Every Friday we’ll profile a prominent figure from Australia’s IT, telecommunications or video gaming industries in the Friday Five.

Most people in the IT industry know Rob Forsyth as the calm managing director under control at security firm Sophos. But things have also gotten a bit wild in some of his other roles — for example, with the Sydney Organising Committee for the Olympic Games. Forsyth’s our guest this week for the Friday Five.

1. What was your first job ever?

At AMP as an assistant working in the punch card (computer) department.

2. What do you most like about working in Australia’s technology industry?

Technology is ever evolving and IT executives can play a big part in helping societies meet human challenges through innovative technology.

3. What’s your hobby?

My three biggest passions outside of work are my family, rugby and cooking. I try to spend as much time as I can with my family and I’ve always enjoyed playing and watching rugby. In a previous life, I also used to own a seafood restaurant and I try to cook whenever I can find the time.

4. What can Australia do better to help grow a great technology sector?

Technology is causing changes in our society at a faster rate than any other time in human history. Australians can provide leadership, in creating both technical solutions and new social guidelines that will allow other communities to leverage our best practice.

5. What/who has been the biggest inspiration in your career?

The Olympic experience was a real career highlight and the leadership shown by Sandy Hollway (CEO) was great — very calm under fire and just a terrific person to work with.

Image credit: Sophos

TransACT started deploying its fibre-optic network around Canberra and Queanbeyan in 2001 to deliver pay TV, telephony and Internet access.

More recently, the company has been offering FTTP in certain areas with download speeds ranging from 10Mbps to 100Mbps at prices starting at $A84.95 per month including phone and TV.

FTTP service is available in the suburbs of Bonner, Crace, Forde and Franklin, and TransACT has now connected 1000 customers.

"We are thrilled to reach this significant milestone, the customer feedback is terrific and many people are surprised to know that TransACT started its FTTP network long before the government's National Broadband Network," said CEO Ivan Slavich.

The company is contracted to provide FTTP services to over 11,000 customers in greenfield sites across the ACT, including Forde, Franklin, Bonner, Crace, the Flemington Road corridor, Forde North and Springbank Rise. Additional new developments are planned.

The network is continuing to grow - see page 2.

TransACT is building a second FTTP gateway that should be operational by the end of the year to serve the growing number of customers.

"TransACT is the only company building a FTTP network in Canberra, growing and expanding the network as Canberra grows," said Slavich.

Australian e-health giant iSOFT late yesterday revealed the full extent of the drastic action it will take in an attempt to halt its sliding financial fortunes, confirming plans to lay off 800 staff, constituting 17 percent of its total workforce, over the next financial year.

On Wednesday the company’s chief executive Gary Cohen (pictured) stepped down in the face of disastrous annual results over the past year that have seen revenues shrink. At the time iSOFT said it was planning to reduce staff numbers this year.

But sources said the company had already gone through two rounds of layoffs over the past year — one in November last year, and one in July. Late yesterday a company spokesperson confirmed those rounds had already seen 290 iSOFT staff lose their jobs, and a further 800 more would go over the next year — more than 17 percent of the company’s total global workforce of around 4,500.

A cursory search of business social networking site LinkedIn revealed a plethora of iSOFT staff who had recently left the company to join other firms such as Telstra and Microsoft, although it was not immediately clear which ones had been laid off and which had resigned.

iSOFT’s problems can be traced back to several issues.

Currency translation problems associated with the value of the Australian dollar (73 percent of iSOFT’s revenues over the past year were generated in pounds and Euro) affected the company’s Australian reporting. But a decline in revenue has been suffered from the company’s massive contract with the UK National Health Service, and its growth projections have also been reduced in most markets.

However, it’s not all bad news for the company — this week it maintained its core business remained healthy. And the Australian Financial Review reported yesterday that analyst firm BBY had cited Oracle, IBM and Microsoft as potential acquirers of the company.

iSOFT’s share price has suffered due to its problems. Currently it is at 13c — 1c above its 52-week low. It has ranged as high as 92c in that period.

Image credit: Delimiter screenshot of iSOFT promotional video, believed to be covered under fair use

A definitive agreement between HP and 3PAR will see the utility storage supplier become part of the world's largest technology company. Dell was also looking to acquire 3PAR, but HP's $US33 per share offer - valuing the company at $US2.34 billion - clinched the deal.

Dell's original bid for 3PAR was $US18 per share at a time when the market price was below $US10. After HP became involved, that ratcheted up to $US32 before HP's $US33 offer closed the sale.

The acquisition should be completed by the end of the year.

"As part of HP, 3PAR's agile, efficient storage solutions will truly thrive, particularly given HP's ability to accelerate investment in our products and reach new customers around the world," said David Scott, president and chief executive officer at 3PAR.

"3PAR has built a reputation for delivering enterprises and cloud computing service providers the ability to do more with less. HP's global reach, strong routes to market and our shared culture of innovation will allow even more organisations to experience the transformative value of 3PAR's technology," he added.

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Scott joined 3PAR as president and CEO from HP, where he was general manager of the XP enterprise storage business.

Dave Donatelli, HP's executive vice president and general manager, enterprise servers, storage and networking, said "HP and 3PAR is a winning combination that will accelerate HP's converged infrastructure strategy and bolster our ability to provide customers with the industry's highest levels of performance, efficiency and reliability."

3PAR describes its products as highly virtualised, dynamically tiered, multi-tenant storage arrays built for public and private cloud computing. Technologies such as thin provisioning (the on-demand physical allocation of storage space to a server that 'thinks' it already has a volume of a certain fixed capacity) are used to reduce power consumption and the total cost of ownership.

US-headquartered cloud software player RightNow Technologies has picked up a contract to provide fledgling wireless player vividwireless with its web-based customer relationship management software.

Seven Group subsidiary vividwireless, which formed from the shell of Unwired, is currently rolling out its WiMAX wireless broadband network in most capital cities around the nation, with an initial Perth deployment having been bedded down.

RightNow outed the relationship in a statement this morning, stating the wireless telco was already using its web-based software to provide customer support to those who had signed up in Perth, Sydney and Melbourne.

“The system’s scalability and cloud-based architecture means it will easily flex to meet the company’s growth plans as it pushes into other metropolitan areas,” the company said.

vividwireless chief executive Martin Mercer said his company needed a CRM system that would integrate with existing customers, scale over time as required and be easy to use — for both customers and staff.

“In among those criteria was the very real need to get a better handle on the voice of the customer, understanding what they need from us, where we could be doing better and where we’re doing well,” he said. “RightNow’s ability to offer all of that through a single system was a critical selection point because now we’re able to gain visibility into customer trends and make better informed business decision on the back of the data.”

The move represents the latest high-profile client that RightNow has picked up in Australia over the past few years. In August 2009 the company revealed it had won a contract to provide insurance giant IAG with software for its online-only insurance division The Buzz. Several years before that it was Qantas’ low-cost arm Jetstar who had inked a deal with RightNow.

Like its bigger brother and rival Salesforce.com, RightNow specialises in delivering its software online, embedding various online customer contact points — telephone, web, email and chat, for example — in the same software.

RightNow’s Asia-Pacific vice president Brett Waters said his company was delighted to be working with vividwireless, which he described as being at the forefront of the next generation of internet technologies.

Image credit: Adam Jakubiak, royalty free

They have formed the Alliance for Affordable Broadband and have issued a 'Manifest' proposing, under the moniker, NBN 3.0, an approach broadly in line with Coalition policy, saying: "We believe the argument for a national fibre-only NBN solution has failed to convince.

"For the short to medium term we see, globally, no demonstrated mass requirement for the 'up to 1Gbps' speeds to homes and SOHO. Instead, we see the greatest priority is giving broadband to those who don't have any, not faster broadband to those that have."

The alliance members are BigAir CEO, Jason Ashton; AAPT CEO, Paul Broad; EFTel CEO, John Lane; Pipe Networks founder, Bevan Slattery; Vocus CEO, James Spenceley' Polyfone (a microwave network operator) CEO, Paul Wallace and Allegro Networks (a wireless network operator similar to BigAir) CEO David Waldie.

The have aimed the manifest squarely at the independent MPs saying "We believe that a well-informed Independent member of parliament might wisely favour an NBNv3 public/private model on a mix of technologies, with deliverables within a term, over a more costly and more risky 8+ year NBN 2.0 rollout."

They are strongly advocating a '4G' wireless network, saying "In Australia, you might expect to cover 98 percent of our 22 million people who occupy a much smaller portion of the landmass than is the case in the US for $3 billion or less with a large part of this delivered by private investment. We believe further research should be undertaken on such a proposal."

Key points from the manifest are:
- the Federal government's primary role is setting policy frameworks that incentivises markets to build network infrastructure;

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- infrastructure based competition - not infrastructure monopolies with retail competition - is the pathway to deliver affordable broadband with a great customer experience;

- a competitive National Fibre Backhaul Network (NFBN) platform is critical to the development of broadband in Australia;

- the case for '100Mbps to Gbps' connectivity to schools, hospitals and businesses is convincing for both current need and future productivity gains;
- it is important for government and industry to create a sustainable, affordable and socially responsible 'fibre future' strategy;

- the government still holds or has access to the best telecommunications infrastructure asset in Australia being the spectrum capable of carrying a national ubiquitous 4G network able to deliver up to 100Mbps to 98 percent of Australians. This spectrum is a nationally significant asset;

The say that next generation 4G technologies "are the best fit for purpose for the vast majority of consumers and SOHO clients currently without other broadband delivery options. This technology combined with the spectrum (above) is capable of delivering a ubiquitous, integrated national broadband baseline network and is the most affordable deployment technology able to be rapidly deployed throughout Australia within a single term of Government."

They conclude by saying: "We believe a public/private model should be explored for NBNv3, which, where practical or endeavours to include and recognise the existing investments of competitive fibre and wireless operators, and incentivises markets to solve the problem.

"For example, in wireless, consider offering the 4G spectrum asset with the obligation to build a national wholesale only 4G network, delivering 100Mbps over say 98 percent of Australia, and to start and finish within a term of government, with government incentives where the build is uneconomic.

Under this proposal, existing 3G operators and spectrum holders would be free to continue to exploit their asset, and compete, without the burden of national carrier and universal service obligations, and with the benefit of reach on the national wholesale 4G network.

The long-time chief executive of troubled e-health giant iSOFT, Gary Cohen, has resigned without a statement and is refusing to take calls from the press, in the face of disastrous annual results over the past year that have seen revenues shrink.

Cohen’s resignation was revealed today as part of the company’s annual financial results for the year to 30 June, in which it revealed revenues were down 20 percent to $431 million over the previous year, and earnings before interest, depreciation and taxation down 77 percent to $30 million. iSOFT has commenced an in-depth review into its operations as a result.

“As part of the review, iSOFT chief executive officer Gary Cohen has agreed to step aside as CEO to focus on assisting the board in the evaluation of strategic options for the company,” a statement issued by the company said today.

Subsequent to the statement, a company spokesperson refused to make Cohen available for comment — or his deputy, chief operating officer Andrea Fiumicelli, who will take his place temporarily while a permanent replacement is found.

A call to Cohen’s personal mobile rang out.

However, the executive won’t be far from iSOFT’s heart, despite his move to step down. Cohen will remain an executive director at iSOFT and has agreed to remain on with the company to assist with its review and ongoing strategic development.

“His experience and knowledge of the specialised sector internationally will be invaluable as we begin the search for a new chief executive who will drive the company forward in this next phase of its evolution,” said iSOFT chairman Robert Moran.

The finances
At the heart of iSOFT’s financial problems are several factors. Firstly, as the results briefing statement makes clear, currency problems are plaguing the e-health giant.

In the past financial year, for example, 73 percent of iSOFT’s revenues were generated in pounds and Euro, with the conversion to Australian dollars leaving the company worse off due to an up to 25 percent appreciation of Australia’s currency in that time at its peak.

“iSOFT suffered an adverse impact on its reported revenue of around $109 million against the prior year,” the company’s statement said.

However, iSOFT also suffered a real-world decline in revenue (when measured on what the company calls a “constant currency basis”) of around $30 million — which it said was mostly attributable to delays in the implementation of the UK National Health Service’s National Programme for IT flagship e-health project.

The NHS contract was one of the reasons that then-IBA Health bought fellow e-health giant iSOFT several years ago, rebranding since under the iSOFT moniker. But the massive project has proven to be a millstone around the company’s neck at various stages.

iSOFT is also suffering further problems.

“As a result of the more subdued economic environment in iSOFT’s markets, the company has reduced its internal projections for growth in Central Europe, [the] Middle East and Africa, South East Asia and Australia,” the statement said.

To rectify its problems iSOFT has already targeted operational cost savings of $50 million by the end of June 2011 — with staff cuts planned. It will streamline its product portfolio, reorient business development and research and development, restructure its debt facilities and is considering asset disposals and new board appointments.

“Notwithstanding these discussions and the strategic review, the core business of the company remains healthy,” iSOFT’s statement said today.

Image credit: Delimiter screenshot of iSOFT promotional video, believed to be covered under fair use

Huawei claims to have built the network "in record time" saying: "The entire deployment, including the physical construction of 2 core network buildings and the 20 greenfields base station sites, was completed in under 12 weeks."

Bemobile should be pleased but appears to have been dragging its heels. It was required to have the service operating with 25 percent population coverage by 18 June, according to loal newspaper, Solomon Star, and was fined $US1.5m for failing to meet that deadline.

The paper also reported telecommunications commissioner Nicholas Williams, saying he had given Bemobile an extension until 30 August and would impose a further $US1.0m penalty if that deadline was not met. According to Huawei's press release Bemobile missed it by a day.

Bemobile was named in December 2009 to operate the second network in competition to incumbent, Our Telekom. Islands Business reported at the time that the unknown Bemobile - a subsidiary of Telikom PNG - had been picked for the 15 year licence over two others one of which was Digicel - a well established player with mobile operations in many small developing nation markets.

When it won the licence Bemobile was not even a registered business in the Solomon Islands. "Business registration is a pre-requisite. It is a legal requirement. Any foreign company wanting to conduct any type of business in Solomon Islands must first register with the Foreign Investment Board," one official told the Solomon Star.

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IAccording to Solomon Star, "Bemobile's shareholding includes superannuation funds NASFUND, Nambawan Super Limited and the PNG Sustainable Development Programme Ltd hold with a 15 percent interest. Telikom PNG Ltd holds a 50 percent interest in the company, while GEMS and Trilogy International Partners hold the remaining 35 percent."

n a later report Islands Business quoted Bemobile CEO, Julien Coustaury, saying the company hoped to have 25,000 customers by the end of 2010 and promising 80 percent coverage within 21 months of launching.

Islands Business observed that this was "a tall order in a country where land issues are nothing short of frustration and procrastination."

That was not all Bemobile had to contend with. Huawei reported finding a cache of unexploded ordinance from WWII within 400m of a network switch location. It comprised six rocket-propelled grenades, two hand grenades, 65mm missiles and a 2,000 pound bomb.

According to Huawei, the network was built using an energy-efficient Huawei solution set to save Bemobile hundreds of thousands of dollars in opex costs per year. The network is using DC generators rather than the notoriously unreliable Solomon Islands' grid and Huawei claims that this will reduce the opex costs by some SBD$80,000 ($A11,000) per site, per year.

Huawei acted as the end-to-end network supplier for the network which comprises 20 Huawei DBS-3900 base stations, 18 Huawei microwave backhaul hubs, and two core network sites containing Huawei's Radio network controller (RNC) and value-added services hosts.

According to Citrix, the acquisition of VMLogix makes it easy for cloud providers to offer infrastructure services from pre-production and quality assurance, to staging, deployment and business continuity.

And, Klaus Oestermann, group VP and GM, networking and cloud product group at Citrix said “the new enhancements raise the bar in cloud interoperability, scalability and self-service – further extending the company’s leadership position as the most widely deployed provider of virtualisation and networking solutions for the open cloud.

Citix announced overnight that its acquisition of VMLogix is expected to close in the third quarter of 2010, subject to the satisfaction of closing conditions, adding that it will also allow it to add an “intuitive, self-service interface to its popular XenServer virtualization platform – a key component of its OpenCloud framework – and which it says enables end users to access and manage their own virtual computing resources in on-premise private cloud environments, much like they set up virtual services in large public clouds like Amazon or Rackspace today.

Citrix says its plans to expand its OpenCloud platform include enhanced networking and interoperability capabilities, with the new additions providing the ability for customers to seamlessly manage a mix of public and private cloud workloads from a single management console, even if they span across a variety of different cloud providers.  All of the enhancements will be available to the more than 600 service providers worldwide who are now certified to deliver services based on the Citrix OpenCloud platform.

Oestermann says Citrix believes in “providing choice as a fundamental driver for enterprises and cloud providers to truly drive cloud economics,” and he adds, “this isn’t about giving customers the ability to buy the same offering from multiple sources – it’s about providing them the opportunity to choose from a wide variety of cloud services designed around an open framework that encourages both innovation and interoperability while optimising cost. With the expanded capabilities of the OpenCloud platform for lifecycle management, cloud interoperability and cloud networking, we are further delivering on our core belief to provide true choice for our customers.”

All Earth Group director of administration and finance, Heidi Dauth, said the company assessed in detail all available offerings from more than half a dozen providers, and that the TransLogix sapphire suite was selected as “it was the only one that could do what we needed across ERP, transport, accounts and personnel.”

“We had considered building our own system but the risks were too great and TransLogix offered us the security of a well proven product. Because we don’t do simple A-to-B transporting, Sapphire was the only solution that met the quirks of each business unit and brought them together for our accounting purposes.”

Operating a waste transfer station in Perth's eastern suburbs, All Earth Group receives and recycles more than 70 percent of inert and green waste into construction, civil and landscaping products. All Earth recycles more than 70 percent of that waste.

According to Dauth, the company’s set of spreadsheets and basic accounting package had worked very well, “but we’d outgrown them. It was time to replace many with one automated and fully integrated system. We needed to know we had integrity in the data we were relying on, we needed better reporting and to reduce revenue leakage.

Dauth said the group identified that maintenance of the old system, which relied on two key individuals, could be easily jeopardised and opened the business to a high degree of risk: “If we’d ‘eaten the same salmon’ we would have been in deep trouble. As an enterprise owner, your competitive advantage is in your business model and in today’s environment you must embrace technology to leverage that advantage. But you can’t rely on software to create ideas or your differentiators. We needed an IT partner to meet our business, not make us fit them.”

TransLogix CEO, Anselm Waterfield, said All Earth Group was an excellent example of what can be achieved ‘out of the box’ from the “deep functionality and high degree of flexibility available from Sapphire. Now the core modules are bedded down providing one version of the truth across the business, we look forward to deploying more ‘smarts’ to drive further efficiencies and help All Earth build its competitive advantage.”