Where Ideas Find A Home
The Age
Wednesday November 18, 1998
IN the 1980s, former university student Michael Dell walked into an information and technology incubator in Austin, Texas. He needed help to float an idea for a computer business.
Today, Dell is a billionaire and his company, Dell Computer, is among the top five sellers of personal computers in the world. It goes to prove, in IT all that is needed is a chance to promote a good idea.
For Alex Braunegg and his two university mates, the Greenhill Enterprise Centre (GEC) gives them the chance. Braunegg, 23, Shaun D'Amico, 20, and Steven Caddy, 19, are computer science students at the University of Ballarat who aspire to rapid success for their 3D animation production company, Motion Sickness.
``Based on what we've seen in the market either on television or (in the) print media, with all the 3D media out there at the moment, I'd say as a group we're easily in the top 10. Within five years we hope to be at the top if we can get started," Mr Braunegg said.
The manager of GEC, Ms Sue Jenkins, said the role of the incubator was - as the name suggests - to nurture micro-businesses in the formative years. The intention is for the businesses to stay in the incubator for a maximum of three years then relocate to an office in the University of Ballarat technology park.
The $3.5 million centre, located in the 29-hectare park, has been operating for nearly a year. The GEC is more than half-full, with the people working from the building jumping from 15 to 50 since January.
Ms Jenkins said the centre was integral to the vision promoted in the city's business plan - Ballarat IT 2010. The strategy devised in the early 1990s aims to develop Ballarat as a centre for information technology.
She said the university had played a leading role in developing IT in the region by providing graduates and in managing the park, which is expected to be fully developed within five years.
The executive director of Business Ballarat, Mr David Miller, said regional centres were not disadvantaged by isolation and IT was seen as a potentially major employer.
Ms Jenkins said IT was a global industry and she had been approached by several international delegations inquiring about the technology park.
``We've got to get over the idea that we've only got a small community therefore we've got a small market - that's rubbish these days," Ms Jenkins said.
Internet communications provider Net Connect, which is not associated with the incubator, said companies of all sizes in Ballarat had an international focus. Net Connect, which is also based in Bendigo, provides Internet time to remote areas via satellite.
The company has a facility in America but has also received interest from companies in Japan, Singapore and Africa.
Mr Fong said IT companies often benefited from being based in a regional centre because lateral thinking and innovative solutions were needed to overcome distance from metropolitan areas.
Ms Jenkins said the incubator must develop contacts with large companies such as IBM Global Services, also located on the park, so that the centre would be considered a viable location to base special projects.
The GEC would provide office space and assistance for the projects. The company would retain control of projects but would work with incubator management and occupants.
The incubator would also provide an incentive for graduates to stay. It is said the 6.20am train to Melbourne is full of IT professionals heading to work in Melbourne.
However, Ms Jenkins said the daily exodus could be stopped if students had jobs when they graduated. The centre would therefore encourage more students to follow the lead of Motion Sickness and another two students who had established a micro-business website development company.
Ms Jenkins aimed to have a number of student projects working in the same office - helping and learning from each other.
``And the beauty about that (students setting up companies) is that they are IT students. We're not losing them to the eastern seaboard, so as well as growing the wealth of the region we're keeping the youth and the enthusiasm here," she said.
To set up in the centre applicants must complete a business plan, which Ms Jenkins then examines to judge the viability. A 50-square-metre office can be rented for $5140 a year, which includes utilities.
Financial advice and contacts are provided especially to student companies or those branching into new areas, but Ms Jenkins also steers the occupants to their business advisers when she spots potential problems.
The three partners of Motion Sickness approached the GEC after ``a year of banging our heads on the wall and having no success trying to do it ourselves," Mr Braunegg said. After impressing Ms Jenkins with the idea, they then convinced her of its worth by submitting a viable business plan.
Their biggest success came when the Channel 7 police drama Blue Heelers asked them to produce a picture for an episode, which is yet to air. They are attempting to raise funds to upgrade equipment and set up in an incubator office as they are currently sharing space.
The intelligent systems provider Oztrak is the centre's star tenant. The company, formed in 1995, is expanding rapidly on the strength of its work in global positioning systems.
The Royal Automobile Club of Victoria is working with Oztrack to develop a GPS satellite tracking system where a member can communicate directly with the service centre by pressing a panic button if the car breaks down.
The RACV can then locate the vehicle and deploy the required assistance. Oztrak is developing a similar system with the equivalent body in Germany.
It also has developed telemetry units that can read remote units via mobile networks, which several power organisations use to read home meters.
The company is not part of the incubator but rents space from the centre. It spent the first three years in an incubator-style environment within the university's engineering school before moving to the centre.
The Oztrack sales and marketing consultant Ms Heidi Jarvis said even though the company had progressed beyond an incubator stage, it worked closely with a number of the occupants.
The Oztrack chief executive officer Mr John Russell said the university had been a big driver in the company's growth. Oztrack now employs about 30 people, including at an office in Germany.
Ms Jenkins said the incubator would continue to play an important role in Ballarat's drive towards 2010 and beyond. Her door is always open to people's business ideas.
After all, who knows when the next Michael Dell will walk into the office with a wonderful concept?
© 1998 The Age
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