Documens Boss

With reported sales of over $1bn of Microsoft SharePoint licence revenues there is no question that the adoption and usage of SharePoint for collaborative document & content management has had, and continues to make, a significant impact on the ECM marketplace.

However, there are several areas where the SharePoint channel of resellers can learn from more traditional document management vendors, by adding and integrating other tools which add value to the SharePoint platform – most notably in the area of records and email management for large volumes of electronic documents. There are a number of innovative Australasian companies who are addressing such requirements.

John Symon, SVP Asia Pacific for Document Boss speaks with Eddie Geller, CEO of the Australian Information and Knowledge Management Consultancy company, Unique World, who were recently awarded Microsoft SharePoint’s Global Partner of the Year for Portals and Collaboration. Eddie shares some interesting perspectives on his vision of the Information Management Lifecycle and how Unique World has been able provide value for their clients’ business solutions, largely build around the Sharepoint environment.

Q. Can we start with an introduction of yourself and an overview of your company?

A. I am Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Unique World, an information and knowledge management consulting company, head-quartered in Sydney, Australia. I founded Unique World 12 years ago and I’m pleased we are now recognised as a leader in delivering world-class portal and collaboration solutions.

Unique World focuses on information management and knowledge management, working with major enterprises to help transform their business through enabling technologies such as collaboration, business process automation, business intelligence, document and records management, intranets and portals. Our goal is to deliver outcomes and solutions that make a difference.

I’m passionate about how knowledge, information management and collaboration can deliver significant, bottom line improvements to an enterprise. Our purpose is all about making a difference to our staff, to our clients and to our shareholders. 

Q. What are the primary products & services you offer and what is your key value proposition?

A. As an IT consultancy, Unique World offers a wide range of services for the information management journey, with strategy, system or business transformation. We offer both technical and business-oriented consulting, covering strategy formulation, through to implementation, support, governance and change management.

We are big enough to offer a broad talent pool across our various specialist disciplines, yet agile enough to offer flexible delivery models.

Our strength is delivering end to end, from strategy to execution and then ongoing operation support.

Q. What key market drivers are positively impacting your business?

A. An Information and Knowledge Management Strategy is now more important than ever, and enterprises are increasingly recognizing the need to effectively manage information and create a strategy aligned to where the business is going, in order to meet their business objectives.

A strategy provides a roadmap of projects to help organizations share and use information more effectively.  It becomes the framework for decision-making on IT investments.  It prioritises business impacts and determines the investment areas that are going to have the biggest impact on the organization.

Most large organizations in Australia have now implemented SharePoint, but many are looking for assistance and advice to help them maximize their investment and to build collaborative processes to take advantage of the full features of this platform.

Q. What business applications and market sectors do you primarily address?

A. Unique World doesn’t serve a primary market sector, as a lot of solutions and opportunities are horizontal rather than vertical markets. So, Contract Management is an example – very relevant to all enterprises. As is Enterprise Account Sites… We work with organisations across all industries, particularly those operating in dispersed geographic locations that create and disseminate lots of information.

Q. Who do you consider to be your major competitors and how do you position and differentiate yourselves in the market?

A. While we are experts in SharePoint and have been working in the Microsoft world for 12 years, we are quite different from most other companies working in the SharePoint space.  We work with our clients at a highly strategic level, helping them use SharePoint to achieve their business objectives.

A key differentiator is our recent global award, recognizing Unique World as the global Microsoft partner in Portal and Collaboration for 2011.  It was very satisfying to receive this global recognition in our area of specialization.

Having said this, if you look at SharePoint only, there are many competitors. If you look at KM or IM Strategy there is only handful of competitors. When you consider both segments, ie Business and then technology execution, we are yet to find a company that transcends both the business and technology across KM and IM.

Q. What market trends and adoption rate of Microsoft SharePoint for ECM applications are you experiencing in the Australian market?

A. As I’ve said, most of the medium-large organisations in Australia have already implemented SharePoint.  However, in many cases, SharePoint has remained the province of the IT department.  Increasingly, SharePoint is becoming a strategic business platform and the key technology for building collaborative strategic information management systems.

SharePoint is an enabler to the business, however many business users really have little clue as to the power and opportunity SharePoint represents. So we do a lot of work in educating business users around what the future world of work would look like if SharePoint was properly enabled within the organization.

Q. I understand you have developed your own Records Management software module that is integrated with M/S Sharepoint. Could you share more detail on this and how you have been able to extract more value for your customers with the Sharepoint platform.

A. RecordPoint was incubated out of Unique World around 4 years ago and its focus was to develop specific IP around making records management easy. RecordPoint is now a separate company and, in fact, a sister organization to Unique World. However, it operates separately and is now growing a channel of consulting partners to help scale and grow the business. It is now in its 3rd version and has many state and federal government agencies as its clients.

Q. What geographies do you service?

A. With offices in Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra, Unique World focuses on the largest markets on the east coast of Australia. Unique World also has an offshore capability with an office in Manila.

Q. With the impact of web 2.0, SaaS, social networking, virtualisation and other innovations and discontinuities in the market, the ECM market is undergoing further consolidation, convergence and evolution. What effect is all of this having on your business?

A. The growth of web 2.0 and social networking is forcing organisations to look at how these technologies affect the way they operate internally. In addition, they are seeing the benefits of embracing these technologies internally as a means of engaging staff and quickly determining where they can add value and provide expertise.

Q. How has your business fared during the recent economic downturn?

A. Australia fared relatively well during the recent Global Financial Crisis, and most sectors of the economy have continued to grow strongly in recent years.  Following a slight downturn in activity a couple of years ago, Unique World had its strongest ever year in the 20010/11 financial year, and we’ve experienced strong growth in employment. This growth will see us consolidate in FY12 and further expand, while driving the message around KM and IM and how it can really enhance a business. We are striving for 20% growth in FY12.

Q. What are your top three priorities for the next 12 months?

A. My key priorities during the next 12 months include consolidating our position as the number 1 Global Microsoft Portals and Collaboration Partner.

I’m also excited to be expanding the rollout of Open Book Management throughout all parts of the Unique Word business.  We were proud to receive an award less than one year after we implemented Open Book Management with the Great Game of Business, and it has already delivered amazing results for the business.

Unique World’s staff is its greatest asset, and I’m continually amazed by the professionalism and commitment of our people.  Not satisfied with being selected as one of the Top 50 Places to Work in 2011, our aim is to reach the Top 10 in 2012.  But we’re not about perks or gimmicks.  We’re about creating a culture of involvement and collaboration. Part of this is our commitment to Open Book Management that gives all staff full visibility and understanding of all economic aspects of the business.

Q. What are the main challenges for you to overcome?

A. Attracting and maintaining key staff is an ongoing challenge in the current climate, and I expect the current shortage of skills will continue to be an issue.  We’re committed to recruiting and retaining the best people that believe in our vision and want to make a difference in the enterprise communities we engage with.

Q. Which new technologies, markets or geographies are you expanding into?

A. We see significant opportunities in some of the new technologies being offered by Microsoft and other partners, to enhance the SharePoint platform.  We’re also excited about opportunities arising from new social media technologies, mobile devices and the potential of the cloud.

Q. What is the mission and vision that drives your company?

A. Our objective is to make Unique World synonymous with Knowledge Management.  I’m excited by the benefits that collaboration and knowledge management offer to business organisations.

Unique World exists to inspire. Our core purpose is to make a difference; to have a positive impact on our own people and on the clients we partner with.

Our vision is to be Australia’s leading Knowledge and Information Management consultancy.