Telstra taps into NZ inspiration

By MATHEW DEARNALEY

Australian telephone giant Telstra is relying on solid gold New Zealand innovation to ensure its mobile phone network makes the Olympic Games finishing line.

Christchurch may have lost out this week to an Australian bid to host Motorola's research plant, but Telstra is just one of several overseas companies tapping into a unique computer data graphics system developed in New Zealand by Compudigm International.

Telstra will rely on a Compudigm software tool called SeePower to convert telephone traffic data almost instantly into fluid visual images to tell it where to allocate additional temporary equipment in Sydney should demand threaten to become even heavier than expected during the Olympics.

"We don't need Motorola - we want to invest in New Zealand," declares Andrew Cardno, one of two enterprising Southlanders who started the firm in a Wellington living room three years ago but who now employ 48 people on top of 16-storey Compudigm House.

Mr Cardno says New Zealand need not rely on others for its high-tech industries and hence socially valuable jobs, but must follow the example of competing countries by allowing its leading-edge firms to write off research and development costs against tax.

The Government outraged the business community when it introduced a grants scheme in the Budget for private-sector research and development, rather than promised tax relief, although it has asked officials for more reports on the issue.

But a big break for Compudigm came in April when Credit Suisse First Boston bought just under 10 per cent of it for $6.5 million for a group of Australian clients, putting it on track to employ 100 people by this time next year.

Compudigm, which also counts big Australian and American gambling and retail operators among its clients, is now using the Olympics as a springboard to the global telecommunications market.

Telstra has bolstered its cell phone network to cope with more than 100,000 users who may want to dial out of Olympics venues at peak times such as the opening and closing ceremonies or, as it immodestly predicts, "when Australians win gold."

It has tripled capacity around Sydney Olympic Park, Darling Harbour and other venues to provide what it believes will be the world's most intense mobile phone coverage.

Data will be fed from every cellphone in the network into an electronic "warehouse" supplied by leading United States information systems company Sybase, with which Compudigm signed a partnership deal a month ago to sell its products throughout the world.

From there, the Compudigm technology will transform the data into visual contour images and thematic maps, illustrating key features such as antennas, telephone base stations and Olympics venues.

Mr Cardno, a 35-year-old computer engineer who also holds a degree in land surveying, was inspired to develop the technology by an ancient graphic chart depicting Napoleon's disastrous 1812 invasion of Russia.

Instead of having to plough through dozens of history books, he gained a rapid understanding of the entire campaign by glancing at the chart - and an idea for a tremendous business opportunity if he could somehow transform masses of market information into visual form.

He says that although firms spend big money gathering sales data, they usually have little idea of how to convert it into any comprehensible form, and that is where Compudigm's huge market niche lies.

"Pictures are easy to understand and quick to interpret."

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