CMCTEC leads 3 tech firms to India export deals

Massey’s CMCTEC leads 3 NZ tech firms to export deals in India

CMC Technology Export Centre (CMCTEC), a partnership between Massey University’s e-centre Limited and Indian IT leader CMC, announced today that it has brokered three new export deals for New Zealand technology firms with its Indian partners.

CMCTEC Head of Commercial, Dr Hamish Coop, said the deals represented considerable success for the CMCTEC’s new export model within its first six months.

“We started CMCTEC to give New Zealand technology companies better and easier access to a critical international market. We are delighted to see these very positive results so quickly.

“I think this rapid uptake underlines the international quality of New Zealand innovation and the real value CMC’s networks provide in successfully taking it into Indian and global markets,” he said.

The three New Zealand companies to reach deals in India through CMCTEC are: Sonar6, the developer of unique graphics-based ‘talent management’ software for assessing and managing staff performance; SMX Limited, makers of anti-spam and anti-virus software; and Digital Learning Solutions (DLS), a software development company specialising in e-learning platforms.

The first of these deals will see CMC act as a Sonar6 reseller. Initially, CMC will concentrate their efforts in India; however future plans also include taking the Sonar6 software to market in the Middle East and Africa. To date, CMC has negotiated three pilot projects with key multinational companies on behalf of Sonar6.

Sonar6 founder, Mike Carden, says their partnership with CMCTEC is already proving extremely rewarding.

“Identifying and managing talent is the key factor underpinning business success in the global knowledge economy. India is a natural target for us on this basis; it’s one of the largest knowledge-based economies in the world and Indian businesses can genuinely benefit from the talent management solutions Sonar6 provides.

“Working with CMCTEC has enabled us to gain market penetration far more quickly than we’d be able to on our own. We’re looking forward to further developing our relationship with CMC and remain grateful to CMCTEC for their ongoing interest in Sonar6,” Mr Carden said.

DLS has granted CMC exclusivity to re-sell its learning management system within a similar territory and the two companies are currently working to close a deal with a large training organisation operating across ten countries in the territory.

DLS Managing Director Anton van Schalwyk said that the deal meant they would move rapidly from operating almost wholly in Australia and New Zealand to exporting to 30 countries. “This is a big step, CMCTEC has opened up opportunities that would otherwise have simply not been there for us,” he said.

SMX is entering into a technical trial of its anti-spam service with CMC with a view to a re-seller arrangement should this be successful.

CMCTEC, based at Massey University’s e-centre in Albany, is a partnership between the e-centre and CMC, a subsidiary of the Tata group, India’s best known business conglomerate. CMCTEC optimises the potential for qualified New Zealand technology-based companies to overcome many of the traditional barriers and risks of entering India’s lucrative global technology market, from cost and distance to overcoming cultural challenges and establishing credibility.

“With this new model companies can gain direct access to a huge market via CMC, and leverage the scale available in India,” e-centre CEO Steve Corbett said.

After validating interested New Zealand companies and their technology, CMCTEC introduces them to market opportunities within CMC’s large networks.

CMC CEO, Mr Ramanathan Ramanan, welcomed the deals, saying, “Introducing technologies of this quality into the CMC product set provides us with an edge in India and globally. We look forward to partnering with more New Zealand companies that come to us through CMCTEC as we continue to expand.”

New Zealand Trade and Enterprise is significantly supporting CMCTEC, and its ICT Sector Director Hans Frauenlob said that partnering with multinationals like CMC is a smart business model.

“It enables Kiwi companies to overcome the classic barriers of size and distance, ensuring innovative IT solutions developed here can be launched on the world stage,” he said

These deals follow earlier partnering arrangements entered into with CMC by QLBS, an e-centre graduate providing management measurement systems, Jade Software Corporation and Massey’s Graduate School of Business, CMCTEC’s Dr Coop said.

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About CMCTEC
The CMC Technology Export Centre is a joint initiative between CMC Limited and e-centre Limited. CMC Limited is a technology services company based in India. The company is listed on the Indian Stock Exchange and is 51% owned by the TATA Group, one of the largest business conglomerates in India. e-centre Limited is a company that facilitates business growth, owned 100% by Massey University. e-centre Limited has specialist skills in evaluating technology companies and helping those companies develop their products for global markets. CMCTEC’s role is to ‘de-risk’ the market development by carrying out the market evaluation in NZ and then making direct matches with opportunities in India. CMCTEC is resourced and supported by its own full time staff and NZ based representatives of CMC Ltd who have an intimate understanding of the requirements and opportunities of the Indian market place. See www.cmctec.co.nz

About Sonar6 Sonar6 is a leading New Zealand technology company which sells unique graphics-based "talent management" software for assessing and managing staff performance. Established in February 2006, Sonar6 has already attracted considerable favourable attention both in New Zealand and internationally. The company has also been invited to join Silicon Valley’s prestigious Girvan Institute of Technology, was included in the Gartner ‘Cool Vendors’ list in the Cool Vendors in Finance and Human Capital Management (HCM) 2007* report, and invited to present at the Gartner Symposium/ITxpo in San Francisco in April 2007. Visit www.sonar6.com

About SMX
Launched in February 2006, SMX is a privately-owned secure email software development and services company. The SMX proposition is to clean mail of viruses and spam to 99.9 percent accuracy. The conceptual innovation is to offer this ’99.9 percent clean’ customer outcome as a service, paid for on a monthly per user basis, rather than as a software product installed on a customer’s own system and requiring IT staff to upgrade, maintain and provision. The technology innovations include the unique ability to service multiple customers out of a single system (multi-tenanted). No other service-based solution is so easily scalable, and no other is so fast to deploy – taking literally two or three phone calls and less than half a day to fully deploy across the largest organisation.

Based in Auckland, SMX founders Jesse Ball and Thom Hooker lead a sales and development team focused on local direct sales as well as local and international sales through reseller and licence agreements. A professional Board is headed by chairman John Quirk of IT investment advisors Howard and Company.

Currently SMX has a total of 20,000 users and a rapidly-growing blue chip customer list including the AA, TAB, Sealord, ESR, and RHE and Associates

About Digital Learning Solutions Digital Learning Solutions has developed a new generation of Learning Management Solutions called e-Quip. e-Quip was specifically designed for business critical training in Government, Corporate and Academic organisations.

e-Quip provides an individualised approach to learning that dramatically increases a participant’s speed to competency, while reducing the overall training cost and employee down-time. The platform equips organisations to build, track, manage and deliver training online to their staff and customers 24/7. For further information please visit: www.dls.ac.nz

About CMC Limited
CMC Limited is a leading IT solutions company and a subsidiary of Tata Consultancy Services Limited, one of the world's leading information technology consulting, services and business process outsourcing organisations. TCS are a part of the Tata group, India's best-known business conglomerate.

With 18 offices, 150 service locations, 520 non-resident locations and over 3,500 employees worldwide, CMC Ltd provide a wide spectrum of unique information technology solutions and services to a clientele of premier organisations in the government and private sectors.

About e-centre Limited
The e-centre Limited at Massey University's Albany campus has been established specifically to grow entrepreneurial technology companies. The unique environment provides guidance and support during the early stage growth phase. The e-centre has leading expertise and tools to assist businesses with their market and technology strategy. e-centre is committed to bringing leading technologies and marketing concepts to New Zealand companies to help them grow profitably through exporting. A key issue is the difficulty NZ technology-based companies experience in identifying offshore markets which suit their product and offerings and then entering those markets. There can be significant market development costs incurred without any guarantee of success. Specific issues include isolation, regulatory issues, cultural differences and financing. This need has driven e-centre’s development of CMCTEC. Find out more at www.e-centremassey.org.nz.

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