KEY POINTS:
An Auckland software start-up has become a multimillion dollar exporter in a year, winning international orders for its latest product before it is finished.
Optima Corporation builds software using mathematical algorithms to analyse the resource allocation of an organisation and suggest how to improve it.
It claims Air New Zealand saved $15 million by using Optima software to manage its aircraft and crew.
Overseas emergency services are using a similar Optima system, Siren (simulation for improved response for emergency networks), to plan their coverage of cities with ambulances and paramedics, even consulting the software when planning the placement of new ambulance centres.
Optima won a $1.3 million deal in Denmark for its Siren Predict software, and has done other deals in Britain and Australia. It has pre-orders for a newer product, Siren Live, in Australia and Canada.
Siren Live shares information between dispatch centres and ambulance drivers, giving an up-to-date picture of where emergency services should be directed. The aim is to improve the response time of ambulances.
"When ambulances get called out, it gives a view of how well the city is left covered," said Optima's chief operating officer, Andrew Goldie.
"This can't be done on the back of an envelope - it's not run-of-the-mill business software."
However the software, which is used in the call and dispatch centres run by emergency services, works on standard Windows computers and uses Microsoft's SQL Server database software.
Goldie said Optima was on track to generate revenue of $4.5 million by the end of the financial year, up from $3 million in the current period.
Key to the development of Siren has been a $500,000 Foundation for Research, Science and Technology grant awarded to Optima.
The money, which Optima's investors had to match, went into securing staff and external consulting services from transport logistics experts in Denmark and also from the University of Auckland.
Goldie said the grant was critical in getting Siren commercialised and in picking up international contracts.
"I don't know if we could have done it without it. The tax break model is irrelevant, unless you're making a profit," he said.
Optima now has 18 staff and is still recruiting developers, but is finding it hard to get the people it needs.
"That's our biggest barrier to growth at the moment," said Goldie.
Optima was formed in 1998 as a consultancy by a group of University of Auckland maths research students and lecturers.
Its products grew out of the Icehouse incubator in Auckland. It secured $1 million in venture capital funding from a group called the Ice Angels who are associated with the incubator.
Goldie said that investment would be "back in the bank" by the end of the year.
Optima may seek further Government funding as it moves to a new stage of product development that expands Sirens prospects.
While focused on ambulance services at the moment, Goldie said the software could easily be adapted for fire services. Police operations were not as easy to handle.
"The police are more difficult because they have broadcast dispatch," he said.
Optima's major new project was to develop software to manage the resources of larger hospitals - surgeons, nurses and doctors, operating systems and equipment.
Goldie hopes to leverage off the networks other health software providers such as Orion Health have built up in markets such as North America.
