iTouch Business Mobility recognised at NZTE Awards

Press Release

iTouch Business Mobility recognised at NZTE Export Awards

Christchurch 26 July 2004: At the Auckland Town Hall on Friday 23 July leading mobile computing experts iTouch Business Mobility was celebrated at the annual NZTE Export Awards as finalist of the Information and Communications Technology category. iTouch attributes this achievement to the dedication of its staff, and salutes the success of the export strategy that it set three years ago.

iTouch Business Mobility, led by one of NZ ICT's strongest advocates, Phil Holliday, has come a long way since its early days as a specialist electronics company.

A strategic move to the emerging business mobility market proved a turning point for the company, formerly called Holliday Group. With access to the world's newest next generation network on its doorstep, Holliday Group quickly became the first to market with innovative mobile business solutions on the handheld platform.

This early advantage, together with the best team motivated to take the company forward, put Holliday's years ahead of the competition. Acquisition by London listed iTouch PLC in 2000 provided a vital footprint to the international market. Heavy investment and rapid expansion followed in a concerted effort to introduce to industry the benefits of the mobile workforce.

Three years on iTouch has captured the lion's share of the business mobility market in Australasia and UK. With large corporate customers such as Royal Mail, Courier Post and Australia Post amongst an impressive and increasing line-up of international reference sites, iTouch is set to continue significant international growth. There are already over 10,000 mobile workers using iTouch solutions.

"The export recognition by NZTE is tremendous honour for us," said Mr Holliday. "While it involved a very thorough entry process, the exercise proved immensely valuable. Everyone here has worked so hard that we don't often have time to pat ourselves on the back for a job well done before we start on the next project. It wasn't until we put the financials into words for this award that it really hit home how far we have come."

iTouch's top selling mobile solution is iDeliver, which is a wireless freight tracking system that enables freight and courier companies and their customers to track the latest position of consignment from any PC. The benefits of this and other business mobility applications, such as iService and iSell, are:

a.. Live and remote data exchange with the mobile workforce
b.. Eliminated paperwork and reduced administration
c.. More efficient control of business processes
d.. Enhanced customer service
e.. More measurable performance
f.. Competitive advantage
g.. Rapid return on investment

Recently, a change in business model to providing managed service solutions has proved a successful strategic decision for the company.

"Managed services is what our customers have been asking for, and we believe our success is driven by delivering solutions that meet their requirements," says Mr Holliday. "Historically we would develop a custom-designed solution and, once up and running, customers would host and manage it themselves. By supplying fully managed service solutions with other mobility partners our customers can get up and running faster knowing that every part of their new system - software, 24/7 support and maintenance, connection, hosting, upgrades, the lot - is looked after for them and managed by one provider, with a single monthly invoice."

Following the acquisition by iTouch plc the growth of the business has been rapid. Exports have grown from just 8% of turnover in 2001 to more than 80% today, and foreign exchange earnings are expected to top $7 million in 2004. Staff numbers have also increased to 50, with sales offices established in Auckland, Sydney and London to support the Christchurch head office.

"Recognition at last night's NZTE Export Awards is a fantastic pat on the back for the extraordinary effort and commitment shown by our staff towards achieving the export goals we set three years ago," said Phil. "We've come a long way, done the hard yards and the results now speak for themselves."

iTouch Business Mobility

iTouch Business Mobility is one of the top international mobile computing application developers. We were the first in the world to deliver market-ready business mobility applications that could run over the GPRS network.

We have developed a number of leading-edge applications that run on hand held computing devices with wireless data connections over a full range of mobile voice, data and Internet platforms. These innovative mobility solutions are enabling businesses to work more efficiently and competitively by extending the enterprise system to the mobile workforce.

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