EMDG assists Comscentre

EMDG assists Comscentre Comscentre, a Brisbane-based telco, which provides corporate grade IP telephony, data, video, LAN and WAN managed communications across Australia and the Asian region, has now been successful in securing a contract with Malaysian based airline Air Asia. EMDG funding has assisted the company in reimbursing marketing trips and assisting with the cost of maintaining an external consultant. Comscentre is Australian owned with global reach. From humble beginnings in 2002 the company now employs 86 full time staff in their Brisbane head office and in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth operations, and the newly established support office in Asia. In 2009 Comscentre was ranked as Australia’s10th fastest growing company. Customers benefit from advanced communications systems delivered by one organisation with one contact point and one bill. Responsibility for delivery via service legal agreements rests solely with Comscentre.  Small to medium sized businesses enjoy a level of sophistication and service that was previously only available to large enterprises, delivering significant cost savings by outsourcing business communications for a fixed monthly fee. Comscentre owns its own MPLS Network, interconnecting with all major carriers and delivers the best bandwidth regardless of location in metropolitan, regional or remote areas. Comscentre can utilise a customer’s existing communications hardware or install a new state-of-the-art Cisco system if required. It is a Cisco Master Managed Services supplier and trial NBN provider, and is dedicated to providing customers with a return on investment by reducing cost, increasing profitability and protecting customers business. Foundation customer, Flight Centre, ensured Comscentre’s debut into the telecommunications industry.  Now their client base includes Century 21 Real Estate and motor vehicle giants Peugeot, Toyota, Porsche and Holden, as well as Baker IDI, Shop-a-Docket, Port Headland Town Council, Harbour IT, The Queensland Reds and the Hawthorn Hawkes, to name just a few. Internationally Comscentre has been successful in securing a contract with Malaysian based airline Air Asia.  Earnings from this customer are now well into six figures and export accounts for 6% of sales. The new operation in Manila is a key part of Comscentre’s growth strategy in the Asian region. The EMDG grant assisted the company in reimbursing marketing trips and assisting with the cost of maintaining an external consultant.  The consultant has been employed to research new opportunities in markets such as India, the Philippines, Indonesia, France and the UK. “The EMDG was key to the establishment of our Asian operation and from there the ability to successfully pitch for Air Asia. The grant allowed us to secure a consultant to negotiate the Philippines’ commercial and legal environment to establish the office and provide leads for business in the region. Numerous trips to Manila were required to set up that operation and the EMDG was of invaluable assistance and has helped create Australian jobs,” says Ben Shipley of Comscentre. 2010 has proven a stellar year for Comscentre, in terms of continued growth and relocation of its head office to Milton in Brisbane. The company has established this facility as a state-of-the-art Network Operations Centre for the control and management of its networks both domestically and internationally across its growing list of global customers.

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Case studies of EMDG recipients

Victorian company furnishes the world Victoria-based Ramler Holdings Pty Ltd is a total solutions provider of furniture solutions from design concept, prototype, production, procurement, logistics and installation worldwide. This Melbourne based family company, established over 60 years ago, provides products and services around the world. Their portfolio of prestigious global clientele includes major hotel chains, luxury resorts, student and hotel apartments, shopping centres, cinemas, sporting grounds, institutional and public venues. The company has won a number of high profile contracts over the past 10 years including the Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004 Olympic Games and the Melbourne Commonwealth Games in 2006. It has also successfully provided its furniture solutions to major corporates such as McDonalds (Middle East, USA, UK and Australia) and Westfield (USA, UK and Australia). Success just continues to gather momentum for this third-year EMDG claimant, having recently been awarded the contract for the supply of furniture to the London Olympic Games in 2012. An evaluation is also occurring in respect to the company’s prospects for bidding for the Glasgow Commonwealth Games in 2014. Under the EMDG scheme Ramler has been able to claim a broad range of marketing expenses including the cost of maintaining overseas representatives in the United States, overseas marketing visits and producing overseas marketing collateral. “The financial support provided through the EMDG has been instrumental in enabling our business to explore new global markets as well as developing innovative opportunities to stay ahead of the game.”

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Silver Trowel digs deep into export success Two-time Export Market Development Grant (EMDG) recipient Silver Trowel Trade Training is a nationally accredited provider of building and construction trade training, including plastering, wall and floor tiling, roof tiling, bricklaying and carpentry. The company was founded in 1997 on a belief that there are more efficient ways of helping people enter the building industry. With fewer and fewer people taking up trade positions along with an unprecedented building boom in Australia, founder Jon Skerratt recognised that the demand for skilled workers is greater than ever. Today, with incredible success, Silver Trowel are recognised by builders and government agencies as pioneers in helping men and women of all ages find rewarding and well paid careers within the building and construction industry. Silver Trowel currently delivers industry specific training to approximately 1200 local students per year, including training for new entrants to the industry, apprenticeship training, and, specialised courses to up-skill people already working in the industry. The company has won numerous awards for excellence in vocational training delivery including national finalist in the 2009 Australian Export Awards, Winner of the Education and Training Export Award in the 2009 WA Export Awards, and Winner of the Emerging Exporter Award in the 2008 WA Industry and Export Awards, to name a few! But success is not limited to the domestic market. Recognising a critical skills shortage in the trades area in WA and the difficulty of attracting local youth into these trades, Silver Trowel identified a niche opportunity to provide courses for international students, thus providing skilled workers to the trade. “We also saw an opportunity to offer an alternative to the usual tertiary qualifications offered to international students” said Anne Skerratt, Director of Silver Trowel. Silver Trowel commenced delivery of their courses to international students in 2008 and now recruits over 150 international students per year from over 32 countries, the majority coming from the UK, India and Korea. Silver Trowel Trade Training has found the Export Market Development Grants (EMDG) scheme to be invaluable in enabling them to promote their quality training programs to the world. “Support through Austrade’s EMDG has greatly enabled us to promote our services globally via our paper-based and electronic marketing materials and most importantly by allowing for more direct representation and promotion at international education and trade fairs overseas”, said Director Anne Skerratt. “Without the security of the financial assistance that the EMDG grant offers the extent of our overseas travel would be severely limited. We can better develop our website and marketing materials too knowing that EMDG is there to help”. Austrade has also assisted Silver Trowel Trade Training with export marketing advice both in Australia and on the ground in overseas markets.

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2XU ‘hits the ground running’ in overseas markets Armed with a winning combination of innovative products, a well considered distribution strategy and a little help from an Austrade export grant, high performance sports apparel manufacturer 2XU Pty Ltd has ‘hit the ground running’ in export in just five years. Victorian-based 2XU is a designer and manufacturer of world class sporting garments across the categories of triathlon, running, swimming, cycling, compression and fitness activities. All 2XU products are engineered with the single minded goal of equipping the athlete to feel more prepared, race ready and capable than the competition – an ambitious and engaging brand philosophy which has been adopted across all facets of the company in its quest to enter and conquer the international market. Internationally, 2XU has enjoyed first-mover advantage thanks to its innovative garment collections and rapid establishment of an extensive and successful distributor network both overseas and online. Beginning with one key distributor in the United States, 2XU now boasts an impressive portfolio of distributors throughout Europe, North America, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. Over the past two years, export sales have surged by some 190%. Successful marketing of their unique products overseas has also played a key role in 2XU’s impressive international growth and the Austrade-administered Export Market Development Grants (EMDG) scheme has been there to help. Under the scheme, 2XU has received over $199,700 in grants over the last three years. These grants have assisted the Australian brand in meeting costs of overseas marketing visits, sending promotional samples, attending key international industry trade fairs and events, producing marketing collateral and advertising. Grateful for the assistance received, 2XU Co-Founder and Director Jamie Hunt said “The EMDG grants has provided us with a much needed cash injection to support our development of new product lines, exploration of new overseas markets, supply of samples and overall export marketing. Thanks to EMDG, we’ve been able to continually deliver new, world class athletic solutions to athletes across the world, year in year out.” In the coming years, 2XU plans to continue to develop and produce innovative products, grow its international markets and take the 2XU ‘high performance revolution’ to the World.

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EMDG grant takes the ‘pressure’ off exporting for Australian valve company Global Valve Technology is an innovative Australian company involved in researching and developing commercial applications for its range of valve technologies across multiple industries. These applications include industrial valves, sports ball valves, tyre valves, and water valves. As a supplementary R&D service to its clients, GVT provides creative and innovative Intellectual Property to generate a commercial return on investment by offering licensing agreements, joint ventures, trade sales and long-term product supply contracts. GVT has received 3 grants under the Federal Government’s Export Market Development Grants (EMDG) scheme. With the help of the EMDG grant, Global Valve Technology has been able to take their Valve Technology internationally, allowing it access to the world’s top manufacturers. “With help under EMDG GVT visited major Valve Companies Worldwide, before finally settling on a license arrangement with America's largest manufacturer of these valves. All US and Canadian homes now have the opportunity to be connected to their water supply via our Australian designed, “GVT Backflow Prevention Valve “, said Rod Wakefield, CEO of GVT. Mr Wakefield believes the EMDG scheme has had a very positive impact on GVT’s ability to increase its export earnings and that without it GVT would not have been able to achieve such success in overseas markets. The EMDG grant recently paved the way for an agreement with a leading Indian Manufacturer of Sports Balls Worldwide. “Since signing this Agreement our Sports Ball Valve has been showcased at the ISPO Munich Trade Show in February 2009 where it was very well received, giving us further leverage when negotiating with customers in the European Market. With all this under our belt, it’s easy to see anything is achievable for GVT”, Mr Wakefield said. The EMDG scheme is administered by Austrade and assists export-focused small and medium sized Australian businesses to enter into export and become sustainable exporters by providing partial reimbursement of certain export promotion expenses.

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Austrade helps Aconex take online project management solution offshore With a little help from Austrade and the Export Market Development Grants (EMDG) scheme, Melbourne-based Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) firm Aconex, has won deals worth several million dollars in 20 countries, helping to establish the company as the world’s largest provider of online collaboration solutions to the construction and engineering industries. Aconex was devised as a solution for the online management of documents, drawings and other information on construction projects. Designed in cooperation with industry professionals, the Aconex system uses a master online document management file to keep track of and facilitate easy distribution of drawings, tenders, contracts, reports, schedules and project instructions. The system tracks all revisions to documents and enables easy access to these documents to those who are entitled to access them. Since its inception in the year 2000, Aconex has expanded to become the largest and fastest-growing provider of collaboration technology to its target markets. Global uptake of the Aconex solution has doubled every year, as more and more organizations become aware of the benefits of web-based collaboration. The company now services more than 6,000 projects across 65 countries, on landmark developments throughout Asia, the Middle East and Africa, Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand. The most recent new client to select Aconex is the international consortium delivering the Straits of Messina Bridge project in Italy. Linking eastern Sicily with the Italian mainland, it will be the world’s largest suspension bridge when complete in 2016. At €6.1 billion construction value, it is one of the largest infrastructure developments in Europe. Other recent international projects won by Aconex include the Kitsault Molybdenum Mining Project in Canada, Dubai International Airport Concourse 3 and Sydney’s prestigious Residence Hyde Park. The system has also been selected to service Pacific West Builders’ portfolio of government developments, including US Navy and Air Force projects. Other major overseas deals include a school renovation program in the UK, a major residential development in New York city and the infrastructure phase of a coastal city in the United Arab Emirates. Aconex has received five grants under the Federal Government’s Export Market Development Grants (EMDG scheme) to assist with the costs of engaging overseas representatives, overseas marketing visits, attending trade fairs overseas and producing promotional literature for overseas markets. Leigh Jasper, Aconex Chief Executive Officer, said: “Some of our first steps into overseas markets were taken with the help of Austrade. Since then, we have continued to use their knowledge and expertise to support our expansion into new markets and our growth within existing ones. Programs like the EMDG have been an integral part of our growth and we look forward to continuing our relationship with Austrade”.

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‘Who-Rae’ for export success! Australian Consumer Products wholesaler Who-Rae Pty Ltd has plenty to celebrate having recently designed and patented the world’s first GPS anti-theft device called Maplock™. Recognising that GPS theft has become a worldwide problem that is continuing to grow, Who-Rae designed Maplock™ – a device that simply locks your GPS whilst securing the GPS within the vehicle, preventing it from being stolen. The product achieved instant attention and success both in Australia and overseas. It was featured in January this year on National TV in America. Maplock™ was recently awarded the prestigious Editor’s Choice Award for innovation and design at the Appex Trade Show in Las Vegas. It was a tremendous honour for Maplock™ to be recognised as there were over 2000 exhibitors. It was also judged one of five products of the day at the Consumer Electronics Show in January 2010. Apart from Maplock™, this innovative Melbourne-based business also promotes car seat covers, sunshades, steering wheel covers, seat belt comforters and other automotive accessories. Major clients include well-known retailers such as Supercheap Auto, Dick Smith, Kmart, Autobarn and Target. Internationally Who-Rae supplies all Walmart stores, Costco, Big Lots and Amazon. Who-Rae now has Australian designed products in over 5,000 stores in America. In Canada, Who-Rae has products in both Walmart Canada and Canadian Tire which accounts for 1,400 stores. Who-Rae has recently signed a 2 year contract to supply Europe with Maplock™ and will be exhibiting at several international Trade shows in 2010. Export sales have increased significantly over the past year and are set to grow exponentially now that Maplock™ has entered the world market. Who-Rae is now negotiating with several international retailers whom have expressed considerable interest in the product. Grant funding received under the Austrade-administered Export Market Development Grants (EMDG) scheme has helped Who-Rae take its innovative products to the world. The company has received three grants totaling over $182,000 under the program, which aims to assist Australian firms to enter into and develop export markets by helping them meet the costs of promoting their products overseas. Who-Rae Managing Director Ray Pawsey has found the support of the EMDG grant invaluable in helping build their market presence overseas. “Due to the wonderful support of Austrade’s EMDG scheme, we are now hiring another person to assist growth of our International business. With the support of EMDG we’ve been able to gain presence and awareness in International Markets, in particular the USA & Canada”.

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Staying afloat in export: Richardson Devine Marine Hobart based ship-builder Richardson Devine Marine (RDM) has certainly not ‘missed the boat’ when it comes to exporting, having recently been announced winners of the 2009 Tasmanian Export Award. This is much-deserved recognition for this innovative Tasmanian company following an outstanding year with three vessels delivered to export destinations. These were Premium Dream, a 32 metre fast ferry operating at Japan’s Ishigaki Island, Kilimanjaro, a 37 metre passenger ferry operating between Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar, Tanzania, and, Ipipiri, a 45 metre overnight cruise vessel (with cabins for 60 guests) that does luxury cruises in New Zealand's Bay of Islands. RDM is a specialised builder of lightweight aluminium vessels for commercial operators around the world. Their product line consists of passenger and tourist ferries, overnight cruise vessels and workboats varying in length from 22-46 metres. Their vessels feature high quality craftsmanship utilising the latest marine equipment and supplies, to provide innovative solutions to the customer's specific requirements. Export success comes from a combination of sheer dedication, hard work and 21 years’ experience in boat-building of founders Ron Devine and Toby Richardson. That, plus a little help from the Austrade-administered Export Market Development Grants (EMDG) scheme. RDM’s success in Tanzania and Japan in particular has been supported by a grant of over $40,000 under the scheme. The grant will help the company recoup some of the costs of exhibiting its vessels at overseas trade shows, visiting overseas markets and producing promotional materials. “In a time of global recession and uncertain market conditions the EMDG scheme has and will continue to encourage us to visit overseas markets and attend more trade shows to generate interest in our products”, said RDM Director, Toby Richardson. So what’s next for RDM? RDM is currently nearing completion of a 28m vessel for the domestic oil and gas industry alongside another 37 metre catamaran passenger ferry bound for Tanzania. So enthused was the owner of Kilimanjaro when he arrived for the launch of his vessel in August 2009, he promptly ordered a sister ship. Kilimanjaro II will be launched in late April, 2010 and loaded aboard a freighter bound once again for Dar es Salaam. RDM is also looking to new markets such as Singapore, Croatia, PNG, Nigeria, the UK and Eastern Europe. “Of course, not all of these projects will come to fruition”, explains Toby, “but with the financial assistance that the EMDG scheme offers, RDM is able to pursue each legitimate opportunity to the full and maximise our chances of securing the contract”, he said.

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Stateless Systems cross international borders… Website developer and online systems provider Stateless Systems Pty Ltd has taken a giant leap forward in export since its inception just over three years ago. In that time, export income has grown from zero to over $10m thanks to their discovery of a niche market opportunity in the USA, and, the support provided by the Export Market Development Grants (EMDG) scheme. Stateless Systems operates its own innovative website that promotes the download of shopping coupons that are available to online shoppers. The coupons are sourced by the company through market research or by direct provision from the relevant retailers. Each time a coupon is downloaded Stateless Systems receives a royalty payment for providing the service either from an affiliate intermediary company or direct from the retailer in the US. The company has received two grants under the Austrade-administered EMDG scheme which have assisted them with meeting the costs of overseas representation and promotion/advertising of their services in overseas markets. The scheme is aimed at assisting eligible small and medium sized Australian businesses to enter into and develop export markets by reimbursing up to 50% of export marketing costs above a $10,000 threshold. Stateless Systems believe that these grants have played a significant part in its overall planning for export expansion. The company looks forward to continuous growth in exports over the coming year, particularly from key markets such as the US and UK.

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