Have you ever heard of Dubber Corp Ltd (ASX: DUB)? Nope? Me neither. But Dubber Corp shares have surged 200% higher so far this year, even briefly hitting an all-time high price of $1.59 in June. This puts this little-known Australian software company up there alongside iSignthis Ltd (ASX: ISX) as one of this year's most surprising ASX tech success stories. So maybe it's time we started paying attention.
So what exactly does Dubber do?
Founded in Melbourne, Dubber specialises in call recording and communication management for business and corporate clients. Its cloud-based software allows its clients to record, access and manage their calls and communications from anywhere in the world.
To technology laggards like me, this doesn't sound that transformative – but Dubber claims that its native cloud software is revolutionising an industry traditionally reliant on hardware. Dubber's products require no capital expenditure to set up on the part of its clients, and its various software solutions provide the opportunity for richer analysis of calls and communications.
For example, Dubber offers a product called "Zoe". Zoe provides a suite of analytical tools that can improve a business' understanding of itself and its customers. Users are able to intelligently search through their recorded communications and quickly pull out items like common key words and specific phrases. This could be an invaluable tool for businesses who want to quickly identify developing customer pain points. It could actually help support a company's decision-making around how to allocate resources to best address its customers' key recurring demands and complaints.
Not only that, but Zoe even allows users to measure the caller's "sentiment" by analysing characteristics like the speaker's tone of voice and stress levels. These types of qualitative analytical tools can open up whole new ways for businesses to interact with their clients and improve their products and services.
Along with other emerging tech companies like LiveTiles Limited (ASX: LVT) and ELMO Software Ltd (ASX: ELO), Dubber is carving out a niche for itself as a company offering innovative software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions for business clients. Whether it is ELMO simplifying HR and payroll, LiveTiles using AI and machine learning to create more engaging online working environments, or now Dubber allowing companies to better manage their calls and communications, these young tech companies are all attempting to go beyond just solving real-world business problems and are instead using technology to actually add a great amount of extra value for their clients.
This is why I think they are real companies to watch over the next few years. I'm not saying all (or any) of them will eventually succeed and grow into a mature technology company in the vein of Altium Limited (ASX: ALU). But they are all exciting tech companies targeting specific business needs – and unless bigger, better competitors come along and take them over or wipe them out, it's easy to see demand for their services continuing to grow into the future. The great thing about them is the scalability of their product offerings means they can quickly grow to meet that demand at low cost.
