News: 6 November 07
When it pays to know everything

Four innovative companies have been awarded Technology Commendations by the Foundation? for Research, Science and Technology in recognition of outstanding achievement in designing and applying cutting-edge technology.

• Endace Limited (Auckland) – for its world leading network traffic monitoring technology
• Optima Corporation (Auckland) – for software systems that maximise use of staff and resources
• ZyGEM Corporation (Hamilton) – for its smart DNA extraction technology
• Fronde Anywhere (Wellington) – for its mobile banking, payment and two factor authentication technology.

The Technology Commendation Awards, now in their ninth year, were established to publicly recognise companies that have developed or applied new technology that has grown their business and benefited New Zealand. So far 28 companies have received the prestigious award.

Winners are entitled to use a special "mark of excellence" to promote their product or service and receive a trophy and certificate, which is presented at the New Zealand Export Awards being held in Auckland tomorrow night (Thursday 15 November).

Foundation Chief Executive Murray Bain says this year’s Technology Commendation winners demonstrate New Zealand’s depth of innovation and creativity and show how New Zealand companies can succeed globally using their intellectual property to target niche opportunities.

"A number of this year’s Technology Commendation recipients are commercialising cutting edge research carried out in New Zealand over many years, showing how our science system can help achieve New Zealand’s economic transformation goals.

"It is also notable that the winners come from the information and communication technology and biotech sectors, two areas identified by the government as having potential to transform the New Zealand economy."

Mr Bain says companies honoured with a Technology Commendation serve as role models to other businesses.

"They show how New Zealand companies can successfully sell their innovative solutions in market niches offshore."

The judges for this year were Nevil Gibson from National Business Review, Carol Lee Andersen from Women In Technology, Hans Frauenlob from New Zealand Trade and Enterprise and Tony Price, the founder of Procam which consults to the high technology sector.

More about the winners:

Endace Limited
In just seven years, Endace Limited has grown from a University of Waikato spin out company into a world leader in high speed network monitoring solutions.

The company’s technology provides the means to monitor the security, integrity and performance of communications networks by capturing, inspecting and reporting every single packet of data and passing it to numerous Endace and 3rd party software applications for further analysis.

Endace’s competitive edge comes from the superior performance of its technology on the biggest volume and fastest networks in the world, where network monitoring, latency measurement and acceleration of security applications is paramount.

Endace initially provided the core card of a monitoring system but is now moving up the value chain, delivering a range of optimised, manageable and secure appliances that can capture packets on networks up to a rate of 40 Gigabits per second (40Gbps).

Called Endace NinjaProbe™, this new family of appliances is the world’s first monitoring system capable of seeing every communication flowing on a network operating at the fastest speeds ever deployed.

Endace was able to design and deliver the first product in the new range in just eight months, shipping its first NinjaProbe™ appliances to one of the largest telecommunications service providers in the US in April this year, filling an order worth in excess of US$2 million. The deal saw Endace become joint winner of the Auckland Export Deal of the Year for 2007.

Endace CEO Mike Riley says moving into selling entire monitoring systems is pivotal for the company’s growth. “It means the Endace brand is now associated with the complete solution, earns more of the overall deal value and means our customers are able to deploy their solutions faster and more efficiently – it’s a win win situation."

Endace is a global business with offices in the UK, the US and Singapore and sells its products in over 30 countries, with the US accounting for around 60 percent of sales during the 2007 financial year. Its research and development staff are based mainly in Hamilton and the company has a head office and growing development team in Auckland. In 2005, the company listed on the AIM (alternative investment market) of the London Stock Exchange (LSE/AIM:EDA), and its current market value is in excess of NZ$180 million.

Mr Riley says Endace has been a global business from day one, exporting practically all of what it makes. "That overseas experience is a key to our success. It’ not scary to go offshore for us – it’s essential and that mindset has helped us succeed."

Judges in the Technology Commendations for 2007 described Endace as a company going from strength to strength as it continues to invest in clever technology. They applauded Endace’s clear commitment to research and development and to listening to what its customers want.

Optima Corporation
Software technology that is helping ambulances around the world find the quickest route to emergencies is being adapted for the international hospital environment and could potentially earn New Zealand’s Optima Corporation revenues of up to $20 million within five years.

The high growth Auckland-based company is confident of securing deals with ambulance services covering more than half the United Kingdom before the end of this year and is already pushing into the United States and Canadian markets.

It is barely two years since Optima began commercialising its Siren (Simulation for Improved Response for Emergency Networks) products which were developed in conjunction with the University of Auckland.

Optima Chairman David Clarke says the company’s technology dramatically reduces business running costs by providing software systems that revolutionise organisational planning.

The software contains complex mathematical algorithms that accurately model the real world. Siren Predict is used as a planning tool for decision making and planning. Siren Live schedules resources, providing real time data and continuing analysis to ensure the best possible deployment decisions are made.

New research, part funded by the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology, is developing Optima’s technology for use in hospitals to assign resources such as surgeons, operating theatres and equipment. It has the potential to save millions of dollars in health sectors.

Other potential customers being eyed by Optima include fire services and airlines. An Optima project for Air New Zealand has resulted in multi-million dollar savings through more efficient use and placement of planes and crew.

Siren software is currently being used in Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom and Denmark. The company has doubled its staff in the past two years and has established a sales base in the United States and is recruiting staff in the UK.

Mr Clarke says exporting has positively impacted on every facet of Optima’s business and research and development plays a key role in the company’s future growth.

Optima remains a privately held company although it received capital investment from investment facilitator Ice Angels and other investors in 2005 which, Mr Clarke says, is a relationship that has provided valuable business expertise.

Judges of the Technology Commendations for 2007 say the Optima case is a successful example of commercialising technology coming out of university research. Optima maintains a close relationship with the Department of Engineering Science at the University of Auckland.

ZyGEM Corporation
ZyGEM Corporation’s fast, simple and effective technology for taking DNA from tissue is being heralded as a breakthrough for the global DNA extraction market, with the company poised for major growth in the next few years.

Developed over 20 years of research at Waikato and Auckland universities, ZyGEM’s technology is based on micro-organisms and fungi isolated from extreme temperature locations, including the cold deserts of Antarctica? and the boiling mud pools of New Zealand.

These have been used to develop a range of patented reagents including products to extract human DNA from crime scene samples and others that extract DNA from clinical samples and animals.

ZyGEMZ’s reagents can extract DNA from smaller samples, three times faster and at much lower cost than other, existing technologies. The technology is unique in that extraction takes place in a single, closed tube, reducing the risk of sample contamination and possible staff or operator infection.

Selling ZyGEM’s products globally is the focus for newly appointed CEO Paul Kinnon, who is headquartered in San Diego in the United States. "We’ve had excellent success in New Zealand and plan expanding by developing the significant opportunities we have in overseas markets, and building a global business."

In New Zealand, Livestock Improvement Corporation (LIC) was ZyGEM’s first customer with the company’s animal DNA extraction products being used to determine the lineage of thousands of dairy cows, beef, sheep and deer each year. ZyGEM is also collaborating with crown research institute ESR to use its products for forensic DNA extraction.

ZyGEM is continuing intensive research and development to produce a portfolio of reagents that target other sectors including the veterinary industry, clinical applications such as infectious diseases and the development of biofuels.

Originally called PacificGEM Limited, ZyGEM was formed in 2004 and quickly attracted significant investment, including financial backing from private equity firm Endeavour Capital. It has a market capitalisation of over NZ$13 million.

The 2007 Technology Commendation judges described ZyGEM as having huge potential for growth with innovative technology that had a broad range of future applications.

Fronde Anywhere
The success of Fronde Anywhere’s mobile multi-factor authentication technology is gaining the company a raft of global partnerships and international customers.

The technology forms part of a broader offering of mobile banking and payments solutions for retail banks and the wider financial services industry.

The New Zealand company expects to generate more than NZ$2.6 million in foreign exchange earnings in its first year of operation as a spin out company from Fronde Systems Group (formerly Synergy).

Fronde Anywhere’s most recent success is based on its TwoSecure™ product, a multi factor authentication solution that provides additional user identity verification security by including a one time password (OTP) to validate log-ins or transactions. The OTP is generated via an application that is downloaded to, and runs on a mobile device.

TwoSecure™ provides additional security for online banking log-ins and transactions and is suited to organisations requiring secure remote access to data and emails by staff. Key attributes of TwoSecure™ include the protection against key logging, phishing and ‘man-in-the-middle’ attacks, as well as being cost effective to distribute and easy for customers to use.

A major focus for the company this year has been on building strategic partnerships. One of its most significant new signings this year is with British technology firm LogicaCMG, as it gives Fronde Anywhere global reach into the United Kingdom, Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

An exclusive partnership has also been signed with RSSS in South Africa, where credit card fraud and identity theft is on the increase. The objective is to roll the Fronde Anywhere technology out across all South African banks to enable the generation of the secure passwords at the point of sale for input into an EFTPOS terminal. This would replace the need for customers to remember private PIN numbers and provide greater fraud prevention. An agreement with United States software security firm CC Pace will see Fronde Anywhere services being used there.

Products and Marketing Director Caroline Dewe says the strategic partnerships are playing an important role in securing major deals throughout the world.

Production deployments for Fronde Anywhere’s TwoSecure™ technology are running in France, UK and South Africa and the product is about to be piloted with a large financial institution in Germany after passing a technical proof of concept evaluation.

Caroline Dewe says Fronde Anywhere had already proven its innovation and ability to specialise in emerging technologies, having developed the world leading mobile parking solution TXT-a-Park, and mobile banking technologies that enable person-to-person payments.

Technology Commendation judges described Fronde Anywhere’s technology as innovative and elegantly marrying the security needs of banks with the needs of customers using mobile phone devices.