Billionaire jewellery king Fred Mouawad is jumping into task management software with Thailand as his regional development centre and headquarters in Asia.
"We set an ambitious goal to have 1 million customers using our task management software globally, including 100,000 in Thailand as an initial target," said Mr Mouawad, chief executive of Taskworld, a US-based project and collaboration management software firm.
"We aim to become a leading global service provider for task management."
After the success of its project management software used internally at the group's Coffee World and The Cream & Fudge Factory branches, Mr Mouawad said Taskworld decided to commercially launch its task management software.
Taskworld plans to invest 100 million baht in setting up business operations in Thailand, recruiting up to 100 employees this year. The local operating unit will take responsibility for marketing and business development in Asia.
Task management software enables users to trace and track progress of projects from any devices. The company will offer a free version for individual customers who sign up with www.taskworld.com. Interested companies can sign up for paid task management service with extra features.
The paid version will be available in June, priced from 150-200 baht per user per month, which he said is affordable to small and medium-sized enterprises. The software can improve users' productivity by 30-50% after three months, added Mr Mouawad.
Given the intense business competition today, productivity and efficiency are key elements in running businesses, he said.
The company's software has unique features called performance metrics and feedback rating. Its online software has mobile support versions for the Android and iOS. The company is on the verge of producing more language versions including Chinese, Russian, Japanese and Thai.
He said software competition would intensify, but industry profit margins range from 20-80%.