Yarris dates back to 1995 when the company began life under the name Hubbub developing innovative management automation technologies using the newly emerged Internet.
It was one of the world's first Software as a Service (SaaS) companies. The concept of SaaS started gaining ground internationally in 1999 (refer Wikepedia), but Yarris pre-dated this by building one of the first SaaS businesses in 1997.
Developed and hosted by Yarris, Models on the Net enabled the fashion modelling industry and agencies to have quick and easy access to the portfolios of thousands of models across Australia. A process that once took three days was reduced to less than 20 minutes.
Sold in 2001 when it went international, Models on the Net is now a world leader in the field of acting, casting and modelling and operates under the name of AT2.
During its first five years Yarris, developed 10 SaaS businesses, among these, TestGrid, which is now one of Australia's leading providers of online psychometric assessment services.
Yarris also designed, built and still operates a management platform for the insurance industry. This solution, or ARNIE as it was known, is an automated automotive insurance claims system which now services a very large share of the Australian industry. The field services management platform began as a joint venture with Telstra, Australia's leading Telco. The platform is now a wholly owned asset of Yarris and is used by many large organisations to manage their services.
Yarris is an unlisted company funded privately. Initial capital was provided by the senior management founders and further capital was provided by a group of private investors in 2000.
Yarris has now rationalized its disparate businesses into one common theme, services management. Its services management systems are unique in that they engage, manage, control, and measure the effectiveness of service providers. While procuring goods is relatively straightforward, engaging and managing service providers (be they road contractors, lawyers or panel beaters) is complex and to date very few apart from Yarris have successfully attempted this. |
