Trysoft lands big Indian alliance

IT services company Trysoft has forged a partnering agreement with India's Satyam to bid on large software development projects. Satyam has established software development centres in India, the US, Japan, Singapore and the UK and claims to have more than 150 Fortune 500 and multinational clients.

Graeme Robertson, managing director of Trysoft, said that the agreement with the Indian company would enhance Trysoft's capability and capacity. "Satyam is one of the few companies in the world with CMM Level 5 certification from the Software Engineering Institute," he explained. "Trysoft has a commitment to quality development methods and this partnering agreement allows us to offer a level of service to clients that, to date, no other Australian software development company has been able to claim."

Robertson added that he has already invited Satyam to look at two projects in the deregulated energy market on which Trysoft had reached the short list. "We are very excited by the opportunities this agreement will open up and the knowledge transfer that will benefit our staff and clients," he said.

Data Advantage forms Asian alliance

Data Advantage, which specialises in credit-related decision support services, has formed a joint venture with US company Trans Union International to provide an integrated package of credit bureau services, credit risk information processing and decision support services throughout the Asia/Pacific region. The new company, Trans Union Advantage, has identified more than 30 countries in the region as potential customers of its services.

David Grafton, CEO of Data Advantage, said that by combining Trans Union's credit bureau software and experience with Data Advantage's products and strong position in the region, the venture could create a powerful credit-referencing infrastructure for any country in the Asia/Pacific.

"Something like the economic crisis of the late 1990s could be avoided by the establishment of a credit reporting infrastructure which is able to assist in controlling levels of bad debt," Grafton claimed.

One.Tel forges ties with KPN

Australian telecommunications carrier One.Tel has agreed to join forces with Dutch mobile operator KPN Mobile to launch a mobile virtual network operation in the Netherlands. The network is due to begin operations in the first quarter of next with a range of "cool" offerings, including location-based services, personalised WAP services and information on demand.

"The Netherlands is a key market for One.Tel and we look forward to launching a mobile offering to our existing base, which is in excess of 450,000 registered customers," noted Raymond Schrama, a director of One.Tel.

One.Tel, coincidentally, has decided not to participate in the 2.1GHz (3G) spectrum auctions in Australia in January because it "does not require additional spectrum in Australia" and will not take place in a Swiss auction. The company further called for a delay in the Australian auction to ensure that the three dominant carriers will not gain from "the exploitation of the current weakness in the telco market".

Digital Now sets sights on China

Digital imaging specialist Digital Now has kicked off a three-year plan to enter the Chinese market through the development of partnerships in targeted cities and the release of Mandarin and Cantonese language versions of its professional and consumer products. The company has also established a business partnership with Jun Ming, which is a Chinese subsidiary of US company Color 2000.

"We believe there is a vast untapped market for photo-related consumer digital products in China and our technology will fill that need," claimed Steve Giordana, CEO of Digital Now. "We look forward to providing a significant photo-sharing experience and destination site to our Chinese customers through our native language Image CD and Internet offerings.

CorVu forms marketing alliance with IBM

CorVu, the Australian business performance management software developer that is listed on NASDAQ, has entered a marketing alliance with IBM. Under the terms of the deal IBM will market CorVu's Performance Management software in conjunction with its own data warehousing, analytical and business intelligence solutions.

"CorVu's reputation is well-earned as one of only six certified members of the worldwide Balance Scorecard collaborative program established by Kaplan & Norton," explained Peter Graham, business manager for data management software at IBM Australia/NZ.

Business briefs

South African giant Dimension Data has won the green light from the Australian Foreign Investment Review Board to purchase the 24 per cent of Com Tech it did not already own for about $US144 million in cash and shares. When the deal is completed David Shein, the founder of Com Tech, will become chairman of the business and Jon Shein will become managing director.

Volante Group has succeeded in its $A30 million takeover bid for AAG Technology Services, which will be funded by a share swap. AAG provides technical services through its Netbridge division, serves the procurement market through Applied Micro Systems, and operates the Affinity Contracting and Search IT recruitment company. The combined operation will have a staff of 500 and in the wake of the takeover Allan Brackin, CEO of AAG, will become managing director of Volante.

Listed venture capital fund IT Capital and entrepreneur Stephen Tindall have agreed to invest an additional $NZ5 million into New Zealand company Deep Video Imaging (DVI) over the next 12 months. DVI has developed a technology that is claimed to provide a 3D effect on LCD screens. IT Capital took a 40 per cent stake in the company early this year, equalling Tindall's stake, and both now hold 41.8 per cent of the Kiwi company.

Catuity, an ASX-listed developer of loyalty software for retailers and card issuers, has had its application for listing on the NASDAQ Small Cap Market approved. It will trade under the symbol CTTY and expects its shares to begin trading on NASDAQ before November 17.

NetComm has changed tack and selected Cisco Systems as the preferred supplier for the rollout of its national broadband network. Cisco will provide a suite of IP, DSL and network management technologies, along with a round of vendor finance to support the rollout.

Broadband products and services supplier Quadtel has formed a broadband internetworking division backed by three new distribution agreements with CacheFlow, Redback and Foundry. The new division will also market Alcatel's internetworking products.

Corporate quarters

Cable & Wireless Optus lifted net profit 43 per cent from $A107.3 million to $A153.8 million in the six months to September 30. Revenue for the half rose 24 per cent to $A2.343 billion on the strength of a 26 per cent growth in data and business revenue to $A858 million and a 31 per cent jump in consumer and multimedia revenue ($A501 million).

The hottest company of the week was undoubtedly Cisco Systems, which reported that first quarter sales rose 66 per cent from $US3.92 billion a year ago to $US6.52 billion. Net profit jumped from $US415 million in the previous first quarter to $US798 million. "We are very pleased with the solid balance across our major geographies, lines of business and product families," noted John Chambers, Cisco's CEO. The markets initially liked what they saw, although talk of high component inventories caused them to sell down the shares of some of Cisco's suppliers. Later they turned their focus back to Cisco and - despite its stellar performance -- marked its shares down as well.

In its fourth quarter to September 30 Mapinfo lifted revenue 28 per cent from $US21.2 million to $US27.0 million. Net profit grew 65 per cent from $US1.7 million to $US2.8 million.

Linux may be a hot topic, but that heat doesn't seem to be transferring too well to corporate performance of the specialist Linux players. VA Linux announced during the week that slower sales than expected to new customers in the dot-com sector have held its revenue below early forecasts. It now expects revenue for the first quarter to October 27 to rise just 10 per cent above the preceding quarter's figure of $US50.7 million, even though that will be about 275 per cent higher than the previous first quarter. The market was not impressed and took almost 40 per cent of VA Linux's share price.