Company Profiles - eB2Bcom
eB2Bcom |
| User frustration with inflexible, rigid electronic directories has been a global opportunity for a dynamic Melbourne company that specialises in 'searching and matching' technology. |
| http://www.eb2bcom.com/ |
The story so far |
| In 1996 Bob White and business partner Andrew Ferguson formed eB2Bcom after seeing an opportunity to source and distribute software from specialist overseas suppliers not represented in Australia and South-East Asia. In 2000 they were joined by David Rolls, a former Telstra executive. Together they built a highly reputable company, focusing on the emerging areas of data security, identity and access management, e-mobility, and specialist solutions for the defence, police, security and intelligence sectors. In 2004 eB2Bcom purchased the rights to the Australian-developed View500 and XED enterprise directory technology and has now 'reversed their supply chain' with exports to a number of countries. eB2Bcom develops, distributes and supports these products globally. eB2Bcom's Chief Executive Officer, Bob White, said View500 has world-leading technology differentiation, particularly in the searching and matching of data. They also boast the functionality to combine this with identity storage and access control to provide a 'source of truth' for enterprises struggling with multiple data repositories. "The need for governments, businesses and individuals to have access to rapid, flexible and accurate searching capabilities for their own systems is widespread and growing quickly. An electronic identity data hub and directory such as View500 offers an optimised, rapidly searchable database, designed specifically for this purpose." eB2Bcom currently has staff across Australia in Melbourne, Sydney, Canberra, and Brisbane. They are also represented in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, with partners in Hong Kong and the UK. |
Reaching new markets |
| eB2Bcom has built its business around providing best-of-breed technologies from around the world which complement its market offerings, particularly for government, defence, police, intelligence, banking and the finance and telecommunications sectors. The company also resells a range of local and international software to partners in Australia and South-East Asia. Major clients include the Australian Government, several state and territory governments, the Australian Defence Force, Orica, Singapore Defence, Qantas, NCR and AXA. "Our customers and partners are seeking high quality, reliable software, which is what we can offer – including Australian products developed in Melbourne," said White. The benefits of eB2Bcom being a small, flexible organisation has significant benefits for customers claimed Mr White. “Recently a defence software supplier in the UK wanted to embed some of our software into their own product for an overall security solution. However, they ran across a problem with their product during integration, which they estimated would take two to three months to fix. One of our people worked on it around the clock and had it working within two or three days.” Another major client of eB2Bcom is the Australian Defence Force, which uses a protocol called ACP133 to link in with other allied defence forces including the United States, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. "When a new version of the eB2Bcom software came out recently, the Australian Defence Force was the first to implement it as a result of our support. We were also able to point out and fix a few problems and inconsistencies with the new standard." |
Why Melbourne, Australia? |
| All of eB2Bcom's research and development takes place in Melbourne and the company has no plans to take this offshore. "Although our R&D requires specialist skills, we have been able to find staff here. A lot of people are attracted to Melbourne for its lifestyle and multicultural community." Another advantage of Melbourne, according to Mr White, is the commercial orientation of the city’s major tertiary institutions. "They are very good at encouraging cooperation with the private sector and placing skilled people within a commercial environment. We're working with a number of universities on some very exciting new projects." One of these projects, with Deakin University, is focused on a new telecommunications billing system, which will synchronise various data sources to create a more accurate, secure and easily updatable directory. |
The future |
| eB2Bcom is about to release a brand new product for storing, accessing and searching high security data, designed to supersede the View500. The new product will incorporate international standard XML into directory protocols and include a range of access controls to determine who can gain access to data and under what circumstances. The product is being built in Victoria. "This product will further extend our lead in the area of 'intelligent' search ability. It will allow for approximate matches in terms of spelling. For example, when searching for the surname Smith with an 'i', the software will also come up with Smith with a 'y' or with an 'e' on the end, and grade the results accordingly," explained Mr White. Another emerging technology that eB2Bcom are working on is a data storage solution for Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), which is expected to replace existing barcode technology in supermarkets and other retail outlets over the next two to five years. eB2Bcom is working with a range of Victorian partners on linking its existing data storage and verification technology with RFID technology. |
