Eligible companies may apply for assistance with reasonable costs directly associated with export market development activities such as market visits, developing in‑market marketing material, participation in trade shows, supporting incoming buyer visits, developing market research and undergoing trade mentoring.

Travel related expenses have been included as eligible expenses in the reviewed guidelines however strict conditions apply. Eligible companies must have a current Export Development Plan and demonstrate in the application how the market development activity will help the company achieve its export goals.

All grants are awarded on a matched-funding basis, and successful applicants may receive funding support of up to $15,000 per application, or a total of $45,000 over a three-year period.

To allow adequate time for processing and assessment, applications should be lodged at least 4 weeks before commencement of funded activity.

For more information please go to: www.business.act.gov.au/tcon

Australia in the Asian Century Breakfast November 2012

Datapod (Australia) Pty Ltd has developed a product offering that meets the growing demand for data centre engineering expertise.  The system is a comprehensive suite of manufactured data centre modules, designed to be deployed in any number of configurations and interchangeable to adapt to every changing space, power and cooling demands of computer/ IT technology.

They provide a complete turn- key data centre facility and this proposition significantly reduces upfront construction capital, improves energy efficiency and eliminates construction risk as the entire facility is factory tested before it is deployed.

Datapod (Australia) Pty Ltd have developed an energy efficient cooling system that utilises low ambient temperature conditions and have patented a system that utilises the waste heat generated by computer and IT equipment.  The system is able to be rapidly deployed, is modular, scalable and adaptable.

Scott Carr, CEO of Datapod (Australia) Pty Ltd said “Datapod have experienced strong growth and increasing opportunities both domestically and internationally because we have defined the needs of this industry for reliable data centres, and are designing and building to international standards.  The Datapod meets the demanding needs for data centres worldwide. Over the next two years the export opportunities are enormous because the Datapod system provides a solution to a universal problem, and we are anticipating exponential growth.”

Datapod (Australia) Pty Ltd expansion plans include opening an office in South East Asian in 2012.

Good luck to Datapod (Australia) Pty Ltd and all of the ACT Export Award Winners in the 50^th Australian Export Awards National Ceremony which is being held in Canberra on Tuesday 27^th November, 2012 at The Great Hall, Parliament House, Capital Hill, Canberra.

The ACT Exporters’ Network works with exporters from the Canberra region, to build opportunities in overseas markets. If you require assistance, would like to be involved in our events, or find out more about the Network, contact Ellen Pope, ellen.pope@canberrabusinesscouncil.com.au or 0450 637 585.

• Agribusiness – Inland Trading Co (Aust)
• Arts and Entertainment – Bearcage Pty Ltd
• Emerging Exporter – Locata Corporation
• Information and Communication Technology – XP Solutions
• Minerals and Energy – Digitalcore Pty Ltd
• Small Business – Recruitment Systems Pty Ltd
• Small to Medium Services – Seeing Machines Limited
• Small to Medium Manufacturing – Datapod (Australia) Pty Ltd
• Large Services – Aspen Medical
• ACT Exporter Of The Year – Aspen Medical

Good luck to all the ACT category winners for the National Ceremony.  If you are interested in attending the 50th Australian Export Awards night act quickly as there are limited seats available.   If you want to attend as part of the Canberra Business Council contingent then please contact the ACT Exporters’ Network Manager.

GeoNav Executive Vice President Guner Gardenhire says NICTA’s ‘AutoMap’ technology will help the
company respond to a growing requirement for reliable road sign surveys to address maintenance,
safety and regulation issues. “In particular there is a growing demand for up-to-date sign inventories
to satisfy the Federal Highway Administration’s new traffic sign retroreflectivity requirements,” he said.
These new requirements aim to reduce the number of road deaths which occur at night.¹ GeoNav is
100 percent-owned by the National Rural Telecommunications Cooperative (NRTC), which
represents the interests of around 1400 rural utilities and affiliates in 47 US states.

GeoNav mapping vehicles equipped with video cameras drive many thousands of kilometres
collecting video, LiDAR and GPS track data. The resulting footage is then uploaded onto their servers
in Montana. NICTA personnel remotely analyse the data from Canberra and create an inventory of
signs complete with their latitude and longitude. This information is incorporated by GeoNav into the
sign inventories it supplies to its customers.

“There have been many attempts at solving the problem of automatically detecting road signs, but few
of them have been successful on a very large scale. We have used our technology in the Australian
market for some time, and this deal with GeoNav allows us to prove our technology in the North
American market as well,” said NICTA Senior Researcher and AutoMap developer Dr Lars Petersson.

GeoNav’s clients in the utilities sector also require inventories of roadside objects relating to electricity
distribution networks. To service this contract, NICTA has developed a new library of US signs and
added the capability of automatically finding power poles in 3D point clouds. Point clouds are created
by a 3D scanner mounted on a survey vehicle and represent a relatively new form of sensing
technology for mobile survey vehicles. The most common type of scanner, called LiDAR, sends out a
wide beam of laser pulses and captures the reflections from roadside objects, such as signs and
power poles, providing size, shape and position information about those objects.

The software will be taken to market in the US by Automapic, a business emerging from technology
developed by the NICTA Automap team. “This contract not only places NICTA’s research in an
important international market, it also delivers direct income to NICTA through a sales revenue
sharing arrangement with GeoNav,” said NICTA’s Chief Operating Officer Dr Phil Robertson. “It is
also an important validation for a promising emerging business which is looking to spin out of NICTA
later this year.”

¹ http://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/roadway_dept/night_visib/policy_guide/fhwasa08001

Background

For the last three years, NICTA has provided road and rail sign analysis to customers in Australia and
New Zealand, including Sensis’ location navigation business, Whereis® Maps. Whereis® Maps uses
AutoMap to enhance and maintain a national map database via the capture and analysis of images of
road signs, including speed limits, turn restrictions and bridge load limit signs.

General Manager of the Whereis® mapping business, Fred Curtis, said: “Our agreement with NICTA
has allowed us to evolve our process for capturing signs and coding the database, further improving
the completeness, accuracy and quality of our digital mapping products. We adopted NICTA’s
AutoMap technology when we started using field surveyed imagery to help keep our databases up to
date. NICTA’s AutoMap services are integral to our business of delivering the quality our customers
expect.”

The AutoMap system uses object recognition, motion estimation and machine learning to improve the
rate of detection of roadside assets in video footage collected by survey vehicles. The system
identifies 99 percent or more road signs which appear in a given video, compared to an 85-90 percent
detection rate using manual methods. AutoMap can be trained to recognise most sign types found on
roads worldwide. Automatic power pole detection is a new development, with benefits accruing from
the reduced time taken to find the poles.

About NICTA

NICTA (National ICT Australia Ltd) is Australia’s Information and Communications Technology Research Centre of Excellence. NICTA develops technologies that generate economic, social and environmental benefits for Australia. NICTA collaborates with industry on joint projects, creates new companies, and provides new talent to the ICT sector through a NICTA-enhanced PhD program. With five laboratories around Australia and over 700 people, NICTA is the largest organisation in Australia dedicated to ICT research.

NICTA is funded by the Australian Government through the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy and the Australian Research Council through the ICT Centre of Excellence Program. NICTA is also funded and supported by the Australian Capital Territory, the New South Wales, Queensland and Victorian Governments, the Australian National University, the University of New South Wales, the University of Melbourne, the University of Queensland, the University of Sydney, Griffith University, Queensland University of Technology and Monash University.

These SMEs include:

1. Best Exhaust
2. Kinetic Performance Technology
3. Space Saver Rowing Systems
4. The Kanga Cup
5. The Wise Academy
6. XP Solutions

Under the supervision of Dr Vinh Lu, the course convenor, and Mr Genrikh Salata (PhD candidate in International Business), a total of 26 groups of undergraduate and Master students in the International Marketing and Global Marketing courses at the ANU competed and identified the most suitable international market for their dedicated client.

Based on the project brief and a Q&A session with the client, each team developed a comprehensive international business plan (incorporating market screening and selection exercise, SWOT analysis, competitor analysis, identification of target market and market size, potential market entry strategies, international marketing mix tactics, and implementation costs and schedule). Different countries and territories emerged as the top export/expansion destinations for the six business clients, including China, Germany, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Qatar, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Students also produced a range of print/advertising materials such as posters and sales brochures, which were evaluated by a team of marketing professionals from Saatchi & Saatchi, Roy Morgan Research, Channel 7, Singapore Airlines, Ogilvy & Mather, Freedom Foods Group, Shingleback Wine, Selleys Pty Ltd., UniSA, University of Adelaide, etc. These professionals are former graduates of Dr Vinh Lu. The top teams were officially recognised at a School reception, and some clients offered further rewards of lunch/dinner or internship opportunities.

In addition to attending the professional presentations by the students, the business clients received full copies of the reports and the print materials. The information and recommendations proposed by the students may serve as good starting point, especially in terms of market intelligence, for the clients in their quests for international opportunities. The participation of the clients in the competitions further strengthens the University-industry linkage between the ANU and the business community and the ACT.

This international business plan competition will be implemented again in July 2012. Seven clients, regardless of your industries and international experience, are being sought to participate in the courses. If you are interested or would like further information, please contact Dr Vinh Lu, Lecturer and Research Fellow in the ANU School of Management, Marketing and International Business, at vinh.lu@anu.edu.au, or on (02) 6125 4905.

The film charts the history of legendary fighting soldier the Australin Digger from their origins in the Boer War to the present day.  Through a sequence of pivotal battles spanning the globe, THE DIGGER follows the rise of these tough-as-nails fighting soldiers and their well-earned reputation for wartime heroics and off-duty subordination.

The film’s producer, Michael Tear, says that the film was a logistic and creative challenge, “we had to condense 100 years of history into 90 minutes. The shoot took place in six counties, South Africa, France, Egypt, Korea, Vietnam and PNG.  Recreations from the battlefied scenes were shot in Queensland right in the middle of the floods of January 2011″.

For more information please contact Michael Tear on 0417 441 932 or at mail@bearcage.com.au.

Meyer Vandenberg is the Canberra member of the ALFA International Legal Network, which is one of the oldest and largest international legal networks, comprising approximately 145 law firms (and 10,000 lawyers) in the United States, Europe, Asia, South America, Africa and the Middle East.

The International Legal Practice Group of ALFA meets annually and conducts a client seminar for businesses involved in international commerce as part of its annual meeting.

This year, for the first time, the ALFA Client seminar is being held in Sydney at the Sydney Hilton on Thursday 10 November.  Click here to browse the event brochure.

Participants will include international lawyers from member firms around the world as well as local and international businesses engaged in overseas activities.

If you are interested in attending, please contact Yuko Harding on 02 6279 4489  or at yuko.harding@meyervandenberg.com.au to obtain further information.

Aspen Medical was named the 2011 ACT Exporter of the Year as well as being awarded the 2011 Large Services Award and the 2011 ACT Export Hall of Fame Award.

The Hall of Fame Award is given in recognition of an ACT business which has provided long term contributions to the ACT exporting community and promoting the ACT on the global stage.  This Award is only granted when there is a deserving recipient.  The Large Services Award recognises outstanding export achievement in a recognised services industry such as the consultancy, fashion, finance, insurance, engineering, legal, health, design, community, sports, events and tourism sectors with total annual sales of $15 million or more.

Aspen Medical was founded in March 2003, and provides complete healthcare solutions for customers, supplying whatever is required to meet customer and patient needs including people, facilities, equipment, consumables, pharmacy products, procedures or any combination to deliver the highest quality health services. 

Aspen Medical’s first three contracts were exports: in the UK in 2003 and 2005, and the Solomon Islands in 2004. Since 2005 Aspen Medical has won further business in the UK, US, Timor Leste, the Middle East and Indonesia, and opened offices in the UK, USA and Canada.  2010-2011 has proven to be a phenomenal year for Aspen, and its best export year to date. 

 The other 2011 Category Award winners are:

Benjamin Shine Studio – Arts and Entertainment Award.  This Award  recognises outstanding export achievement across all cultural industries including fine arts, performing arts, electronic and on-line entertainment:  Benjamin Shine Studio is a creative studio established in Canberra in late 2008 which focuses on the creative development of ideas for a diverse range of markets, including public and private commissioned mixed-media artworks, fashion collaborations and product design.  The studio explores and develops new ways to create unique and desirable works in art and design through sustainable and environmentally-aware methods, such as recycling and upcycling.  The artworks and products combine constructional ideas and techniques with technology and craftsmanship, creating original pieces that are visually intriguing and practical in design.

QuintessenceLabs Pty Ltd – Emerging Exporter Award. This Award recgnises outstanding export achievement by an enterprise in any industry sector which has been exporting goods or services for three years or less. QuintessenceLabs was formed in 2006 out of research at the Australian National University.  It develops link encryption and key management products using quantum key distribution to offer the next generation of information security.  Their Quantum Security Product Family (QPSF) comprises a suite of products providing key generation, key distribution, key management, and link encryption and embodies technology that is invulnerable to a range of cybersecurity threats and can be used now, and in tomorrow’s networks. All members of the QPSF integrate easily into existing infrastructure. Their security architecture incorporates the laws of physics, and in contrast to classical systems, is immune to advances in mathematics and computing offering future-proof information security.

Two other business were recognised in the Emerging Exporter category with Highly Commended certificates – mHITS, a developer and operator of a mobile payment technology and services, and IE Asia Pacific which provide tailored products and services that essentially improve the safety of civil Air Traffic Control and the detection capability for Defence radars.

eWAY - Information and Communication Technology Award.  This Award recognises  outstanding export achievement in the field of information and communication products, technology or services. eWAY was created in 1998 to address the need for an easier way for businesses to accept payments via their websites. eWAY is a payment platform, connecting online merchants to banking networks to accept credit card payments through their website. Payments are processed securely in real-time, with the transaction result returned to the merchant’s website within seconds.  eWAY’s achievements include opening a UK office this year, integration into 160 global shopping cart providers and 450 development houses, and processing over 1.5 million transactions per month and over $8 billion in transactions.

Sentinel Pty Ltd – Minerals and Energy Award.  This Award recognises outstanding export achievement in the production or primary processing of extractive and value-added minerals or energy products, technology, equipment and services to the minerals and energy industries. Sentinel  was founded and commenced exporting in 2000. Sentinel designs, installs and manages environmental and water resource monitoring networks. These monitoring station networks continuously record environmental parameters, including air quality, river depths, flow rates and water quality.  Sentinel’s services are used in projects in Africa, Asia, Australia, the Pacific and South America by small and large mining companies including mining giants such as Newcrest, Barrick, Xstrata and Rio Tinto, as well as many other smaller mining companies.  The company employs 15 personnel, has active projects in 10 countries and completed projects in an additional 5 countries. Over 70% of their work is international.

Recruitment Systems Pty Ltd – Small Business Award. This Award recognises outstanding export achievement by any business with total annual sales not exceeding $3 million. Recruitment Systems develops and markets advanced systems for data capture and recruitment operations management to the global recruitment industry. Their core product, known as TRIS Recruitment CRM, helps recruiters effectively manage relationships with their clients and job candidates by better organising key documents and communications. The Canberra-based business was established in 2001 with three employees and achieved its first export sale to New Zealand that year. Recruitment Systems now works with 252 separate recruitment industry clients across a dozen countries including Singapore, Hong Kong, New Zealand, UK, USA and Vietnam.   The company now employs 21 staff, a 20% net gain in staff over last year.

Noetic Group – Small to Medium Services Award.  This Award recognising outstanding export achievement in a recognised services industry such as the consultancy, fashion, finance, insurance, engineering, legal, health, design, community, sports, events and tourism sectors with total annual sales of less than $15 million. The Noetic Group, established in 2001, provides professional services to government and to the infrastructure, energy and resources sectors in Australia and overseas through five subsidiary companies.  Their services cover strategy and knowledge consulting services to all levels of government, specialist consulting services to the US Government national security sector, infrastructure consulting services and delivery of ‘best in class’ solutions to public and private infrastructure organisations in Australia and Asia; general consulting services in PNG; and enterprise risk and regulatory consulting services in Australia and overseas.  Noetic has grown from 2 to 45 full time staff and 200 subcontractors, with annual revenue growth over $7m.

Lipotek Pty Ltd – Microbusiness Award. This Award recognises outstanding export achievement by an ACT business employing less than five people. Lipotek is a small, privately-owned, biotechnology company established in 2001 to commercialise specific technologies developed by the John Curtin School of Medical Research.  Lipotek has developed several platform or enabling technologies for use in a range of human medical applications including the Lipovaxin platform that can be applied to treat cancers, infectious diseases like Tuberculosis, Dengue Fever or for the targeted delivery of pharmaceuticals. They secured their first licence deal with a major UK-based pharmaceutical company in 2009 to co-develop Lipovaxin-MM, a therapeutic treatment product for Malignant Melanoma now being trialed in an Australian hospital.

The Microbusiness Award is a new ACT-specific category introduced this year to recognise the large number of successful Microbusinesses operating in the ACT that employ less than five people.  It was introduced to encourage Microbusinesses that export, but aren’t yet ready to compete at the national level, to use the Awards as an opportunity to showcase their export business locally and prepare for entry into national categories in the future.

Sponsors

The 2011 ACT Chief Minister’s Export Awards are an initiative of the ACT Government, managed and delivered by Canberra Business Council and proudly sponsored by the Centre for Customs and Excise Studies, Commonwealth Bank, ACT Exporters’ Network, Austrade, Canberra Business Council, Export Finance and Insurance Corporation, Inland Trading Co (Aust) Pty Ltd, Hyatt Hotel Canberra, Meyer Vandenberg, Sentinel Pty Ltd, Staging Connections, Canberra Times and Why Wurry Internet Solutions.

In this case study a Melbourne exporter was in the running to win a lucrative contract with a major Chinese client. The challenge for them was that they had to supply bonds to the value of 50% of the contract. For an SME pushing for rapid growth, tying up that much working capital could stifle further business development. That’s when ES&S’ bank suggested they talked to EFIC.

EFIC helps Australian exporters to keep working capital flowing

Melbourne-based Environment Systems and Services (ES&S) has provided weather and meteorological solutions in locations as far afield as Antarctica and Samoa, for clients from China, Korea and Japan.

Like many SME businesses, ES&S faces the constant challenge of maintaining enough working capital to win contracts, deliver on contracts, develop business opportunities, and generally keep the business running.

To win contracts with the Polar Research Institute of China and the Defence Acquisition Program Administration of the Republic of Korea, ES&S were required to provide advance payment and performance bonds to their buyers.

These bonds give a buyer comfort that if an exporter doesn’t perform the contract obligations, they can claim for lost upfront payments and related losses. An exporter usually asks its bank to issue the bonds in favour of its buyers. However, to do so banks generally require the exporter to provide assets to secure the bond. Sometimes all available assets are already secured or valuable working capital is tied up to provide this security.

Export Finance and Insurance Corporation (EFIC), Australia’s export credit agency, helped ES&S  by providing guarantees to ES&S’ bank to satisfy the security requirement. This allowed the bank to issue the advance payment and performance bonds to ES&S’ buyers.   

“EFIC’s financial assistance helped to free up our working capital so we could meet the customer’s requirements,” said Bob Wright, CEO of ES&S.

Recently ES&S won a subcontract as part of Japan’s Grant Aid programme for improving the weather forecasting system and meteorological warning facilities in Samoa.

Under the subcontract, ES&S received periodic payments from its customer, however, the time lag between when ES&S incurred costs and received payments meant that the company faced a working capital shortage and needed additional funding to perform the subcontract.

EFIC provided a six-month $500,000 export working capital guarantee to ES&S’ bank, ANZ, enabling the bank to lend the same amount to ES&S.

“EFIC’s support enabled us to access additional working capital to undertake this contract and provide essential improvements to Samoa’s weather forecasting and meteorological warning facilities while continuing to expand our overseas business,” said Colin Cookes, Owner and Chairman, ES&S.

For more information: visit www.efic.gov.au

RELATED CASE STUDIES

http://www.efic.gov.au/casestudies/Pages/esschina.aspx

http://www.efic.gov.au/casestudies/Pages/esskorea.aspx

http://www.efic.gov.au/casestudies/Pages/Environment-Systems-and-Services-Samoa.aspx