TechnologyOne wins major contract with energy company

Peter Dinham
Tuesday, 22 September 2009 18:42

IT Industry - Deals

TechnologyOne has secured a $750,000 contract to supply listed-Australian geothermal energy company, Geodynamics, with a fully integrated suite of software solutions that will be deployed by the company to assist the management of its rapid growth and to achieve its business objectives.

Brisbane-based Geodynamics says its rapid expansion has necessitated a review of all systems, with the company’s workforce quadrupling, and with its physical assets growing in number.

To cope with the developments, Geodynamics had has signed a contract for TechnologyOne Financials, Works & Assets, Human Resource & Payroll and Project Management solutions, and says it will use the software to better manage its budgets, sites, staff and projects.

Earlier this year, Geodynamics announced ‘Proof of Concept’ after successfully demonstrating the ability to extract heat from hydraulically stimulated hot fractured rocks to create power, with one cubic kilometre of hot granite at 250 degrees centigrade having the stored energy equivalent of 40 million barrels of oil, but without producing greenhouse gases.

According to Geodynamics, achieving this proof of concept was a significant prerequisite for the
company’s application for $90 million of funding from the Federal Government’s Renewable Energy Demonstration Program, and it says the next step is to power Innamincka, a small town in the north-east of South Australia, using the geothermal energy, after which it plans to build Australia’s first commercial scale geothermal power plant.

TechnologyOne executive xhairman, Adrian Di Marco, said the company  also works with a number of mining companies, including coal companies Jellinbah Resources in Queensland, Mitsui Coal Holdings and Felix Resources, oil company Magellan Petroleum, and distributors Reliance Petroleum, Westoil, Inland Petroleum (BP Lymna) and Dermody Petroleum.

According to Di Marco, Geodynamics cited the usability and the intuitiveness of the TechnologyOne’s product as a big part of their decision but said the “deciding factor was the Human Resources & Payroll, in particular pointing to its Occupational Health and Safety (OH&S) capabilities.”

Di Marco says utilities, resource and mining industries have strict OH&S responsibilities, requiring staff to have certain qualifications and undergo ongoing training, and that the TechnologyOne product can be configured to alert users to these requirements and monitor when they’re due for renewal.

“The Works & Assets product was another selling point for Geodynamics due to the customer’s growing need to manage multiple projects and assets such as plant, warehouses and heavy equipment. In addition to a range of other features, the solution monitors the life cycles of equipment, and will enable Geodynamics to budget for maintenance and replacement costs.”

Di Marco also said that even though the downturn had affected Australia’s energy and resource industries as China’s appetite for resources diminished, this was not affecting all suppliers.

“We are seeing traditional mining companies taking the opportunity to get processes in place now the pace has slowed slightly, while alternative energy companies like Geodynamics Limited are benefiting from the Federal Government’s support and will only get bigger in the coming years.”