2009 Consensus Awards Celebrate a New Generation of Australian and New Zealand Innovation
Sydney, Australia – 2009
Eleven outstanding technologies have been recognised across the 2009 Consensus Awards, showcasing the extraordinary breadth of innovation emerging from Australia and New Zealand.
Across the Consensus Software Awards and Consensus GreenTech Awards, ten technologies received Consensus Awards, with a further technology receiving a Special Commendation.
From software helping international law-enforcement agencies investigate crime to technology extracting more power from solar panels, reducing office energy consumption and measuring enterprise carbon emissions, the 2009 recipients demonstrate the increasingly sophisticated technologies being developed across the region.
2009 Consensus Software Award Winners
Seven technologies received 2009 Consensus Software Awards:
Hyro — AccessPoint
JADE Software — JADE Investigator
Holocentric — Modelpedia
Retriever Communications — Retriever Service for Inspections
Space-Time Research — SuperSTAR
Tickit Systems — Tickit on Demand
WhereScape Software — WhereScape RED
The winners span an impressive range of applications.
JADE Investigator, originally developed for the Australian Federal Police, had already established a client base of more than 40 agencies across 18 countries, including the US Drug Enforcement Administration and New Scotland Yard.
WhereScape RED demonstrated a new approach to rapidly prototyping, building and managing data warehouses, while Retriever Service for Inspections connected mobile field workers with scheduling, maps, photographs and back-office systems.
AccessPoint was already connecting government and non-government services across Australia and entering the UK market, while Modelpedia, SuperSTAR and Tickit on Demand demonstrated innovation across collaborative modelling, information delivery and risk and compliance management.
Together, the seven winners reflect a software industry increasingly capable of taking locally developed intellectual property into sophisticated domestic and international markets.
2009 Consensus GreenTech Award Winners
The inaugural 2009 Consensus GreenTech Awards recognised another three winners:
GSL Electronics (NSW) — MPPT12-2 Solar Battery Charger
Knowledge Global (SA) — Environment Management System (EMMA)
Event Zero (QLD) — GreenTrac Office Solution
A Special Commendation was also awarded to:
Solar-Gem (NSW) — Power Management
The GreenTech winners demonstrated how Australian innovation could be applied to one of the defining challenges of the decade: achieving better environmental outcomes without losing sight of commercial realities.
GSL Electronics' technology sought to make the efficiency benefits of Maximum Power Point Tracking viable for smaller solar installations.
Knowledge Global's EMMA provided organisations with sophisticated tools to measure and manage energy consumption and emissions, while Event Zero's GreenTrac combined PC energy monitoring with behavioural change to help organisations reduce both energy costs and their carbon footprint.
Solar-Gem's specially commended technology tackled an entirely different challenge: delivering durable, low-cost solar lighting and energy to remote communities, with international interest already emerging.
Recognising Innovation With Real-World Potential
The Consensus Awards are built around independent assessment rather than predetermined numbers of winners.
For the Software Awards, products were required to be Australian or New Zealand designed and developed and demonstrate innovation, performance benefits for users and further potential for product or market development.
That approach allows Consensus to recognise technologies not simply because they fit neatly within an industry category, but because independent judging panels believe the innovation itself warrants recognition.
And in 2009, innovation was appearing everywhere.
It was helping detectives understand complex information.
It was changing how organisations built and managed data warehouses.
It was connecting workers in the field.
It was measuring carbon emissions.
It was reducing the electricity consumed by office computers.
And it was finding new ways to bring solar energy to communities around the world.
Industry Support
The 2009 Consensus Software Awards were supported by IBM as Major Sponsor, and endorsed and supported by Austrade, New Zealand Trade & Enterprise, the Australian Computer Society and the New Zealand Computer Society. Program Partners were Cliftons, Bayard Lawyers, TiE and the Alinement Network. Winners and finalists celebrated with Senator Kate Lundy.
The 2009 Consensus GreenTech Awards were presented by John Dee, founder and Managing Director of Do Something! and co-founder of Planet Ark, at the Dimension Data offices. The GreenTech Awards were endorsed and supported by the Australian Consensus Technology Association, New Zealand Trade & Enterprise, Wholesale Investor, Northern Sydney Institute part of TAFE and Connection Research.