Kiwis break through joke barrier

By GREG ANSLEY in Sydney

For once it was not easy to miss the Kiwis. One wall of the Sydney Exhibition Centre at Darling Harbour was an unbroken stream of black and silver-fern flags.

They represented a solid bloc of New Zealand IT entrepreneurs sharp and innovative enough to have made it into the Australian Information Industry Association's CeBIT trade show.

Prime Minister Helen Clark was there, razzing the troops with a public relations drive to push New Zealand brainpower and astonishing Australian exhibitors with her support.

And the entrepreneurs riding the knowledge wave across the Tasman were finding that once past the sheep jokes the Australians were ready to be impressed and talk business.

But they warned of the pitfalls of arriving fresh off the boat without homework and local business support in a market that Trade NZ says has "poor appreciation" of Kiwi high-tech capabilities.

Trade NZ believes New Zealand has created problems for itself by promoting Australia as an extension of its domestic market.

That has encouraged an often false view that what works at home will also work across the Tasman.

At Darling Harbour, New Zealanders at the sharp end warned that finding Australian partners was critical in penetrating a market already bulging with fiercely competitive local companies and slick rivals from the United States, Europe and Asia.

"There is still a wee bit of a cultural gap in terms of what Australians see as intellectual property from New Zealand," said Max Wadey, chief executive of Epsom-based AME Software.

"What that boils down to is, we then have to make sure we appoint quality resellers who have existing relationships with their customers."

David Clarke, business development manager for Greenlane's PST Software, said New Zealanders had to see beyond the jokes.

"Of course you get the sheep jokes," he said. "But we are finding that if you have the right thing at the right time for the right need, it doesn't really matter where you come from."

AME Software, a division of Axon Computertime, which produces information systems management software, is just starting to move into Australia after market research and hunting out local resellers.

"It is really a matter of having a presence here, because something totally new without credibility is always going to find it difficult," said Wadey.

Axon's Scott Green said the hick image persisted but could be broken down.

"The perception of intellectual property/New Zealand, the two words don't go in the same sentence, is a temporary objection," he said.

"I've found the moment you actually sit down and talk with people and tell them what you're doing, the barriers disappear.

"You can either accept the Kiwi jokes and get over it, or you can dwell on it and let yourself feel inferior."

Neel Pathak's Wellington-based NPA Systems has moved from importer and distributor to developer and exporter over the past five years.

It made its first foreign sale to Australia two years ago and capitalised on time zone differences for call centre business from the United Kingdom and North America.

"There are always those frivolous comments you get from Australian companies," he said.

"I think it's just not known that we are capable of developing technology, that we have a critical mass, in information technology and other technology areas. I guess visibility is lacking."

Pathak said a local presence was essential.

"We failed miserably trying to do it remotely [from New Zealand], thinking that Australia and New Zealand were so closely aligned to each other.

"It didn't work, so we had to set up offices here.

"That opened doors for us, the fact that we were here and we could at short notice have somebody on the doorstep.

"If Australians like your product it doesn't matter where you come from. It's a question of having the right solution to a problem."

PST Software began exporting over the past year and already generates about 25 per cent of its revenue from Australia and Europe.

It markets a graphics system that plots real-time financial data to boost cash flow and stock forecasting.

"Basically you get some sheep jokes, you get some All Black jokes, and they always ask if we've got any cups left," Clarke said.

"Realistically, when you start to talk about their business, how you're going to add value to it and save them some money, you could be from anywhere in the world and they would be just as interested.

"But if you tried to sell something that wasn't interesting, that wasn't going to add value to their business, they probably wouldn't get past the sheep jokes."