About

Hi there, avid surfer,

Yet another company blog - what’s with this one?

In case you are not aware, we’re an Australian software company (based in Brisbane) that develops “shrink-wrapped” software that tries to make the electricity market understandable.

Through a combination of good luck and good management (perhaps mostly good luck!) we have managed to grow consistently each year since February 2000 and now serve hundreds of clients (around Australia, and internationally) with the various software packages we have developed over the past 9+ years.

As indication of the fact that our growth has been more good luck than good management, we still grapple with a number of core challenges in our business, including the following:

Challenge 1)    We’re continually looking to improve the methods by which we prioritise all of the many different product ideas we continue to generate internally (or have suggested by clients and others).

  1. It’s not as simple as it may initially seem, as (in many cases) clients don’t know exactly what they want until they see it;
  2. How do we weigh up the value of new markets, over existing ones?

Challenge 2)    We continue to refine the process through which we implement these ideas into sellable products (“on the shelf” – so to speak). This challenge incorporates the common issues of software development:

  1. The enduring trade-off between time, cost and quality.
  2. The difference between “done” and “done”.

Challenge 3)    Additionally, we’re striving to improve our approach to marketing (incorporating applicable elements of internet marketing) such that we can achieve our goals of higher revenues (and broader reach) at lower cost.

Why a blog, though?

As our company has grown, we have found it effective to expand our shareholder base to include a number of current employees, and some others who have worked with us before being lured to different parts of the world with the backpacking craze. As the first of our travellers begin to return, we expect the cycle to continue.

Through this blog, we hope to be able to keep everyone updated with what’s going on internally, and enable them to contribute (as and when they can).

Additionally, we thought that there might be others out there (such as you?) who are happy to provide comments on the “trials and tribulations” (plus a few future successes, we hope) within the company.

As with a lot of initiatives we undertake, this site has been put together because of our belief in the “try a lot of things, and keep doing what works” school of thought.

Given you are reading this note, you could safely assume that one of the following as occurred:

  • We’ve found the site to be beneficial, and so have persisted in keeping the site updated; or
  • We’ve forgotten all about the site, and hence the site will be a monument to “well, it sounded like a good idea at the time!”

Seriously, though, we’re genuinely interested in your input (constructive input, preferably - but any input will be read). 

We also hope that we don’t bore you to snores.

Cheers,

Paul McArdle
Managing Director