m-net: Miles Valentine, CEO of Zeacom Ltd

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Christopher Ford
8 years ago
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1 m-net: Miles Valentine, CEO of Zeacom Ltd Zeacom Communications Center (ZCC) is the company's flagship unified communications product. It was developed for contact centres of 10 to 250 seats. ZCC is also designed to manage Unified Communications within a single environment of up to 2500 users by offering one solution for all communication needs. Presence, unified messaging, desktop telephony and mobility functions allow individuals to manage their communications from one package. Market share "Unified Communications unifies daily coms," says Valentine. "It brings them all into one application that sits on the desktop." "Unified Coms is a very big market that's in its infancy. It's applicable to everyone, not just call centres, although that has been our main market. Unified Coms affects four out of five companies. ZCC is built on the technology we already have and on the investment we've already made. We already have 2.3 per cent market share, according to Gartner." Of course, Zeacom is not alone in this burgeoning market; Microsoft is an emerging competitor and there are other call centre competitors like Avaya, Nortel and Inter-tel to name a few. They are all moving into Unified Coms, but none have it all in one appliance," Valentine says.

Presence, unified messaging, desktop telephony and mobility functions allow individuals to manage their communications from one package.

2 New Zealand vs US "We are largely a New Zealand company. There are operations in the US, but I'm spending more time here. I'm in charge of new business development, leading the charge to find mew markets." "People in the US use technology more than we do in New Zealand. They like video conferencing, webinars, and so on, because of the travel times and costs of travel. In New Zealand we have a face-to-face mentality. For example, when I was in the US, I never once met my attorney! But we're holding more remote meetings now at Zeacom." "US companies have that bigger perspective due to the scale of business there and we have to remember that when producing products. We have made some mistakes; five years ago we made a major enhancement via an upgrade to desktops. When we released it, users had to put a disc into each machine. You might get away with that with a 200-seat enterprise here, but you simply can't do that in the US. We now have US support staff give their input into new developments so we can avoid those sorts of oversights." Kiwi business mentality "North Americans like our directness in New Zealand. We can give a definite no' or yes', which isn't always common in the US. We are also less hierarchical and it is possible for the CEO to be wrong. The structure here is more flat and it takes them a while to get used to that, but overall we have a style of doing business that they like and enjoy."

They like video conferencing, webinars, and so on, because of the travel times and costs of travel. In New Zealand we have a face-to-face mentality.

3 "We bring people down to New Zealand so they can get an understanding of our limitations and our motivations. We also have people from New Zealand based up in the States to give them that bigger perspective." Company culture "We have an open company culture. We want to have fun." "Perhaps one of the more immediately obvious differences is that in the US they are more concerned about drinking in the office. So there is less of that end-ofweek staff drinks culture. Instead, they have more outside staff activities. We've started to do more of that with Go Karting trips and so on." "New Zealand is a tough employment market with poaching reasonably common between companies. And like the States, we have a lot of different nationalities here." "We are getting staff from overseas and will be getting more, although I think skilled migration is only a short-term answer. Immigrants will keep New Zealand going for a while, but it's not a fair representation of the people out there. You generally see certain types of employees. Often they come from emerging markets - Russia, China, and so on. Don't get me wrong, they have great skills - equal to or better than anywhere else in the world. But there is a lot of bureaucracy in bringing people into New Zealand. That process could be simplified."

" "Perhaps one of the more immediately obvious differences is that in the US they are more concerned about drinking in the office. So there is less of that end-ofweek staff drinks culture.

4 Government "There needs to be more incentive for technology companies. We need to be able to offer more than just a nice place to live. The R&D tax credits are a step on the right direction, but more needs to be done." "The role of government is to make the processes as easy as possible while maintaining the integrity of that process. I don't think it's the government's role to entice people in." "I think that there should be more collaboration between companies to find people at overseas trade fairs, for example. We could share the costs of going to those events and share the applicants." GAP Valentine has worked closely with Zealand Trade and Enterprise (NZTE) on furthering ties with talented young US business graduates. In late July, he spoke on how to break into the US market as a guest of NZTE at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) Graduate School of Business - better known as the Anderson School of Management. UCLA has been running its highly successful Global Access Program since 1998, with NZTE as an active partner since During this time, 33 New Zealand companies have successfully completed the programme with a further 10 participating in the 2007 intake. Zeacom listing? "There have been a number of listings that we've watched - Xero, Software of Excellence, Syft and Datasquirt. We are considering listing for the second quarter. I believe we have a strong story to tell as well. Listing is one thing; I suppose the ultimate test is what you do with the money you raise."

I don't think it's the government's role to entice people in." "I think that there should be more collaboration between companies to find people at overseas trade fairs, for example.

5 "US money doesn't come to New Zealand because it's too difficult for them - they only want US-domiciled companies. So funding is a real quandary. There is that very real tension between raising money and diluting your company." "We raised in '99 and didn't reach our target. Luckily, AMP came to the rescue. Let me tell you, when you're staring down the barrel of only having enough money for one more payroll, you become very focused." "And yes, we are looking at acquisitions and will try to take advantage of what this offers. There are a lot of possible operations to invest in out there." So why has Zeacom stayed in New Zealand? "It was about cost. When we first went to the US, the Kiwi dollar was worth US76 cents - so not much has changed. "We are lucky because we have revenue and expense here. We have not done any development outside New Zealand and will not go down that path. Once you get the skilled people here in New Zealand, they are as good as any in the world. But we don't tend to tell people in the US that development is done down in New Zealand. They don't need to know." The Future "I would like to see the Kiwi dollar back at 60 cents. But aside from that, New Zealand is a great place to be." "We will stick to our knitting. We do not need to go to Europe or get into multilingual markets. Having said that, we have to remain innovative in our existing markets. I do believe mobile will become much more important soon." Ken Lewis

Let me tell you, when you're staring down the barrel of only having enough money for one more payroll, you become very focused.

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