does is connect between<br />
the virtual and the real business through<br />
the internet and it’s the exchange between<br />
the two which makes trade really optimal<br />
for a shop such as ourselves. Normally<br />
companies have different applications for<br />
each area, but BWare brings it all together,”<br />
explains Dubler.<br />
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“It has transformed how we sell. Now, a lot<br />
of orders go out instantly via the website<br />
and the system is automatically updated<br />
– all work that would normally take up a lot<br />
of time. It makes a huge difference to sales:<br />
we are no longer restricted to just what<br />
we can sell from the shop itself. It keeps<br />
everything under control and with BWare<br />
I can be anywhere and I have my entire<br />
shop with me. It’s my virtual company!”<br />
BWare is such a versatile product that it<br />
can be adjusted and adapted to meet the<br />
needs of any type of business, not just<br />
shops. “No installation is needed and<br />
it can be accessed from anywhere via<br />
the internet. It’s easy for individuals to<br />
manage their pictures, text, sales, customer<br />
database and newsletters via it. It totally<br />
optimises the daily work of any kind<br />
and scale of company, from individuals<br />
working freelance to large companies.”<br />
Dubler is constantly on the look-out for<br />
ways to perfect and hone the application.<br />
In response to current commercial and<br />
popular trends, he’s also working on an<br />
iPhone application “so your business can<br />
literally be in your pocket”.<br />
It seems that with Bogen33 going from<br />
strength to strength, Dubler has his sights<br />
set on turning Bware into another success<br />
story: “I’m passionate about developing<br />
new projects. I like it when things are<br />
diffi cult or challenging – it’s how you learn<br />
quickly about business.”<br />
bware.ch/fi rma<br />
bogen33.ch<br />
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iwantoneofthose.com<br />
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Available with 1200mAh<br />
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WORDS CLAIRE MARTIN
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