Leave it to wonkish New Jersey politico Bret Schundler to help develop the very technology that drove his latest campaign. Now, the former Jersey City Mayor and twice-defeated New Jersey Republican gubernatorial candidate has set his sights on a new aspiration: selling campaign software.

“We wanted to create something that can be used for organizations that have popular support but not as much money,” explains Schundler, founder of software firm People Power America.

On the heels of his 2001 bid for New Jersey governor against Jim McGreevy, Schundler realized his legion of supporters, often referred to as “Schundler’s Army,” could get more accomplished more easily by bringing the campaign into the 21st century. Moving the phone operation to a Web-based system was a good place to start. After all, expecting busy volunteers to drive to out-of-the-way call locations, and paying up to two dollars per call to drum up support just wasn’t cost-effective. So, in early 2003, PPA, in conjunction with New Jersey technology company, Xquizit, began developing Web Army Mobilization, a distributed phone banking technology. Now renamed Team Volunteer, the software allows call volunteers to access phone scripts, contact names and numbers, and customized questions and polls via the Web from wherever is convenient. Because volunteers enter responses into an online database, aggregated response results as well as volunteer progress can be viewed in real-time.

Adds Schundler, who had no previous experience creating software, “What I did was basically create the system requirements and work with [Xquizit],” which used his guidelines to design the technology.

According to Amanda Gasperino, the former field director for Schundler’s recent campaign, and PPA marketing staffer, the company invested about $500,000 to develop the software. Clients using Team Volunteer software pay a monthly fee for website hosting and backend administration, and are charged an additional amount based on the number of contact records they upload to the system. PPA does not sell contact lists to its clients, who must supply their own lists.

The software has been used for smaller scale efforts, including a property tax reform campaign run by Empower the People, a NJ-based advocacy group founded by Schundler, and Republican Michael Patrick Carroll’s successful 2003 campaign for New Jersey State Assembly. Schundler’s recent primary bid put it to a more intensive test, organizing data for about 50,000 calls made using the system.

PPA is setting its sights on political candidates for now, since its staff of three is most familiar with the political arena. However, nonprofits and advocacy groups certainly are not off limits when it comes to future prospecting.

And what of the company’s right-leaning origins? Does this mean PPA will seek out only Republican or conservative clients? Schundler says PPA will work with all clients. Greg Andres, who handles technology development for PPA and acted as web coordinator for Schundler’s recent NJ Republican gubernatorial primary campaign affirms, “We’re probably going to work with anybody,” calling the Team Volunteer software essentially “apolitical,” and stressing that PPA will only be selling software services, not consulting services. “If you’re offering a service why would you limit your client base?” he asks rhetorically, asserting, “It would be foolish to cut out clients solely because of their affiliation.”

Schundler confirms that he will not do any campaign consulting on strategy, at least “not through People Power America.” Now that he’s returned from a post-campaign recess, Schundler plans on marketing Team Volunteer this Fall, and may hire someone else to lead PPA marketing efforts in the future. In the coming months, plans Schundler, “[PPA] will be a focus, but not the only one.”