John Owen

The fact that there are so many uses is both an opportunity and a challenge, because those people who need your product probably don’t know they need your product. So what’s the technique to getting to them? I guess referrals would be crucial?

They are. The referral component is still very, very strong. We use online media extensively; social media as well is another way of reaching out to a whole range of people. And it’s a two way process, we also encourage feedback to us so we can build that feedback in guiding the product development team and future versions. So it’s a two way street, it’s really important. Being well connected into the research community is one side of it but to reach new customers we’re really looking for those where they can understand they have a problem and need a solution. How are we going to resolve this? And some of course are further down the technology adoption timeline than others and the early adopters are probably the ones we were focused on in the beginning, so you can gain rapid acceptance into new market areas.

Just on the need for commercial organisations to interpret what their customers are saying, how has social media has changed that? Is that something that you guys have had to adapt to too?

It’s certainly a source of the information, it’s just one other source. Information is coming in increasingly varied ways, it’s changed from text now, it’s predominantly video or audio, increasingly pictures from the media. But certainly social media is going to play an increased important part in that. Again it’s a very important source for a company to understand what its customers are saying about it but if it’s in vast quantities it’s still going to need the analytical tools to derive some meaning from it otherwise they are going to have to read 10,000 tweets or 10,000 comments on a blog.

Absolutely but I guess having those tools is going to make that interpretation a lot easier.

So we have a company already, a market research company that use our software for instance, that is using it to look at blogs and trying to manage the huge flow of information coming through blogs out there.

Now, you recently won a Dell small business award and attended a conference on growth held by Dell in India. Can give us a tip about doing business in India? It’s a huge market that lots of Australian companies would love to tap into, but it’s not easy.

No, it’s not easy. As I mentioned earlier we have our product used in over 150 countries. In some countries we have a direct presence such as in North America and Europe which are obviously more mature markets. But what’s very exciting is the opportunities in Asia and India that we see here. Now, a lot of that we focus on building an excellent partner channel network. You need to have local presence. We are not of the size where at the moment we can install offices in 150 countries. In order to achieve our goals in these countries, we need to work very closely with partners which we feel will be synergistic with what we’re trying to achieve, where we can see that it will be an important part of their business and clearly understand the huge potential that we have in some of these countries as well.

I bet it’s not easy to find those partners though.

No, that’s obviously difficultly – to get the right partners. It’s very, very important to make sure that they are aligned with the same goals is something you have to work very hard at to achieve. And my motto is: get it right the first time.

Is it worth as a starting point, going to someone like Austrade or similar organisations to help you smooth the path a little?

Yes, we have used Austrade in the past and we continue to have a relationship with Austrade. They have been excellent in helping us identify some partners in China and also in Japan in the past and so we do see them as a conduit or a service that you can use in that first difficult step of at least identifying where potential clients might be.

But after that it’s between obviously you and the partner to make sure that the business works and the model works.

Now a different question, I’m not sure how big a role government grants and support for the development of your products has played but we’re going through some changes to R&D programs at the moment and it looks like software might not enjoy the same treatment it did. As an industry leader in Australia, does that disappoint you?

Yes it does. We have had the benefit of an R&D grant in the past and that’s been excellent in helping us develop our products and that was a scheme that was in place up until recently. That has now been stopped and is going to be replaced by a new scheme which appears to be based on effectively an interest free loan if you like rather than a grant. If the outcome is successful, there is an obligation to repay the funding. And I think this is an issue in Australia.

I think that we need to have vastly greater funding for all hi-tech industries. If you look to the future, where do we want to see Australia in the future? Do we want to see it still relying on primary industries or do we want to see it take an active part in I think the incredibly important hi-tech industry that’s growing so rapidly around the world. Do we really want to be a major player in that or do we want to be sitting on the sidelines and rely on industries that we’ve had in the past?

I think it’s in Australia’s interest to embrace that business and for that you need to have support. Part of that is funding and part of that comes from promoting Australia around the world, part of that is education and making sure we have the skills and the talent to feed into the process and being able to be innovative and develop hi-tech industries. Actually we are a very innovative nation and we have some fantastic innovations, but in the past some of that has been lost overseas because there hasn’t been the support and funding and the importance attached to it to ensure that it’s been a success story at home.

What are some of the challenges going forward, as we’ve been talking today, towards that $100-200 million company?

Certainly one is awareness. Yes, we are getting increasing coverage but there are still huge markets that are not aware of the tools, the software platforms that are available to carry out the sort of research and the huge benefits to understand that data benefit and so that’s certainly one.

Secondly, as we build a global network, we have to work with our partner organisations, certainly in different places around the world, to basically achieve those goals and the growth we expect to come through in the next few years.