Smart 100 2010

Melbourne physiotherapist Luke Goodwin wanted to continue to make a difference in the area of falls prevention in the community, aged care and hospital environments. Following on from his internationally successful GripSox product, the REDuce Falls Sox are special ‘red’-coloured GripSox that allow staff members in hospitals and aged care facilities to easily identify a patient who has been assessed as a high falls risk, and therefore is someone requiring extra supervision to help reduce the chance of a fall. The socks therefore provide both a non-slip effect as well as a very important visual identification.

Our business concept came to life when we had both permanently swapped our weekends for 20+ hours working as lifeguards. During this time we discovered that we had both studied Logistics, were passionate about business, technology and innovation, and hated the idea of working for someone else. We realised that we had complimentary skills. I have the tech/web knowledge; Michael has experience in the logistics industry, providing him with insider knowledge and many contacts. We knew that by working together we were in a unique position to innovate in an industry that wasn’t keeping pace with new technology.

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.

We developed this solution around Wincor Nixdorf's solution, however the EPA of South Australia requires that these machines pay end users cash at collection point. These Reverse Vending Machines will be used thru out the state of South Australia as a start. Recyclates are captured in a clean fashion and all empty plastics, cans, and bottles are recycled. Hence, a cleaner environment for people using this technology. The modern day "cash for cans".

This innovation initially came to life when a typically short snow season left the inventor thinking about how he could get the snowboard experience all year long. A love of extreme sport, a desire to ride a board off-road all year long and huge amount of ingenuity allowed the inventor to construct a proof of concept. It took 10 years from having the idea to riding the proof of concept in 2004. The outcome will be the best of skating / snowboarding / motoX all combined into one awesome electric powere off-road product.

AutoCarLog was created as a result of a challenge, a challenge to build a successful technology startup in just seven days and for less than $500. It was born from the need to modernise paperback vehicle mileage logbooks with a convenient, fast, environmentally friendly and tech based approach.

In 2008: the recognition of the reality of climate change by society, governments and forward-thinking businesses. For business, staff engagement and behavioural change are fundamental to the success of a large-scale change. Organisations have a need for sustainability education that can be delivered in a practical format, actively engaging the learner and encouraging behavioural and cultural change. Change2 is an off-the-shelf, scalable online solution, delivering interactive sustainability modules which can be accessed by all staff. It encourages further discussion and communication of sustainability practices within organisations and is supplied with online tools to facilitate ongoing behaviour change.

frustration as to the few Australian companies claiming R&D Tax Breaks led an R&D Tax Specialist (myself) with over a decade's experience to create a series of simple online tools to make the R&D Tax Claim process much easier and more worthwhile than is currently available. The goal is to get all the smart SMEs in Australia claiming what they are entitled to, without the need for hours reading tax legislation or expensive consulting fees. Currently only around 7000 companies in Australia claim R&D versus the 30% that claim to be innovative.

A sales manager asked his employers for fast information on other sales regions performance. In discussions with other people in other jobs, he noticed that every person wanted fast information without being bombarded with email, and the concept of SBI was born.

ImGreenPowered is a simple and easy way for individuals or organisations to minimize their impact on the environment in an overt way so that you the consumer can show others how green and responsible you are and how easy it can be for others to offset the negative environmental impact of an everyday product like a Mobile Phone or Laptop computer, a front-of-mind product most of us use every day.

Signmanager was born from an idea developed by directors Dan, Kris and Alan, who at the time were working for a sign manufacturer and saw a gap in the market for their idea: Signmanager. Signmanager acts as an independent consultant on behalf of major corporations to procure and manage their global branding requirements and the ongoing maintenance of their branded assets in the retail environment. Signmanager currently manage the corporate brands of more than 30 multinational corporations at over 40,000 retail outlets worldwide. Signmanager has offices in the Asia-Pacific region, UK and Europe, and the US.

I started my own financial planning firm in 2010, with insurance for tradesmen and women being our target market. Insurance for tradies is quite unique in that the minimum requirements are set by the various state and territory governments depending on the type of trade. As we started to field enquiries from tradies, we noted that many of them had no idea of their insurance responsibilities under the relevant laws. As we grew our own knowledge by doing research on our clients' behalf, we saw the opportunity to collate this information and create on online insurance resource for trade workers.

I developed an interactive touch-screen system for a food outlet that I owned. The aim of the system was to entertain my customers whilst they waited for their order. The system interleaved in-store advertising in between the ‘entertainmentʾ. My now business partner was a smallgoods representative that serviced the store. He saw the product and, seeing the possibilities, we quickly formed a partnership and collaborated over many years to develop the Q In-Store Advertising System with Now Serving module.

Business coaching is delivered 1-on-1 at a cost of $2000/month. Results vary and the industry is overrun by advisors that have little understanding of financials and no systems to track financial results. Many SMEs need help but cannot afford this type of coaching. IP represents a paradigm shift in the way that business coaching is provided - online, anytime and leveraged. It all comes down to the numbers and the numbers don’t lie. IP pinpoints pain and teaches owners how to improve their bottom line and cash flow. SMEs access the best coaching available at a fraction of the cost.

I realized that plants possess a powerful intelligence which they use to manipulate soil microbiology in order to feed and medicate themselves.

This innovation came to life after a discussion with a friend who owned an Ice manufacturing and distribution business in Adelaide. I noticed there was a blank space on one side of the bag and asked him why he didn't sell the space off to advertisers. We also discussed the vast opportunities due to his distribution network into all supermarkets and convenience stores. From this we looked at potential markets and agreed to trial the concept through his business.

Founders Sarah Taylor and Jeff Dusting realized how time consuming and unsatisfactory it was to locate, book, and pay for home, health and beauty services, and how few service providers had access to efficient low-cost online trading.

Someone mentioned to one of our team members that it would be great to have a central location for all planned works being conducted by councils, utilities and others to avoid them duplicating effort (after a roadway was dug up and resealed in his street for the second time in 3 months -- once by the Council and once by the water authority). A team was assembled and the business problem was identified before we started to think about what the business solution needed to look like.

Having worked on insurance claims as a carpenter, Brian Siemsen identified the need for a better way for insurers to conduct repairs. He was surprised at the attitude of tradespeople who would charge anything because it was an insurance job. He had heard of minor jobs taking as long as 180 days to complete. He believed these attitudes had developed due to the limited ability of insurers to monitor and quality control the repair work. So he set out to develop IntelBuild –- an online system that gives insurers the power to monitor each job, regardless of where it is.

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.