HYPERLINK FRIDAY ELEVATOR CAFE and BBQ Can you benefit from global outsourcing? Come along tomorrow to the CSI's December Elevator Cafe where three high-powered speakers will be on hand to talk about Outsource to New Zealand Brand and the possible benefits and downfalls.
It's happening at 5.00pm (note earlier starting time!) at the Canterbury Innovation Incubator (200 Armagh St). It's free to all, and will be followed by the Tech BBQ afterwards (6pm-ish, BYO). ############### hyperLINK contents: Issue 38, March 4 2004 + Christchurch firm comes of age + Incubator sows seeds of success + Tech Newsbytes from all around + Online with CSI + At the forum + Contact us, subscribe/unsubscribe etc ############### *FEATURE* CHRISTCHURCH FIRM COMES OF AGE By CAROL WEBB Fast growing Christchurch company DataCol NZ has come of age with its wireless mobile data collection systems used by meter reading contractors and electricity retailers throughout New Zealand. After more than two years of being nurtured in the Christchurch Innovation Incubator (Cii) it is ready to spread its wings, exploring markets outside the energy sector and preparing to make its mark offshore. DataCol founder and Managing Director Grant Thomson arrived as the Cii?s first tenant in late 2001 with just four staff and a small team of meter reading contractors. Now he has 22 staff and about 140 contractors feeding in data from some 6 million readings a year around New Zealand for four electricity retailers. Cii gains a 5% percent stake in the firm in return for assistance that Thomson says has been crucial to its success. ?Cii and its CEO Steve Hampson have helped us greatly in the development of a mature business model ready for our next stages of growth and software commercialisation,? he says. DataCol has managed its major software development project with funding from its contracting cash flow and a $100,000 Business Growth Fund grant from NZTE. It featured two years running in the Deloitte Fast 50 companies index with annual turnover growing by 565% to rank it third in 2002 and by 300% last year. Thomson attributes this to having the correct vision, market timing and a very talented and courageous team to execute the vision. Deregulation of the NZ electricity market in 1999 has been the key driver of demand for DataCol?s services and systems, as retailers have looked to outsource non-core activities such as meter reading, metering services and asset management. In a de-regulated energy environment service providers and tetailers are forced to deal with enormous amounts of complexity behind the scenes with regards to data and operational logistics. The DataCol platform is aimed at removing a large amount of that complexity and pain. Thomson says that as the deregulation wave moves internationally through the UK, Europe and USA, DataCol will be well placed to provide cost-effective, proven solutions to the data collection, processing and operational logistics issues facing energy retailers. The flagship product is the modular data collection and processing platform, known as SevenX (for seven dimensions of excellence). Its key features for the energy sector are that it can host scheduled and non-scheduled work orders from multiple retailers and utilities for field service activities across multi commodities (water, power and gas) and merge it all to a single PDA automatically. It works across an unlimited number of geographical locations (distribution networks); it can schedule, collect, and process mass market (non time of use) meter reading in real time utilising the latest wireless PDA handhelds at a 1/3 of the conventional cost; also schedule, dispatch and job track non-scheduled service work orders such as disconnects, reconnect, and special final, meter changes in real time, and provides real-time wireless job tracking as well as a thin client web interface for utility, operations and call centre personnel. It also produces automated proforma IRD-approved invoicing and KPI performance reporting for all field contractors, utilities and industry parties. Data collection from the field is performed with low-cost, lightweight off-the-shelf hand held computers and wireless technologies. The DataCol system interfaces to, and automatically reads and processes work requests from the utility billing system call centre, then automatically assigns the jobs to the closest, most appropriate field workers. Field workers close jobs wirelessly in the field or through a web interface. Data and work records are processed in a paperless automated back office system that interfaces directly to accounting packages for general ledger updating. Thomson says development and roll-out of DataCol?s offerings has been a low-profile affair so far. ?We wanted to get the product perfected and rolled out, and we largely stayed under the radar. Now, we are ready for a major re-branding exercise.? He says the marketing push will focus on the ?huge value proposition? that DataCol systems bring to its clients? operations - both large retailers and organisations with mobile workforce operations. Late 2003-early 2004 has been a challenging period with DataCol rolling out its systems to two major customers, Meridian Energy and Genesis Power, simultaneously. Thomson says once the systems are bedded down DataCol will embark on its move out of the incubator. ?We will then be focusing on the execution of our offshore plans for our energy sector software and exploring further opportunities in New Zealand that have arisen from other business sectors with mobile field-workforces.? Thomson says the platform technology has large benefits for all businesses sectors who want to leverage the benefits of rapid information from mobile workforce, including sales teams, electricians, plumbers, hotels, waste management and agricultural contractors. LINKS DataCol NZ: www.datacolnz.co.nz Grant Thomson: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ------------------------------ *FEATURE* INCUBATOR SOWS SEEDS OF SUCCESS By CAROL WEBB Two years after opening its doors to its first tenant, Christchurch?s high-tech incubator has shown it has the ability to pick winners and help set them on a fast growth path. Canterbury Innovation Incubator executive director Steve Hampson says there hasn?t been an unsuccessful company among the steady stream of fledgling entrepreneurs accepted into the incubator programme. Its first tenant, DataCol NZ is about to leave the incubator after two years of rapid growth in turnover and in staff numbers. After starting out as a meter reading contracting company it is now winning business with electricity retailers throughout New Zealand for its integrated data acquisition and processing solutions. It?s the sort of success story that is attracting attention nationally for the Cii, says Hampson. Next week?s national incubator summit being hosted at Cii will give representatives of incubators from around New Zealand the chance to see first hand why the Armagh Street operation is turning heads. Hampson says the talented and experienced Cii board applies rigorous selection processes to wannabe tenants, ensuring only those with a viable business proposition are accepted for tenancies expected to last 2-3 years. Companies are required to give Cii a 5% stake in return for a two-year tenancy and the support services they receive. He says this equity requirement acts as a filtering mechanism by determining that entrepreneurs wanting to enter the incubator growth programme understand that ultimately, they probably will have to give up equity in order to raise capital. From Cii?s perspective, the equity requirement is aimed at ensuring financial sustainability and reducing dependence on government funding. Crucially, says Hampson, it provides Cii with strong motivation to do everything it can to ensure its companies grow and prosper. While the incubator is set up to cater for about 12 full tenants at any one time, others are involved in a seed stage venture that started last year to help establish whether prospective tenants have the right stuff to embark on Cii?s main incubator growth programme. Hampson says they typically need to prepare business plans and demonstrate that their products are marketable, and Cii has developed a range of support materials and toolkits to help the process. After about three months at Cii, he says it becomes apparent whether they are ready to proceed. Tenancy at Cii requires a company to have a technologically innovative product or service capable of underpinning rapid and sustainable growth in the business opportunity it creates. Hampson says some companies involve graduates of local tertiary institutions while others spin out of existing companies or are the ?baby? of innovative individuals who have the energy and passion to match their inventiveness. Looking ahead to Cii?s second two year, Hampson says an affiliate programme will be in place to give graduate companies access to ongoing support and incubator-based networking opportunities. The Armagh Street building will continue to act as a busy function centre for the Canterbury tech sector, including playing host to Canterbury Software Inc monthly Elevator Cafes and barbecues, and other events. He predicts about four companies are likely to leave Cii in the next 12 months and that some may make IPOs (Initial Public Offerings) to raise capital. Founders may also have exit strategies involving selling their proven businesses to overseas buyers, he says. LINKS Cii: http://www.cii.co.nz Steve Hampson: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ------------------------------ *NEWSBYTES* QUAKE FEARS: Fear of earthquakes is the reason some companies give for considering New Zealand an unsuitable place to outsource information technology jobs. That's the bad news. The good news, an assessment of this country's prospects in the global software outsourcing market shows, is that earthquakes are the only perceived risk. The assessment was prepared for New Zealand Trade & Enterprise by the international IT research firm Gartner, with support from the Information Technology Association (ITANZ). - NZ Herald JOBLESS IN IT: Australia's IT unemployment rate is 77 percent higher than the national jobless average but incredibly, the rate is an improvement on the year before, according to the Australian Computer Society's (ACS) 2003 ICT Employment Survey. The survey, which canvassed 625 IT professionals, found the national average is now 5.7% (Australian Bureau of Statistics). However, it is an improvement on 2002 figures when the rate was 100% higher than the national average of 6%. - Computerworld Australia WORM RESEARCH: Network security company Esphion has won a $400,000 Government grant and signed on an Asian distributor as it seeks to take advantage of the security industry's moment in the sun. The money from Technology New Zealand, which Esphion must match dollar for dollar, will go into research and development on software products to detect internet worms. - NZ Herald CHIPS FIGHT BACK: Chip makers are planning a new generation of microprocessors that should plug the gaps that led Microsoft to issue a "critical security alert" last month. AMD's Athlon-64 (for PCs) and Opteron (for servers) will protect against buffer overflows when used with a new version of Windows XP. Intel plans similar features on next generation Pentium chips. Until now, Intel-compatible processors have not been able to distinguish between sections of memory that contain data and those that contain program instructions. This has allowed hackers to insert malicious program instructions in sections of memory that are supposed to contain data only, and use buffer overflow to overwrite the "pointer" data that tells the processor which instruction to execute next. Hackers use this to force the computer to start executing their own code. - New Scientist PEACE REPLACED: Brian Peace has been replaced as chief executive of Peace Software, the company he founded in Auckland 20 years ago. His successor is former Oracle and Apple executive Sebastian Gunningham, who was appointed to the Peace board last November. Peace, who lives in Miami, said he had courted Gunningham for nearly four years and the appointment would allow him to focus on sales, particularly into the potentially lucrative European market where the company had failed to make progress. - NZ Herald ------------------------------ *EXPORT FOCUS* SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT AND SUPPORT AGREEMENT Company A is contracting with Company B to provide a full range of software development and support services. Company A will pay Company B for these services, as specified herein. This is a checklist of issues that the parties must address in relation to the foregoing transactions. http://www.marketnewzealand.com/common/files/auerbach-software.pdf NEXT WEEK: Technology Agreement +From a series of checklists prepared by NZ Trade and Enterprise to help +companies work through the export planning process. ------------------------------ *CSI WEBSITE HAPPENINGS* MENTORING the help and advice of a mentor can make all the difference to your chances of business success. Check out the criteria for getting mentoring help, or inquire about how you can use your IT skills and experience to help put a Christchurch company on the path to success. http://www.canterburysoftware.org.nz/mentors.htm ------------------------------ *MEANWHILE, AT THE FORUM* The Forum is your online community, where you can: + air your problems and concerns about marketing your software + internationally get rapid and effective suggestions from others like + you, who've already done it raise and discuss subjects of general + concern to members Go to http://canterburysoftware.org.nz/forum.htm ------------------------------ CONTACT US ... 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