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By Nikki Cabus

#MadeInPBC | Kevin Hutchinson, Founder @ MyTaskit

Read Time 2 Minutes

#MadeInPBC Spotlights are a weekly series of the Palm Beach Tech Association, featuring accomplished entrepreneurs in the Palm Beaches.

This week we profile Kevin Hutchinson, Founder of MyTaskit, a West Palm Beach software startup with 20 employees and $12 Million in Capital Raised.

What is your business?

We are a task management platform for service pros and service businesses.

Who are your clients?

Our customers are service businesses who place a value on well-communicated and coordinated task management. Our customers include marine service businesses such as boatyards, marinas, large and small, national and international and we are expanding into the general service pro space. (Yes, we help coordinate tasks for the small Mom and Pop repair service, too!)

What inspired you to become an entrepreneur?

I started my career in sales and appreciate first-hand the value of building relationships with customers. I enjoy the art of assessing a need in the market and working to improve the relationship between the provider of a service and the end user and building effective ecosystems and links between the two.

What’s your favorite part about what you do?

I love building companies with great teams that have created unique and effective solutions for an existing problem. I enjoy applying formulas I know that have worked in past companies to tackling new challenges. With MyTaskit, I am excited to share the good news that we will vastly improve the effectiveness of service coordination between service pros and the asset owners.

Fun Facts?

Many of the MyTaskit team are boat owners and enthusiasts and we thought what better way to bring our love of being on the water by helping to improve the way in which boatyards, marinas and boat owners communicate and coordinate service and tasks. We are applying our collective marine industry knowledge to optimize the service experience.

Why the Palm Beaches?

Palm Beach is where we decided to settle because we love the area, we wanted to start MyTaskit in the marine industry and Palm Beach was an excellent way to enter the market.

How has Palm Beach Tech helped you?

Palm Beach Tech has been the quintessential business partner by consistently enhancing and sharing their network and business guidance with us. They have shared creative ways in which we might help position our business and have introduced us  to potential investors, co-marketing partners and always go out of their way to think strategically with us as we grow.

By Nancy Dahlberg

Member Spotlight | MyTaskit

Read Time 3 Minutes

HQ: West Palm Beach

Business: A work-coordination platform

CEO: Kevin Hutchinson

No. of employees: 21

 

What’s a successful health-tech entrepreneur doing making waves in the marine business? Let’s ask Kevin Hutchinson.

He is founder and CEO of MyTaskit, a subscription-based work coordination platform for service and repair professionals. MyTaskit started out innovating in the marine sector, but is now also navigating the 10x larger property management and construction industries, among others.

Hutchinson found similarities with building systems for coordinating patient care. He is founding CEO of Surescripts, a health information network used by most physicians and nearly all pharmacies in the U.S. Before that, his companies built one of the first electronic medical record systems, purchased by GE, and created a physician portal acquired by WebMD.

Now with startup No. 4, this serial entrepreneur isn’t slowing down.

With MyTaskit, service work is coordinated internally between staff and externally with subcontractors and customers, eliminating workflow and communication inefficiencies. “Our system takes a task, and not only is the task description there, but [technicians] can chat with the supervisor, add photos and videos, they can add labor notes and hours … and it immediately goes into the company’s accounting system,” Hutchinson said.

One of MyTaskit’s marine service customers was seeing an abundance of unscheduled overtime and didn’t know why. The company put MyTaskit in place to track jobs and communicate with workers throughout. The result, according to an independent ROI study: The company reduced unauthorized overtime by 50 percent and billing time by 44 percent.

Although Hutchinson’s vision was always big, MyTaskit first tackled recreational marine, a microcosm of other markets with its plethora of mechanical, electrical, plumbing and carpentry tasks, said the lifelong boater. Like all startups, MyTaskit made course corrections. In 2012, it was called The Boat Village, a platform enabling better communication between the consumer and business. But its business customers told Hutchinson they had a bigger problem – communicating with their own workers. After moving to Palm Beach County, MyTaskit relaunched in 2015.

Today, MyTaskit employs 21 people and has expanded into property management, construction, industrial equipment and commercial marine domestically and abroad. More than 1,000 industry professionals are using the platform. The startup has raised $12 million in financing.

While service workers haven’t typically been tech’s early adopters – just like doctors – that’s also the way to learn, Hutchinson said: “I love the guys that resist because they are going to be the ones who help you the most make a better product.”

His advice to first-time entrepreneurs: Stay resilient. “These are long hours, long days, you have to find a balanced life. But you really have to work your life into the work, not the other way around.”

Wait, he’s done this before. Doesn’t it get easier?

“You can be a parent of four kids and they will all be different. Any startup you do is going to have its own personality – with different growing pains. But by keeping the team focused, we are seeing tangible results for our customers and that is exciting to see.”

By Nikki Cabus

West Palm Beach’s MyTaskit triples users, reaches milestone

Read Time 2 Minutes

The MyTaskit software platform used by marine service businesses recently announced that their commercial version, MyTaskit Pro topped 1,000 users, three times what it was a year ago. On the other hand, the consumer application, now has more than 50,000 registered boat owners, a 700 percent increase. The software helps coordinate work orders between technicians and managers, and records labor hours with their integrated DockMaster application.

According to a recent study done by the West Palm Beach based company, those using the task coordination software reported an ROI 15 times its cost within the first month alone. You can learn more about their findings here www.MyTaskit.com/ROI.

“Our team really gets excited to hear back from our customers who report increased revenue, streamlined task processes and satisfied employees and boat owners,” said Kevin Hutchinson, CEO and Founder of MyTaskit. “We’re very pleased with our achievements so far and look forward to continued growth in this industry.”

 

The significant growth is in part due to last year’s launch in the Great Lakes region. In Q4, SkipperBud’s, Gage Marine and Walstrom Marine signed up as clients. Suntex Marinas also named the software company it’s vendor of choice, using the MyTaskit Pro for boat management and service work coordination. More recently, in Q1 2017 Prime Marina Group signed up to use the software at multiple property locations.

To learn more about MyTaskit or MyTaskit Pro, visit http://mytaskit.com/

By Nikki Cabus

MyTaskit and Valsoft partner to bring back DockMaster

Read Time 4 Minutes

West Palm Beach’s MyTaskit Forms Business Partnership with Valsoft

Montreal software company enters marine vertical with DockMaster

 

West Palm Beach, Fla. MyTaskit, an organization known for its comprehensive task coordination and business management software solutions, has announced that it has entered into a formal partnership with Valsoft, a company specialized in the acquisition and development of vertical market software companies.

The partnership aims to provide expanded software solutions for the marine industry with DockMaster, the well-regarded marine business management software, being at the core. DockMaster is a brand that has been an industry staple for more than three decades, helping marine professionals manage their business operations. Since 2015, DockMaster has been known as the Operations module of MyTaskit Pro. As part of the new Valsoft partnership, it will return to the celebrated DockMaster name.

With this business alliance, Valsoft obtains the rights to the DockMaster brand and intellectual property, as well as operations of DockMaster products and services. The MyTaskit and DockMaster teams will work together daily, ensuring the partnership results in continued strategic development, deployment, support, and integration of both DockMaster and MyTaskit Pro software products.

Cam Collins, previously Senior Vice President at MyTaskit, has been named President of DockMaster, and will continue in this role as the leading executive of operations. Additionally, Kevin Hutchinson, CEO and founder of MyTaskit, is joining Valsoft’s board of advisors. Hutchinson says the partnership is aimed at continued growth and enhanced product development.

“When Valsoft approached us, they were looking to invest in the continued success of our marine software products,” Hutchinson said. “As our discussions evolved, we found that by committing to a strategic collaboration, we would be able grow the capabilities and demand for both of our products. This partnership focuses on delivering more extensive product solutions to our existing customers and the marine industry as whole, while also opening up opportunities to partner with other niche marine software providers.”

Valsoft CEO Ouissam “Sam” Youssef says his company is looking forward to a long-term partnership with MyTaskit.” We approached Mr. Hutchinson about a partnership between our two companies to bring back the DockMaster brand and invest in the Marine industry software leader. We will carry on Kevin and his team’s legacy of 100% customer success. We will continue to work closely with Kevin, Cam and the entire MyTaskit and DockMaster team to make sure our customers have all the tools they need to compete in today’s technology era.”

Valsoft and MyTaskit have additionally formed a co-marketing relationship for MyTaskit Pro’s coordination product, a task coordination software solution for marine service companies. This agreement will support the continued data integration between DockMaster and MyTaskit Pro, and both companies expect future software integrations and product enhancements to follow.

By The Numbers

  • DockMaster is the leading business management software in the marine industry with nearly 4,000 users in 7 countries.
  • MyTaskit Pro is the leading software tool for service professionals to coordinate work tasks with over 1,000 marine service pro users in 3 countries since its launch in 2015.
  • MyTaskit.com is the leading online software tool for consumers to manage their vessels and interact with their preferred service pros online. Today, nearly 50,000 consumers are directly registered or pre-registered by their pros.

About MyTaskit

MyTaskit provides a comprehensive software platform for coordinating tasks within companies and between multiple businesses and their customers. Its software allows service professionals to perform work more efficiently, gives companies a way to increase profitability and better measure customer satisfaction, and it provides customers a better experience, with faster, more transparent service work for their high-value assets. Learn more at www.mytaskit.com.

About Valsoft

Valsoft specializes in building and acquiring vertical market software companies that provide mission critical solutions in their respective industry or niche. Valsoft’s operating strategy is to hold, invest and create value in companies for the long-term through various organic growth and acquisition initiatives. Valsoft is headquartered in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

By Nikki Cabus

MyTaskit Wins Boating Industry Top Products Award

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MyTaskit Pro Wins Boating Industry Top Products 2016 Award

Coordination module continues to break ground with marine technology

West Palm Beach, Fla. – May 2, 2016 –MyTaskit, a leading software platform for connecting service professionals to their technicians and customers, has won a 2016 Boating Industry Top Products Award for the second year in a row. Boating Industry awarded the MyTaskit Pro Coordination module for its innovation and role in redefining marine industry technology by releasing new capabilities that allow businesses to coordinate subcontractor work within the app as well as with their own service technicians.

“We are honored again to receive a Boating Industry Top Products Award,” said Kevin Hutchinson, founder and CEO of MyTaskit. “Since launching last year, we’ve constantly improved the Coordination module to make it the best service coordination tool on the market.”

“This year’s selections were chosen from hundreds of products introduced or significantly updated since the beginning of 2015,” added Boating Industry Editor in Chief Jonathan Sweet. “These products were selected for their innovation, their impact on the industry, creativity and more.”

Within the MyTaskit Pro Coordination module, which is available as a free or subscription service with enhanced features, service businesses can coordinate all repair/maintenance tasks with technicians and customers. When customers have a service issue, they can simply “Taskit” to their service pros.  The MyTaskit Coordination module is closely integrated with the MyTaskit Pro Operations module (formerly DockMaster), which handles backend operations, including work order processing as well as invoicing and accounting.

Within MyTaskit’s Subcontractor Coordination feature, MyTaskit Pro subscribers are able to coordinate service tasks with subcontractors, enabling these businesses to see the task, along with all photos, videos and messages related to a work assignment, and then communicate/coordinate with the Pro user on the tasks. MyTaskit Pro is offered as a free service for the subcontractors to receive and coordinate tasks with subscribers of MyTaskit Pro. Subcontractors may also upgrade to the subscription version and have full functionality to coordinate service for their own businesses as well.

“We’ve made incredible strides in providing our customers with the best in Technician, Subcontractor and Customer Coordination, as well as Service Plan and Customer Profile Management,” Hutchinson added. “With these coordination tools at their disposal, businesses can more easily achieve operational efficiency and greater profits, while retaining a happier clientele.”

#MadeInPBC | Kevin Hutchinson, Founder @ MyTaskit
Member Spotlight | MyTaskit
West Palm Beach’s MyTaskit triples users, reaches milestone
MyTaskit and Valsoft partner to bring back DockMaster
MyTaskit Wins Boating Industry Top Products Award