Editor’s note: Many of the most promising high-tech, biotech and pharmaceutical firms will be presenting at the annual venture capital conference sponsored by the Council for Entrepreneurial Development. The event will be on April 27-28 in Chapel Hill. As it has in the past, Local Tech Wire will profile presenting companies that wished to participate in a Q&A.Launched in 2002 and already employing 17 people, Chorus Systems is coming to the CED’s annual venture capital conference looking for investors.

Its software deals with the headache of PC and sever management.

The firm has been self-financed up to now but wants to expand its sales and marketing efforts, according to Dennis Szerszen, senior vice president of marketing and business development.

“IT Service management, which includes problem and incident managing of PCs and servers, is primarily a manual, labor intensive process,” Szerszen says. “Our software minimizes the cost of IT support by automatically monitoring, analyzing, and responding to changes.”

The company is led by industry veterans Sirus Chitsaz and Dave Hooks. Chitsaz, the chief executive officer, has more than 30 years of experience in research and development for IYY, Nortel, Alcatel and Gartner Group. He also served as director of the Center for Communications & Signal processing at NC State. Hooks, the executive vice president of engineering and operations, has more than 24 years of product experience, including 15 years at Nortel. Before joining Chorus, he led Nortel’s access products group.

Szerszen believes the company’s management team will appeal to potential investors. Chorus is also moving to patent its software.

The Q&A with Chorus:

Given the difficult investment climate, have you explored or used other means of getting funds than venture capital? If so, please explain why you remain interested in venture capital.

We have not needed to raise funding until now, as we ready ourselves for marketing and sales.

Are investors telling you that the climate for making deals is improving?

No.

If you had only one chance and one paragraph to convince an investor, how would you answer this question: “Why should an investor choose your company?”

We’ve targeted a pain-point of the market for which prospective customers readily identify with a solution that is truly unique from both technology and an effectiveness perspective.

What is the “pain point” (or points) you address for your customers?

IT Service management, which includes problem and incident managing of PCs and servers, is primarily a manual, labor intensive process. Our software minimizes the cost of IT support by automatically monitoring, analyzing, and responding to changes.

What makes your company unique? Do you have a proprietary and/or a patented technology? Please explain why it is unique and what the status is of any patent filings.

We have a provisional patent in place that covers several key patentable technologies.

What makes your product(s) and/or services unique vs. your competition? (Who is your competition, and what do they offer?) If you have no competition, why not?

Our competitors, including Motive and SupportSoft, gear their software toward making human support processes more effective. We take an approach that minimizes human involvement by automatically detecting and diagnosing problems

Does your company already generate revenue? If so, how much? Are you cash flow positive?

We have just entered limited availability this month and anticipate generating revenues a little later this year.

Why will investors be impressed with your management team?

We have a seasoned team of engineers with a minimum of 10 years experience. Our management team are all successful business men with a minimum of 25 years experience each. We are market focused, not technology-enamored.

Just the facts about Chorus Systems: www.localtechwire.com/article.cfm?u=7902