Your business: Software firm gears up for international growth

General Manager Andy Collyer and chief executive Hayley Bryan have sights on Australia, Canada and China. Photo / Supplied

Nearly two weeks after the February 22 earthquake, for Christchurch-based firm Synergy Business Solutions it's business as usual.

Synergy, based in Burnside, was formed 17 years ago by programme developer Lyall Swain to provide business management and financial accounting software for the automotive industry. It enables business owners to look up customers' service histories and have a good picture of how healthy their business is.

In the wake of the natural disaster, general manager Andy Collyer says: "We have offsite back up. The building came off very lightly and was inspected and cleared the Wednesday after the quake. Bigger issues are around managing staff and caring for their individual circumstances. Portability of business infrastructure and IP is absolutely vital too."

It may not all be a bad thing.

"I personally think we could see the beginnings of mass collaboration within the ICT/software sector, which is something we've struggled to achieve," says Collyer.

With new owners, husband and wife Hayley Bryan and Peter Brett, Synergy has around 1600 clients throughout New Zealand supported by a strong dealer network. It has a turnover in the hundreds of thousands but Bryan believes it will take a "quantum leap" through expansion into international markets, with Collyer at the helm.

Bryan is also chief executive of the fast growing business intelligence systems company Datasouth, which bought Synergy in 2002 and put it up for sale in December last year. Bryan and her husband decided to buy Synergy soon after she was promoted to the chief executive role at Datasouth. Bryan got to know Synergy when she was director of sales at Datasouth. "I had helped the manager of Synergy and found the product very interesting," she says.

Bryan and Brett, who sold their shareholding in their company Insite Technology to Renaissance some years ago, saw it as a good investment.

Bryan says owning Synergy would be much harder if not for Collyer who has a shareholding in the business. Her GM had done some work already with the Motor Trade Association and Synergy. "Without Andy, I would have to clone myself," says Bryan.

Synergy has potential to work for other small businesses such as hairdressing salons, says Bryan. It works well for visual, intuitive people, she says.

For years, Synergy has been like a beautiful shiny toy which was kept in the cupboard, polished every now and then and put back, says Bryan.

Collyer is meeting with the dealer network and identifying some of the players who can be real champions for Synergy, giving them any training they need. "What we need is a channel to market," says Bryan. Synergy is largely known in the South Island but less in the North Island.

There is plenty of scope for growth among New Zealand auto workshops with 4000 MTA members and a further 4000 non-members, says Collyer. While he has immediate plans to introduce the software to Canada and Australia this year, in the longer term China is an option, says Bryan.

The company has three Chinese software engineers who might be instrumental in taking the business to their country. Just to get .001 per cent of the Chinese market would be a huge achievement. "The sky's the limit," says Bryan. She and her husband have the money to invest in the business to take it international, says Bryan.

Collyer will be hiring more people as the company grows. There are 900 ICT companies in Christchurch - two thirds of which have got one employee, he says. "That's 600 guys in their bedrooms," he says. "I would like to see some of these 600 software developers become part of the team."

SYNERGY BUSINESS SOLUTIONS

* Founded 17 years ago.

* Software for the automotive industry.

* Based in Christchurch.

* 1600 clients throughout New Zealand.