National - Telstra Australian Business Awards

When teachers.on.net was launched in 1999, it was a pioneer for internet based recruitment of teachers for Australian schools. It is different from other national job websites which offer advertising for all sectors and it provides a low-cost alternative to print advertising. teachers.on.net allows schools to advertise vacancies online and jobseekers to apply directly to the school.

Operating initially as a start-up in a home office, the Eastwood business overcame hesitance by some schools to embrace the then unproven method of internet advertising.

The site’s traffic and business has grown solidly with monthly unique visitors increasing by 42 per cent between 2007 and 2009. The business says 3,700 schools advertised vacancies on the site in 2009 with the monthly jobs ads total topping 1,000 in October.

teachers.on.net is now marketing itself to international schools seeking to recruit Australian teachers and sees this as a major growth area.

Investing in a purpose-built showroom to offer design professionals, tradespeople and retail customers a one-stop shop for ceramic tiles has significantly boosted sales turnover for City Ceramics of Winnellie.

Established in 1999, the business operated from rented premises on the back of Robert Sheppard’s 20 years experience running a successful commercial tile fixing company. The move to a 4,000 square metre development in June 2008 broadened the services and products that City Ceramics could offer large and small customers. Interior design advice is provided from attractive display stations of custom-made kitchens, stone bench tops and products sourced from Italy, China, Indonesia and Dubai. A marketing strategy of targeting developers, architects and designers with ease of product selection and extensive supply has won City Ceramics contracts for most of Darwin’s new high-rise apartment complexes.

The business benefits from sponsoring sporting clubs and believes this practice is highly regarded in regional communities.

“Moving into the new premises was a maturing of our business and a step towards being an industry leader.” Robert Sheppard, Managing Director

stratsec is an information security consulting, testing and research services business, established by Doug Stuart, Peter Lilley and Nick Ellsmore, to remove some of the mystery and ‘doom and gloom’ about IT security. Their fresh perspective focused on the business needs of ICT security rather than the technology based approach to which they had been accustomed.

stratsec specialises in consulting and testing services for government and commercial clients providing a level of assurance that their clients are protected from cyber threats.

Launching with three staff in Canberra, the business expanded as it won a Department of Defence contract, established a licence as an Australasian Information Security Evaluation Facility and a contract with the Malaysian Government. It secured key international clients such as Microsoft, IBM, Juniper and Becrypt and now employs more than 40 permanent staff in Australia and Asia.

It is now concentrating on regional expansion from its new Singapore and Malaysian offices.

As the mobile phone messaging industry evolved in the 1990s, North Sydney software development company Soprano Design was in the vanguard of developing infrastructure that routes and delivers SMS and MMS messages.

Soprano developed a string of innovative business applications that meet the mobile messaging needs of an entire enterprise. It partners with leading IT&T vendors IBM, eServGlobal and mobile data leader Acision to co-distribute services to mobile network operators.

A measure of their success was a 2009 invitation for Soprano CEO Dr Richard Favero to address the GSMA mobile world congress in Barcelona on the future of messaging. Established in 1994, Soprano grew significantly in recent years, winning contracts for mobile messaging services with Telstra, one Middle Eastern and two northern European operators.

Soprano was a partner in industry-leading solutions in Australia including the first wireless application protocol in banking, first credit card transaction via SMS and first person-to-person mobile payment via SMS and interactive voice response.

“Soprano automates complex and time-consuming business processes, improves staff efficiency and reduces business-operating costs by reducing the ‘human latency’ that causes business communication and process problems.” Richard Favero, CEO

Northern Project Contracting (NPC) is an Indigenous-owned company that started in North Queensland and specialises in contracting and training services for the mining and civil construction industries. It was established in 2004 as a joint venture between the commercial arm of the Waanyi Nation Aboriginal Corporation and an experienced mining contractor.

Since 2008, when the Indigenous company bought out its partner, NPC has grown rapidly with offices in northern, southern and western Queensland. NPC enables Indigenous communities to take part in wealth-generating activities on their traditional lands and now employs 100 people, 80 per cent of whom are Indigenous.

In response to labour and skills shortages in the industries, NPC established its Mobile Mining and Civil School to train Indigenous people for plant operating and construction roles in the industry. Its key aim is to promote joint ventures between the industry and other Indigenous groups.

“NPC’s staff retention rate is double the industry average for Indigenous workers which is testament to its strong focus on understanding Indigenous culture while being commercially viable.” Derek Flucker, Director

Kelly Engineering evolved from what was a sideline to farming 20 years ago, into a family-owned manufacturer and exporter of quality agricultural machinery.

Located on the Kelly’s farm near Booleroo Centre, the former machine-repairing hobby business now employs 38 staff with a turnover of $11 million. It is a significant employer of apprentices in South Australia’s northern agricultural region.

After entering export markets in 2006, it experienced growing demand from North America, Denmark, South Africa and New Zealand. Kelly’s innovative machinery contributes to sustainable agriculture by enhancing soil structure and health and reducing erosion and nutrient flow into waterways.

The Kelly Disc Chain Harrow is its key product, a six-model range primarily used for stubble mulching but also for weed control, soil levelling and pasture seeding. The award-winning exporter commenced manufacturing machines under licence in Denmark last year and is on track to do the same in the US in 2010–11.

“Our background is farming so we have an excellent understanding of the reliable and versatile equipment that our farming customers need and expect.” Shane Kelly, CEO