TechnologyOne

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NZ Housing signs on with TechnologyOne
Suzanne Tindal, ZDNet.com.au
01 June 2009 12:13 PM

Australian software firm TechnologyOne has scored a deal with New Zealand's Department of Building and Housing.

The New Zealand department signed up last week for TechnologyOne's Financials, Supply Chain and Enterprise Budgeting systems. The value of the deal was not disclosed.

The win followed on the heels of other contracts TechnologyOne has signed in the nation over the Tasman.

In March, the Lakes District Health Board bought Financials, Supply Chain, Business Intelligence and Works and Assets from the software vendor. The Waiariki Institute of Technology has also signed on for some TechnologyOne software.

Speaking to ZDNet.com.au last week, TechnologyOne executive chairman Adrian Di Marco said that its products were doing well because the company didn't try to "be all things to all people", having instead chosen niches to work on, such as government, higher education and health.

Yet the company's half-year results last week for the six months to 31 March were not inspiring, showing a profit drop of 45 per cent.

Di Marco said that the result was due to one-off costs related to increasing staff numbers by 180 over the year, while new work to support the increase had slowed.

However, only 15 more staff are planned for this year, and the company expected revenue growth of 15 to 18 per cent, which would bring profits back up, Di Marco said.

The company has also been making a foray into the UK market. The first half saw a $806,000 loss on the venture, but Di Marco believed it would break even in the next year.

[admin]

TechOne goes slow on hiring

AustralianIT | Jennifer Foreshew | June 16, 2009

BUSINESS software provider TechnologyOne has halved its hiring expectations for the financial year finishing in September because of the economic crisis.

Late last year the local vendor said it expected to hire about 100 staff in the next 12 months.

"We haven't let any staff go," TechnologyOne executive chairman Adrian Di Marco said. "We are still hiring people, but we are being more cautious about it because of the environment."

The company, which had more than 700 staff, would add about 40 or 50 people for the full year, he said, adding: "The first half we added quite a lot -- so for the second half the numbers would be may be 10 or 12."

TechnologyOne has made further inroads into the government sector, signing several contracts this year.

The Brisbane company signed deals with the Department of Resources, Energy and Tourism in January and the National Offshore Petroleum Safety Authority in March.

Those deals follow plans to replace SAP with TechnologyOne systems at the National Health and Medical Research Council, which signed an agreement in January, and the Department of Climate Change, which has been a customer since May last year.

The company also moved the University of the Sunshine Coast from Oracle, as well as the City of Melbourne and Barwon Water.

It also won a contract last year with the Bligh government of Queensland to develop SmartCab, a new cabinet information system.

"We are working with government generally to get more of our products into the sector," Mr Di Marco said.

He said the company was focused on the Australian, New Zealand and British markets after postponing US expansion plans.

"If we hadn't put the US on hold we would not be able to deliver on the growth that we have committed to," Mr Di Marco said.

The key to delivering a rise in profits would be keeping cost growth to about 15-18 per cent, he said.

"Last year, we grew by about 40 per cent. It was huge growth in both revenue and expenses, so we really had to make sure this year that we controlled expenses."

TechnologyOne is expecting to increase its profits by 10-15 per cent this year. Its revenues are predicted to grow by about 18-20 per cent. Full-year results were expected to track to about $128million.

Investment in research and development at the half-year was up by about 23 per cent of revenue.

"We have added quite a lot of new things to the range," Mr Di Marco said. "There is a whole mobility solution we have built and we are bringing in a customer relationship management solution as well."

TechnologyOne acquired an enterprise contact management system about 18 months ago and is moving it across onto its new technology platform, Connected Intelligence (Ci).

"We acquired a performance planning solution about six months ago and we are integrating that very deeply with our business intelligence tool and also bringing it across to our Ci platform," he said.

Mr Di Marco said the company was starting to look at the next generation after Ci.

[Steve Bennett]

iTWire by Peter Dinham
Monday, 07 September 2009

TechnologyOne has secured a contract valued at more than $2 million to upgrade the ICT systems at Queensland south-east water authority, Seqwater, to integrate and standardise the utility’s business processes and planning.

The Queensland Government statutory authority, which owns and manages the water supply stores, dams and infrastructure that deliver water to the south-east of the state, is to deploy a range of TechnologyOne solutions, including financials, supply chain, human resource & payroll, enterprise budgeting, business intelligence, works & assets, enterprise content management and performance planning.

Seqwater CEO, Peter Borrows, said business processes and planning would now be integrated and standardised across the organisation, and the new solutions will “reach into every aspect of the management of Seqwater, from monitoring and maintaining pipes and dams to ensuring employees receive the right training to do their jobs and cutting costs by streamlining supply chains.”

Borrows said TechnologyOne had been selected following a rigorous tender process, citing the “elimination of third party suppliers and the confidence of working with a local company that supports and services all IT systems as deciding factors.”

“This will enable Seqwater to improve reporting and take a more strategic approach to forward planning with regard to people, physical assets, administrative systems and budgeting, armed with more accurate data and analysis tools.”

TechnologyOne executive chairman Adrian Di Marco, said today that the Seqwater deal is the company’s first within the Queensland water industry.

However, the Brisbane-headquartered company now supplies software to the majority of Victoria’s water industry and counts 35 water authorities and corporations nationally as customers.

Di Marco said the water sector had undergone massive structural and governance changes over the last decade, necessitating an industry-wide review and overhaul of ICT systems, and said this rapid change had made the water industry an increasingly important market.

“Water corporations and authorities are highly regulated yet progressive, so intelligent investment in ICT is fundamental to their day to day management and future planning. We believe there are more developments to come for the water industry, which makes our flexible, integrated software solutions an ideal choice for the market.”

According to Di Marco, TechnologyOne reinvests approximately 20 per cent of its annual revenue back into research and development to keep up with the latest and best technology innovations, and the changing needs of its customers “so whatever happens in the water industry, our solutions will keep pace.”

Di Marco also maintained that a shift towards choosing local suppliers was beginning to take shape, with Australian organisations preferring to deal with locally owned and supported operations rather than overseas based multinationals.

“This is a trend that we’re starting to see here in Australia. Both corporate and government organisations want to know that they are going to get great support and service; it’s a decisive factor.

“Investment in technology can involve spending a significant amount of money and organisations want to know that they are going to get value and long term security from this investment.”

[admin]

TechnologyOne wins more Govt contracts


Queensland Business Review, September 28, 2009

Brisbane-based software company TechnologyOne is continuing to win Australian Government contracts thanks to its preconfigured OneFMA solution, which streamlines reporting and compliance.

The OneFMA solution is designed to incorporate ‘best practice’ for Federal Government, ensuring all departments and organisations comply with the Financial Management Accountability Act 1997 (FMA).

Notable clients include the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority, the National Capital Authority, the Department of Resources, Energy and Tourism, and the National Offshore Petroleum Safety Authority.

Strong interest from various Government sectors has resulted in $3.2 million in new business for TechnologyOne in the last nine months alone.

The total number of departments and agencies using the software has now grown to an impressive 55.

TechnologyOne Executive Chairman, Adrian Di Marco, says the company plans to work closely with its target markets to continue delivering ‘out of the box’ preconfigured solutions.

“The success of the OneFMA solution shows that we’re heading where our customers want us to go. Customers want a product that is easy to use, which will deliver significant business benefits and provide a good return on investment quickly. Our Government solution does that,” Di Marco says.

“We generally reinvest around 20 percent of our annual revenue into research and development – in the last 12 months we have released the OneFMA solution for Federal Government, a new Student Management system for tertiary education institutions, a tailored solution for smaller local government organisations, our CRM, and a mobility platform,” he says.

“We are also planning the ongoing development of all of our products, and because we do this in partnership with our customers, we know we’re meeting their needs.”

Launched at the end of 2008, TechnologyOne’s OneFMA solution is the software company’s response to feedback from a range of Government agencies.

Recognised as the only specially designed solution in the marketplace, it encompasses financials, supply chain, enterprise budgeting, business intelligence and contract management.

It minimises both the initial and ongoing costs of ownership, greatly reduces the time needed for implementation, and makes procurement and contract processes more efficient.