By Sara Strong
The Luverne Economic Development Authority may give a new business reason to come to Luverne.
An Edina company, Callnetics Appointment Technologies, is hoping to expand its business and made a presentation to the LEDA Tuesday.
Product inventor and company CEO, Brahm Mozayeny said, "We're anticipating that we could have a branch office in Luverne."
As with other new businesses that come to the city's attention through Community Venture Network, the city may offer Callnetics financial assistance.
The Luverne Community Economic Development Corporation, a private group, has already examined the financials of the company. The LEDA could help the Callnetics with additional tax dollars.
Callnetics
President of Callnetics, John Mosey, said the company needs about $1.5 million to continue its progress and break even in 2003.
It's already spent $3.2 million in service development, installing the systems and gaining customer contracts.
About $300,000 of the new equity will be gathered from private investors and the rest will come from banks, loan programs and possibly the city of Luverne. It hasnÕt made a proposal or asked for a certain amount from the city at this point.
Callnetics is a company that merges Internet and telephone technology to help real estate agents and potential buyers connect.
Mosey said that with patents pending on the technology, "No one's even close."
The Callnetics system is accessible to people looking for homes if they click on an icon on a real estate company's Web site to check for listings.
If the potential home buyers click on that icon, they are connected to Callnetics. They then give times available for showings, contact information and personal information.
Callnetics gets that information to the Realtor and the appointment times can be confirmed almost instantly.
Follow-up phone calls are also a part of the service and Luverne's employees would be a part of that.
Mosey said the system takes away the anonymity of people browsing Web sites for homes. The information is only taken as a user gives it, but Mosey said the data is valuable to the Realtors who use it to find homes for buyers.
Some people have included information about being pre-qualified for loans, number of bedrooms or bathrooms needed or location preferences.
Getting noticed
Callnetics has just signed large contracts to appear on real estate Web sites and Mosey has meetings scheduled this week at the National Association of Realtors conference.
He hopes to repeat what's happened in Canada. There, Callnetics' link is a part of the national real estate broker listings.
Mosey expects that starting on that broad base will encourage individual companies to sign on. Montreal and Toronto have made commitments to Callnetics for services within their Realtor associations.
Fees to Realtors are collected based on a small fee for each listing that Callnetics manages.
In the Edina area where it operates now, Callnetics made 34 appointments by 8:30 one Saturday morning.
Mozayeny said that's notable because most offices arenÕt open before 9 a.m. Saturdays and they were able to confirm appointments that may have been missed without Callnetics' services.
Holidays and weekends are open for business as well. The Callnetics employees can contact real estate agents by phone, e-mail or fax to set up appointments that customers might otherwise miss.
The call center that could be in Luverne would employ about 18 to 20 people within three years, but would need three people to start.
After the technology and employee base becomes more experienced, Mozayeny expects that confirming medical and dental appointments could be a part of the company's services.
For more information on the company visit www.Callnetics.com.