ComOps cloud to tackle worker management and safety

Beverley Head
Wednesday, 21 April 2010 16:57

IT Industry - Listed Tech

Australian listed software company ComOps has introduced a software as a service (SaaS) version of its workforce management system, Microster, aimed at the SME sector which will cost companies $20 per employee per month to deploy.

Organisations grappling with the changes wrought by the introduction of Fair Work Australia are key sales targets for the organisation according to Sharon Lowry, ComOps' head of workforce management sales. She said that because the system had been developed using a 'building block approach and is not hard coded' it could be updated quickly either by ComOps and delivered as SaaS, or by user organisations who had access to the code building blocks in order to make changes required by new legislation or regulations.

The company is also planning to offer a SaaS version of its occupational health and safety focussed system Salvus within the next three months. Again this will be targeted at smaller organisations, as the product has previously been sold direct into larger enterprises.

ComOps today announced that Perisher Ski Resort had bought Salvus, which will go live by the end of the month, in good time for the start of this year's snow season.

Speaking at the announcement of the new ComOps SaaS options today, Allan Lally, manager of strategic health and safety for the Queensland Department of Public Works, which has been using Salvus over the last three years said that the tool was now being credited with reducing workplace injury by 30 per cent over the last three years. This had led to 1,000 fewer days a year being lost to illness or injury.

He said that the statutory costs associated with workers compensation payments had also 'decreased this year for the first time in a long time.'

The other thing which decreased this year was ComOps' revenues, which dropped 1 per cent during 2009 as the global financial crisis took hold, according to managing director Richard Bradley. This he said had led to companies deferring purchases.

According to the company's annual report which was released this week the revenue for the year to the end of December reached $17.5 million. Net profit after tax meanwhile plunged 61 per cent to $970,000.

Bradley said today however that he was confident of growth this year. Some of that may well come from a continued acquisition programme as Bradley said 'I have half a dozen (potential acquisitions) on my desk now that I am actively looking at.'