Incite – update

Two months ago (INCITE = ThinkProject!), I wrote about Australia-based construction collaboration provider Nexus Point and the Incite product. I have just received a helpful email from Sean Kaye, Nexus Point’s managing director, updating me on a few details.

First of all, Nexus Point Solutions never had an agreement of any sort with Baulogis; the minority shareholder in Nexus Point originally was actually AEC/Communications itself. Baulogis is a similar project collaboration vendor to Incite … in Germany, but they also happen to own a majority shareholding in AEC/Communications (now called “think project! Solutions”, … or TPS…). This arrangement came to an end back mid-2007 when TPS ceased to be a shareholder in Nexus Point Solutions and Mr. Boelter has returned to Germany and is no longer involved with Incite.

Secondly, the assessment that “Incite = Think Project” isn’t necessarily correct either. Nexus Point is the exclusive distributor of think project! for ANZ and has certain rights throughout Asia – so effectively we license the technology. The differentiator with Incite is the level of service provided – Incite host on very high-end environments that are custom integrated to fit Incite and provide maximum availability and service to customers. Incite provides 24/7 manned helpdesk services out of Australia, dedicated fixed/leased line access to our data centre facilities for customers with high bandwidth requirements and we offer very extensive consulting services to ensure that projects are engaging with the product to best fit the customer. So, think project! is a software product, Incite is a business that delivers “software as a service”.

We’ve recently established a new custom-built hosted environment in Dubai to go along with our environments in Hong Kong, Sydney and Melbourne. While I can’t obviously get into the financial details of the business, I can say that Incite is a profitable business and is self-funding all growth from cash and operating expenses. We believe it is imperative that a business like this is self-sustaining and we are in no way interested in repeating the mistakes of the dotcom era.

In the coming months we will be making a number of announcements about the future of Incite and how we are working hard and investing heavily in turning it into more of a “platform” rather than a product.

Collaboration works well in the construction and engineering industry, we now believe it is time to extend that collaboration out into our customers and allow them to more tightly integrate with Incite and utilise many of the features available in ways that people probably don’t envision so clearly today.

So, to clarify matters, Nexus Point Solutions is today a 100% controlled entity of Leighton Holdings (this is confirmed in Leighton’s 2007 financial report) and is a value-added reseller (VAR) of think project!.