Home Tags Smart 100

Tag: smart 100

Pink Stuff (SMART 100)

I couldn’t get my grout clean after my gorgeous Himalayan cat Dudley spilled his bloody roo meat. I tried all the cleaners on the market without success, so with a bit of nouse created my own.

Papyrus Australia (SMART 100)

Papyrus Australia founder Ramy Azer previously sold traditional papyrus in Europe and realised the demand for this environmentally-friendly paper was greater than supply. After completing a Mechanical Engineering degree in SA, Azer investigated alternative fibre resources readily available in Australia and various manufacturing processes. Following a detailed research and selection process, banana trunks were identified as an ideal choice. Papyrus’ pilot plant was established in Lonsdale, South Australia in April 2007. In February 2008, Papyrus established its first commercial manufacturing facility at Walkamin in Far North Queensland. In November 2009, Papyrus successfully began continuous production of its banana fibre products.

Invoiceplace (SMART 100)

Invoiceplace was born from the frustration of staying up late to create and send invoices. It was too much of a hassle and was something that ended up being put off, which is potentially disastrous for the cashflow of any business. This grew into a mission to provide a robust and professional online quoting and invoicing service, without being complex and intimidating. Invoiceplace is now used worldwide to help small business do what they do best and grow their business.

Last Chance Ads (SMART 100)

We saw businesses struggling to advertise themselves, unsure of where to start and lacking in time, money and media experience. We created a trusted marketplace matching available media space, both rate card bookings and ‘last minute’ deals, with those businesses wanting to purchase advertising. All types of media are available, including: TV, Radio, Newspapers, Magazines and Digital (online). We developed the Last Chance Ads marketplace to be: fast, easy to use, open 24/7, media company independent and offering businesses the opportunity to search, find and purchase - all in the one place via the web or mobile.

LEVESYS (SMART 100)

LEVESYS personnel were reflecting on development projects for annual software upgrades. Always aiming to deliver greater value to clients with each upgrade, we surveyed our clients to identify where they were experiencing costs and brainstormed ideas to lower these costs. The concept of Perspectives was born and we knew we were onto something as the idea grew and evolved and the benefits to our clients became more evident as did our enthusiasm for the project as an organisation.

LightSpeed Terrain (SMART 100)

After re-working our older Avian terrain system we have come up with some new innovations to make it even better. The largest set of enhancements are in the reduction of the file size; we have cut our existing engine’s file size in half, making larger worlds for games more possible.

Mailing Lists Online (SMART 100)

Lauren noticed many SME enquiries did not convert to sales in her traditional list-broking business due to the high cost and large volume of data required for minimum order standards. Automating the supply process through mailinglists.com.au eliminated associated labour expenses and brought the minimum order value down from $1,500 to $29.95, thus creating a new business model opening the market to SMEs to finally access mailing lists in an affordable, timely and self-directed manner.

Nudge (SMART 100)

...cofounders Marita Cheng and Mark Parncutt heard about the Melbourne University Entrepreneur’s Challenge. While only in their first three months of university, they vowed to come up with an idea and enter. A few weeks later, Mark was hanging out with his friend, when she suddenly jumped up and exclaimed, ‘Drats! I forgot to take my antibiotics!’ Mark thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if she received a text message reminder on her mobile reminding her to take her medication?’ An idea for the challenge was born, and Marita and Mark took out first place in the Undergraduates Division of MUEC.

Making People Count (SMART 100)

A mortgage broker with a conscience realised that the reason MOST people need to borrow MORE money is because they don’t have a budget. Further research showed that not only have most people under 60 NEVER been taught how to set one up, but there was NObody that offered a service to coach and teach people this skill. Many times people are told to ‘do a budget first’ but there are very few people who actually KNOW how to start.

Pulse Heart Transportation System (SMART 100)

I conducted research into human organ donation, procurement and transplantation in Australia. The research identified the archaic methods used in organ preservation in transit and also identified the heart as the most time-critical organ in the transplantation process.

The Loop (SMART 100)

My business partner, Matt, and I work at MTV, Matt in Digital and me in Marketing. The idea for The Loop was born out of my frustration in finding fresh creative talent - we were overly dependent on word of mouth and incredible people were slipping through the net. On the flip side, Matt, being the digital guy, was constantly being asked by other creatives for advice on the best way to build their own websites to showcase their work online and promote themselves to potential employers. We brought these two frustrations together and The Loop was born.

Hungry Giant (SMART 100)

I was working in a bulky goods retail store in 2005. I noticed the huge amount of white polystyrene foam that was going into the bin - and ultimately ending up in landfills. I thought, ‘There must be a better way to recycle’... so I started looking, only to find drop-off locations which not only charged, but you also had to drop it off to them! I looked elsewhere, to no avail. That was when I realized that the cost of disposal was because it weighed nothing, and took up lots of space. That’s how the HG machine was born.

Paycycle – Small Business Online Payroll (SMART 100)

Stuart was managing Contract1, a Contractor Management company. He was extremely experienced in payroll and all the software solutions available at the time, and found himself continually frustrated at the lack of attention to detail and the appalling user interfaces. If there was a way to make the job of a payroll person more difficult, they would have found it. About the same time, Xero entered Australia and declared that they wouldn’t be offering a payroll solution with their product. That was the epiphany moment. Stuart had lunch with John (his former boss at AusAID), and Paycycle was born.

Octyl (SMART 100)

We saw the need for Business to be able to access simple, clear web strategy consulting + planning, and thence order 'best of breed' related site/s and systems, for a low cost (less than half that of traditional processes), get it fast, and then access ongoing support and an ever expanding library of member's only 'how-to' content on Web Marketing (and anything that touches it), along with the usual 'how to use the system' type stuff and direct support. This is the advanced (revised) version of something I've been working on (albeit slowly) for 3.5 years.

Colour Accounting (SMART 100)

The two founders realised that they weren’t alone with their struggle to learn accounting, particularly so in the business world where financial illiteracy is rife. In Melbourne, in 1992, Mark and Peter started to design a new sort of financial literacy workshop for businesses. Further development ensued in South Africa and we went global in 2000 with a two-day financial literacy workshop. We continued to refine our unique learning system and today this same workshop takes about 5 hours. We have other products with e-versions underway and will launch the Colour Accounting learning system as a product this year.

modpod™ (SMART 100)

The innovation came to life when Modra Hayes was approached by a number of fly in/fly out miners to solve the quality of accommodation problem that existed in remote locations around Australia. Traditional mining accommodation was considered to be uncomfortable, dirty, and not aesthetically pleasing or attractive to live in. The modpod™'s use of composite fibre technology was specifically designed to redress the deficiencies of traditional mining dongas. Modra Hayes has also designed and is constructing a modpod™ Mass Production Facility (MPF) capable of producing one modpod™ or more per eight-hour shift.

modpod™ (SMART 100)

The innovation came to life when Modra Hayes was approached by a number of fly in/fly out miners to solve the quality of accommodation problem that existed in remote locations around Australia. Traditional mining accommodation was considered to be uncomfortable, dirty, and not aesthetically pleasing or attractive to live in. The modpod™'s use of composite fibre technology was specifically designed to redress the deficiencies of traditional mining dongas. Modra Hayes has also designed and is constructing a modpod™ Mass Production Facility (MPF) capable of producing one modpod™ or more per eight-hour shift.

myAnswers (SMART 100)

We discovered that the keywords we were using to deliver self-created (text) content could be treated as 'managed interaction objects'. Or in simple terms, keywords could be embellished with logic to allow a mobile user to perform fairly complex but identifiable tasks and functions, by effectively proxying a user of existing system interfaces. From this point it quickly developed where keywords come together to create an 'answerSpace'. The keywords provide structure to the browsing, enquiry and resulting information for users of mobile devices, to access common or high demand elements of an organisation's web and business systems.

Massive Rain (SMART 100)

I was watching TV and the subject was a Singaporean ship had become stacked on the beach at Caloundra Qld. To refloat the vessel two Chinook helicopters were used to take containers off the ship, some with a weight of over 7,000 kgs and out of the blue the following crossed my mind: "If a 7,000 kgs-plus container can be easily lifted by a Chinook, a water tank can be easily lifted as well...If the biggest fire chopper can lift only 6,000 litres or kilograms...Bingo! I got a new idea and long research begins."

Cardlimbo (SMART 100)

This innovation initially came to life when my business partner and I recognised that Australians had almost no flexibility when it came to the use of gift card vouchers. We soon discovered that the market was worth about $1b and that 1 in 3 cards were never redeemed, representing an incredible waste. We wanted to provide a service that gave people the option to use gift cards as they wanted to. A market study demonstrated that similar services existed in North America but not yet in Australia.
Subscribe to the Newsletter Over 30K subscribers

FREE BUSINESS TOOLS

FREE BUSINESS TOOL

INFOGRAPHICS

New Zealand’s Xero eyes US IPO, further disruption as subscribers increase...

Xero recently held its annual meeting in Wellington, during which the company revealed some interesting details about its future. As has been widely suspected, the...

OPINIONS & ADVICE