Smart 100 2012

We were working with clients on their strategies. We continually heard them (and many other companies) say: We are actually quite good at developing strategy but we are lousy at implementation. We need something that will keep us disciplined. At that point, we realised that a strategy implementation tool was greatly needed by companies to help them keep on track with the execution of their plans.

Our co-founder swore off using expensive recruitment agencies in his (50-person) business forever. He began a mission to slash the cost and time it took him to recruit new employees. He initially found a contract recruiter who would charge him an hourly rate. He could outsource the process, but save 90% compared to an agency. Then his friends started asking for her details. There was demand for this model!

Yellowfin’s new application aims to differentiate the company from the dryness and complexity of other BI vendors by delivering a consumer-oriented mobile application for business analytics. Why? Because analyst firm Gartner states that ease-of-use is now the most important factor in any BI solution, but TDWI research shows that user adoption rates – the number of people within an organisation who actually use BI software on a regular basis to help make business decisions – are low.

Clients were unable to select from a promotional flash drive product that best suited their particular needs. In our quest to provide clients with a product that meets their needs specifically, we expanded the capability of our team members to include custom tooling as well as design capabilities to create a flash drive that can be customised in shape.

The breakthrough came when a power box metering system, coupled with a modem, was designed and tested that could reliably send data to Smart Energy Groups' website, enabling an online dashboard to monitor, analyse and report power being used 24/7 by a customer's equipment, lighting and electrical appliances. Field tests proved this world-first could deliver what it promised: the opportunity to discover where and when power is being used, which enables business owners and householders to start saving up to 30% on the power bills.

Innogence was repeatedly asked to develop solutions for customers that ensured the data on which they were reporting was accurate and up to date. With the explosion of data volumes and the speed increases in which data can now be accessed it was increasingly critical that the data was accurate. Upon developing a solution that appeared to have a significant need by organisations, Innogence developed the solution into a product that can be rapidly implemented to meet organisations' needs.

We were working with a new water-enhancing technology and discovered it also had an effect on the structure of other liquids. This research led to early trials on the effect of putting diesel fuel through the same enhancing process. The far-reaching implications of improving engine efficiency and reducing pollution from diesel fuel were game-changing and so Biotechnix Australia was formed in partnership with the technology inventors.

After several years designing and consulting on retail technology, touch interfaces and cloud platforms, Chris was frustrated that many great innovations are inaccessible to businesses due to high cost of entry. Chris had some experience in the online travel space and partnered with Dan, a car rental technologist with extensive supplier-side experience. Together they created Carcloud, providing touch-screen kiosks and mobile solutions to the car rental industry for a low ongoing cost.

BoomVox was born to help businesses engage their customers positively. Our first product, BoomVox Amplify, is a mobile application brands use at events to capture genuine customer excitement and spread it online. It’s live, and has demonstrated tremendous impact for attractions and events like the Peats Ridge Festival and the Australian Museum.

Founders and experienced personal trainers Dwayne Ebert and Tom Hose set out to create a system for personal trainers that leveraged mobile technology. Their creation, PT Manager Pro, provides the framework for personal trainers to better manage their clients than they ever could before. Personal trainers can now track, manage and store all their client data anywhere and have it accessible anytime and on any device.

We realised our Australian software for doctors and patients could easily be used by doctors and patients all over the world, and in the process help to solve the world’s biggest health problems! We know our software for patients helps the two-thirds of patients who need treatment but don’t receive it, and we know that doctors using our software could treat up to five more patients a day if they use the software. We wanted to take our service to the world, and do so for free.

One average 24-year-old man from the western suburbs of Melbourne was moving to a new home and given the challenge of refurnishing his parents' entire home with a small budget of $5,000. At the time he was living at home with his parents and was sick and tired of coming home to uncoordinated colours and uncoordinated pieces of furniture. He took this opportunity from his parents and was determined to have designer pieces of furniture at an affordable price but found nothing. Interior Secrets was born.

The purpose Campaign Social is to give creative and media agencies, as well as corporations and organisations, the ability to develop their own promotions and campaigns on Facebook. It does this by offering a cloud-based digital platform, allowing users to build their own Facebook campaigns, without needing technical knowledge (i.e. coding).

Diesel Laws noticed the YouTube community sharing opinions below videos that didn't necessarily relate to the video itself. This prompted research into whether or not the video itself was actually needed to encourage opinions. The problem however, was that there was no platform at the time for honest opinions and discussions to be accepted and encouraged. After a few variations of the Barkles platform, Diesel teamed up with Jay Whiting to build the "side-by-side debating service" that exists today.

Despite the lack of data management, businesses have come to depend on data for core operations and the cost of this data not being accessible in a timely fashion can be staggering. Virtual DBA came to life to meet the day-to-day challenges of availability, performance and administration of an organisation's critical Microsoft SQL Server databases.

After fitting yet another misaligned rigid waste shower tray I went home and did some serious drinking and thinking. Why doesn't anybody make an adjustable shower tray, I pondered? Well now they can.

Thirdi Property completed a small development in the regional centre of Orange in NSW. The development consisted of 12 townhouses and all were sold to investors not located in Orange (some lived on the other side of Australia). To help with the task of updating clients, Thirdi created an online project management area where clients could log in and get video updates, site images, invoices and documents. We now have 60+ properties on this platform.

We built a cloud-based online training platform to give the experience of being guided through social media platforms in real time. This was technically difficult, since we wanted users to experience the real technologies, not a video reproduction. After a lot of trial and error, we had it: an online training software with a video guide and an interactive window. We took it to clients, but they wanted the software, not the course.

We saw that government was responding to social media risks by shutting down and adding bureaucratic approval processes that destroy the conversational spirit of services like Twitter. When we heard they had a Twitter committee that would meet once a week to approve tweets we knew we had to do something. Our idea was to add a simple time delay to social media updates, just like a live TV broadcast.

The ability to optimise the power grid and manage peak loads through accessing stored solar energy sources has the potential to save utilities, commercial and residential customers billions of dollars.