news A 19-year-old Australian developer, Zac Altman has successfully launched an online service for taxi users in Australia focusing on mobile bookings, thrusting himself into an industry worth hundreds of millions of dollars per year.

According to a statement issued by Altman’s company, Taxi Pro, this week, the developer learnt iPhone development in his free time in high school. Taxi Pro was conceived and developed by him while he was in his final year. He was then awarded a scholarship to the University of technology Sydney. His iPhone application attracted over 40,000 users even before it was formally advertised, predominantly by word of mouth.

Taxi Pro released its Android application on 17 December 2011. This won Altman the second place in the Optus’ Unleash Your App competition that invited entries from all over the country. The prize included $1000 in cash and a Samsung Galaxy S II Android smartphone. Apple has featured the application a number of times and it is very popular because of its simplicity. Users in Sydney can book a taxi within 5 seconds, making it one of Sydney’s fastest and most simple taxi booking service.

At present Taxi Pro supports taxi networks in places like Sydney and Adelaide but not in Melbourne, Perth and Brisbane. Efforts are on to cover all these cities and more.

The service allows users to make their bookings through various cab networks like Premier Cabs, Taxis Combined and Legion Cabs, seeing its main competitor as CabCharge. This is the largest taxi conglomerate whose services extend internationally to Singapore.

There are many other booking networks that keep cropping up and attempting to make taxi booking simple and reliable. However, according to Altman, this is not as easy as it sounds, requiring a perfect balance in the complicated two-way relationship between the taxi driver and the application itself. Altman’s approach towards taxi booking is to directly connect with the networks while allowing them full control over fulfilling their bookings. This, he says, provides Taxi Pro users with the best booking experience.

Altman says: “Taxi Pro allows users to book taxis, plain and simple. Users don’t need excess features like a taxi whistle or data-heavy maps. They just want to get a taxi and that’s what I care about. You can buy users with advertising but to keep them, you need to provide a great experience. Users keep coming back to Taxi Pro because I provide the best experience.”

The developer says there have been offers to purchase the Taxi Pro application. However, so far he has declined these offers, saying that he prefers to continue nurturing Taxi Pro and working to maintain its popularity in Australia.

opinion/analysis
Great to see a young guy like Altman getting up an app like Taxi Pro and making something of his own straight from high school. It looks like Altman’s part of UTS’ Bachelor of Information Technology scholarship program. I was part of a similar program when I was at the University of NSW back a decade ago, and at that stage there were quite a few people in the program who were getting their own IT businesses off the ground even while they were still students. I think it’s safe to say I wasn’t as savvy back then, or else Delimiter would be a decade old by now ;)

It will be interesting to see what Altman does next; if he’s developed and commercialised Taxi Pro in such a short time, I expect big things from the developer over the next few years.

More pics of Taxi Pro, on iPhone and Android:

Image credits: Taxi Pro. Opinion/analysis by Renai LeMay

new The NSW Government has taken another step in meeting its commitment to put development of the state’s technology sector at the front of its priority list, announcing today the formation of a taskforce that would help form a ten-year action plan to develop the state’s digital economy.

The state has previously announced the taskforce will be chaired by IBM Australia director of research and development Gelnn Wightwick. However, in a statement released yesterday, the state’s Deputy Premier Andrew Stoner announced a further eight members of the taskforce.

Some — such as Telstra executive Deena Shiff, Ausgrid executive general manager Peter Birk, CSIRO information services group executive Alex Zelinsky and Foxtel chief information officer Robyn Elliott, come from large organisations and work in technology-focused roles. However, others come from startup groups or early stage companies working in the technology sector. Examples of such participants include Freelancer.com chief executive Matt Barrie, Omnilab’s Tom Kennedy, The Project Factory’s Jennifer Wilson and OneVentures managing director Michelle Deaker.

“The Digital Economy Industry Action Plan will provide a strategic long-term vision for our digital economy, including regional perspectives, to identify and harness future growth opportunities while addressing identified challenges,” said Stoner — also the state’s minister for trade and investment.

“The Digital Economy Industry Action Plan will focus on subsectors expected to support long-term productivity and innovation growth, and export opportunities including digital content and applications, information services and analytics, and smart networks and intelligent technologies.”

The taskforce will seek wider industry and public input into the development of its plan through a number of avenues — such as forums, consultations, a formal request for submissions and through its web site and social media.

Associated with this week’s announcement, Stoner also announced the Government would allocate $3 million over two years towards an Interactive Media Fund to support creative digital content — including electronic games and transmedia projects. The move follows on from a May announcement regarding funding for 20 creative digital content projects.

“We’re also increasing the amount of enterprise funding available under the Interactive Media Fund from $100,000 to $250,000 to better help expanding companies bring in specialist skills to work across complex projects,” said Stoner.

The Deputy Premier made the announcement at the NSW Pearcey Entrepreneur of the Year awards, which went to Simon Poole and Steve Frisken from Finisar Australia — a manufacturer of switches for optical communications networks. “These individuals are contributing to a dynamic and strong digital economy which will be essential for driving our state’s economic growth into the future,” said Stoner. “The NSW Government is committed to growing our digital economy.”

opinion/analysis
I love what the NSW Government is doing right now to support the development of the technology sector in its state, and I support its moves to do so.

However, I do feel that most of those appointed to this taskforce probably aren’t really experts in the field. The large organisations represented on the panel — IBM, Telstra, Foxtel and the CSIRO — are not regarded as being at the forefront of innovation, at the moment — and they don’t have a huge amount of expertise dealing with startups. Before you say the CSIRO does, remember the organisation specialises in long-term R+D, not the rapid innovation that Australia’s ‘digital economy’ is going through.

And yes, Telstra and IBM, I know you do innovate, but you’re the dominant forces in your industry. You innovate in a horribly large and big corporate way. You get results, through throwing money at projects ;)

Of the smaller companies represented on the panel, a number of people have pointed out to me recently that Freelancer.com primarily makes its money from skimming off the top of the cheap overseas labor force, while the other companies don’t have a large name for innovation in Australia. I’m sure OneVentures’ Deaker knows what she’s on about, but I’m not so sure about the rest.

My gut tells me that most of the really innovative forces in Australia — say, the boys from Pollenizer and the Atlassian team, or on the financial side, Domenic Carosa — probably have better things to do right now then get involved in a government committee in what has historically been one of the most stodgy states in Australia. It’s from this bunch of people that I’m seeing the most innovation emerge in Australia right now … but I’m sure they’re busy with their own projects ;)

Image credit: Dane Munro, royalty free

blog When blockbuster cross-platform video game L.A. Noire was released last month, many Australians got a wee bit patriotic and teary as we realised the game was substantially put together by Australian development house Team Bondi, as the nation’s biggest ever and most successful video game project.

However, since that time, a series of troubling allegations have emerged. A number of former developers have put together what they have described as a “complete” credits list detailing over 100 developers who worked on the game but were not given kudos in its actual credits — due to the fact that they left Team Bondi, either by choice, or through being fired or made redundant. And late last week, a new bombshell arrived: A detailed, tell-all, old-fashioned investigative journalism piece on IGN chronicling the history of L.A. Noire’s development.

Perhaps one of the harshest paragraphs from the story:

“Another source who left the company in 2008 called his experience at Team Bondi the biggest disappointment of his life. “I left because of stress and working conditions, mainly. But the trigger was this: I received a reprimand for ‘conduct and punctuality’ for being 15 minutes late to work. I arrived at 9:15am – despite the fact I had only left work around 3:15am the same day, and paid for my own taxi home! I never would have thought you could put a sweat shop in the Sydney CBD.”

Freelance journalist Andrew McMillen, who is based in Brisbane, put together the article and has posted some background on his personal blog.

Now, there are obviously two sides to every story, and we’re not going to pretend that the sort of troubled development history that Team Bondi looks to have gone through with L.A. Noire is unusual in the fast-moving video games industry. One need only mention the name ‘Duke Nukem Forever’ to realise what we’re discussing here … an industry with constantly developing technology, artists confined within tough corporate strictures, moving development targets and so on. It’s a tough gig, and there’s no doubt about it.

However, if the story is to be believed, it does seem that Team Bondi could have done more to look after its staff, as well as putting more governance controls around what is, after all, a massive, lengthy and expensive endeavour. In all large technology development efforts, good governance and professionalism are always core … and the key is to keep ego on the sidelines.

Image credit: Rockstar Games/L.A. Noire

Over the past few years, the term “information technology” has appeared to become increasingly out of vogue within the Federal Government, with Australia’s IT sector having to divide its attentions between the communications and innovation portfolios when it came to pushing the cause for its own industry development.

The elevation of Kevin Rudd’s Labor team in November 2007 brought a new term to the table — “the digital economy”. And it’s one that has become increasingly prevalent in the debate about how Australia’s technology sector might grow stronger, especially as Labor pushes its case that its flagship National Broadband Network project will have a broad productivity effect on the wider economy.

“The digital economy will ultimately encompass the entire economy and almost all facets of our society and the Gillard Government is ensuring it has the infrastructure in place to take advantage of the opportunities it will present,” said Communications Minister Stephen Conroy last week as he announced a partnership with chip giant Intel on the NBN.

The pot has also been stirred further by Conroy’s appointment to advise Prime Minister Julia Gillard directly on how the implementation of the NBN can boost the entire economy.

But is it dangerous to view the development of Australia’s entire technology sector through the lens of the infrastructure-based NBN? Following last week’s announcement, we asked two innovative technology companies — one big and one small — what they thought.

“I hope not,” says Intel Australia chief Philip Cronin, speaking from Melbourne in an interview.

Cronin’s view is that the NBN is a stepping stone to greater things for Australia — he claims that the infrastructure rollout would not just deliver fast broadband, but that it could also act as a lure for foreign investors to help kickstart Australia’s technology sector.

“You have to have a reason to attract capital investment,” he says. Part of the MoU with the Government is that Intel’s capital arm will look at opportunities to invest in Australia. Intel invested $37 million in local wireless telco Unwired in August 2005 — but is not known to have made a substantial investment in an Australian company since that time.

Cronin says he wants to get Intel’s capital investment team to Australia on a regular basis to investigate opportunities — “based here, if possible”. “If you’re venture capital guy sitting wherever, we’ve got to give them a reason to look at Australia. Let’s get on with that job of giving them reasons,” he says.

The chip executive compares the potential development curve of Australia’s technology sector to that of the successful film industry, which has been able to attract blockbusters like The Matrix to Australia for filming and production, for example.

The NBN — and Intel’s partnership with the project — is about taking the reins, Cronin says: “If you’ve got a leadership position, you’d better get out and lead.”

For example, one aspect of Intel’s NBN partnership will see it experiment with the new telecommunications capability to see what new possibilities will open up through universal fibre access. Cronin says those lessons can then highlighted to the world as examples of Australian innovation.

“Part of what we’re trying to say is that there is a lot of stuff to happen now,” he says, noting Intel wanted to look at what were the real benefits across a number of different areas of industry and life.

Mick Liubinskas, the co-founder of Australian startup incubator Pollenizer — which has grown like a weed over the past few years and co-founded more than 15 online companies — is broadly positive about Labor’s project, but says the difficulty with putting all of your eggs in the basket of the NBN is the lag factor.

“We’ve got to build the NBN — roll it out — and get people used to using it. Then the supply will come,” he says.

In short, Liubinskas says, it will take NBN Co a while to actually build the NBN — more than half a decade to achieve any significant scale. And then it will also take a while for Australians to work out what they can do with the fibre and start to build new business models around universal fast broadband.

“Businesssses are always in advance trying these things, but in depth it takes a while,” he says.

Liubinskas — like Cronin — believes part of the path forward to develop Australia’s technology sector into an innovative powerhouse is to attract more capital to fuel the growth of fledgling technology ventures. However, where the pair differ is that Liubinskas wants that money now — because he can see businesses that could use it productively.

Pollenizer sees about 20 startups a month that only require between $10,000 and $500,000 to get them off the ground, he says. But the Government’s tax incentive schemes aren’t geared to motivate investors to fund that size of company.

There is a capital structure — the Early Stage Venture Capital Limited Partnership (ESVCLP) which does help investors investing larger amounts — higher than $500,000. And there are at least two known funds already using that structure to target venture capital investment in Australia — the Sydney Angels Side-Car fund which recently launched, and another group in Melbourne called Aurelius Digital. Another group led by online veteran Domenic Carosa is also targeting early stage investment through a separate structure.

But Liubinskas says this doesn’t help the minnows — who need much less money than most of the funds want to dole out.

To solve this problem, Pollenizer itself has pledged to invest in 10 web startups this year. And a number of other angel investors are pooling their resources in a new seed fund dubbed ‘Startmate’.

But the startup veteran says the Government should make those kind of early stage ‘angel’ investments tax-deductible — that way, Australians would stop parking their money in “olive trees and macadamia” nuts and fund technology startups instead.

Taking this sort of action could accelerate the industry’s growth as part of the NBN vision. “If you want to grease the tracks a little bit, you need to make some changes to the investment environment,” he says.

Image credit: Michal Ufniak, royalty free

Every Monday we’ll profile an Australian startup from the technology, telecommunications or video gaming sector. Drop us a line if you would like to have your company profiled.

Matt Clarke (pictured) was working for a large financial services company which had decided to take development of a new application in-house when he first met Radek Cerny, the software engineer who would become the other half of the founding team behind Australian startup expanz.

Clarke, now expanz’s CEO, knew he had met someone special when Radek Cerny, after being hired as the project’s first developer, built the entire application by himself in six weeks flat.

“At that point Matt asked him how the hell he managed that, and from there the idea to start a business using the application platform he had built up over the last decade took shape,” the company says in a statement responding to our questions about its formation.

The key to understanding expanz’s technical foundation is contained in the programming experience.

Over many years of application development, Cerny had realised that a high proportion of development time was taken up with re-creating common functions. In response, the company says, he created an extensive class library and code palette that he used in his projects. After Microsoft released its flagship .NET platform in 2002, the developer foresaw its future growth and ported his platform over from Sun’s Java.

The platform — which launched with expanz in May 2008 — introduces what the company calls an “assembly line approach” to .NET development. Applications are simply assembled from pre-fabricated components and can be deployed on a customer’s premises or in the cloud.

Although the pair had put together a business plan to build expanz from the ground up, it was never going to be an easy process.

For example, although the company is funded with the founder’s own money and some angel capital, their business plan didn’t have much scope to make money in the first 12 to 24 months. “It was all about investing in the business,” says Clarke.

Fortunately, expanz was able to bring a foundation customer on board who paid for the company to build it an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system — knowing that it would also entail building out expanz’s wider offering.

“He was able to accept it wasn’t a finished product,” says Clarke.

Even from that point it wasn’t plain sailing. The company had challenges picking up the high-level enterprise customers it needed.

“The thing that we’ve had the biggest challenge with, is because we’re targeting the high-end customers, is the risk thing,” says Clarke. “They’ve fallen in love with the technology. But they say: ‘How do I buy the technology from a couple of guys in Manly?!’”

“They’ve fallen in love with the technology. But they say: ‘How do I buy the technology from a couple of guys in Manly?!’” — Matt Clarke

To get around this problem, expanz had to sacrifice a few things, including revenue and margin, in the short term. But in the long term, a handful of customers willing to take a risk on the firm have now morphed into converts helping to win new business.

If you were to say where expanz is right now as a company, you’d probably say it is ready to take the next step. It now has six staff, is about to launch a free community version of its platform in February, and is partnering with major global tech giants like Logica and VMWare and telco and hosting partners like MelbourneIT to gain scale.

Logica, for example, is using expanz’s platform to re-build a core system involved in the next state elections in NSW.

The company makes money in three ways — through selling platform licences, through professional and support services, and through selling software as a service subscriptions to its expanzERP platform.

But expanz is also staying true to its roots. Its staff work out of a Sydney office near Manly Beach. “RIght this moment a beautiful 2.5 foot swell is rolling outside,” says Clarke. “The nature of startups is that you have to get your hands dirty. But we’re pretty flexible about lifestyle and families.”

As with many smaller companies, for expanz’s staff it’s more about output than time spent on the job, about getting lots of stuff done rather than having staff siloed into one little area.

Ultimately the company would be happy if it was mentioned in the same sentence with other software houses with their roots Down Under, like Atlassian and Springsource, which was recently acquired by VMWare. Proving you can build a great global business from Australia.

Sounds very much like the Australian dream.

Image credit: expanz