South America Says ‘Si’ To Software

SOUTH AMERICA SAYS ‘SI’ TO SOFTWARE

When a South American motorist pays for petrol in a service station, chances are that Kiwi technology is playing a large, yet hidden, part in the transaction.

Palmerston North’s Integration Technologies Ltd (ITL) is currently shipping its largest export order yet - $1.5million of its service station control systems - to South America. The single order covers the requirements of one oil company in four countries – Argentina, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay.

It will catapult the entrepreneurial company’s turnover up by over 60% on the previous year, and ITL’s sales and marketing director, Brendon Deere, says it is a giant step in the company’s progress.

“We made a decision early on to target the international markets and we now export 99.9% of our product. We already have a significant presence in the South American market, with Brazil our second largest market to date, and a large number of customers throughout South East Asia,” he says.

The driving force behind the four year old company’s growth has been its focus on research and development. ITL received funding of $24,000 from the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology through its Technology New Zealand scheme. Mr Deere says this played a key part in helping extend the software technology and create the platform on which the company’s growth has been based.

The company also received one of the inaugural Technology Commendation Awards from the Foundation last year, acknowledging its growth through technology and innovation.

ITL’s product, the Enabler, is now used in 12 countries with market development underway in a number of other countries that show significant potential.

It is, as Mr Deere explains, “ the invisible and clever stuff between the petrol pump and the cash register.” He believes the reason for the Enabler’s success is its miniaturization and cost effectiveness. We’ve put together a system that is infinitely variable for each oil company’s needs, but which has the capability to electronically draw together all the elements in a service station into one central register, for ease of billing and tracking,” says Mr Deere.

“We’ve reduced the amount of hardware a service station needs down to a card that goes into a PC, and the world-wide interest we’re getting is confirmation that smaller is better.”

He says that being in a market where there are a number of competitors has its pluses and minuses. Mr Deere says the market is looking for better ways to do things and is very conscious of having to move quickly to be at the forefront of new technologies. He says his company has put a lot of emphasis on research and development, with a refinement of the Enabler under development right now.

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- Further information:

- Brendon Deere (021) 629 986 or 06 355 1546

- Lins Kerr, Technology New Zealand at the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology, 04 917 7804, 025 962 581. www.techn.co.nz

Backgrounder

- Technology New Zealand is a set of government-funded business support schemes which provide funding to support R&D projects in business.

- Around $35 million is available each year to help companies develop new products or processes, build human capital within businesses and provide access to information and expertise.

- Technology New Zealand is part of the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology.

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