Challenge

Espreon Ltd, provides a range of business services - including cost recovery, property services and corporate services. Espreon Corporate Services realised it had significant latent capability that could be freed up by a automating business process. The company turned to Simbient to create a platform that would enable automated processes and provide a flexible, user-friendly 'one-stop-shop' for processing and managing client information.

Solution

To reduce manual labour and meet Espreon's immediate need for increased efficiency in Corporate Services division, Simbient built a database system using .NET, MS SQL Server and Microsoft Office technology. The system automates numerous separate processes in a 100% seamless process.

Benefits

The Benefits to Espreon :

• Increase overall efficiency and productivity in the Corporate Services division.
• Able to explore a range of outsourcing options which were previously unavailable.
• Simbient has boosted Corporate Services efficiency by 60%.

Challenge

Australia's leading golf website, GOLF Link is the only system that sees every golf club member's handicap stored and calculated nationally. Golfers access their handicap information using their personal GOLF Link number.

Solution

Completely redeveloped by Simbient, in conjunction with the Australian Golf Union (AGU), GOLF Link is a technological breakthrough that revolutionises amateur golf in this country.

Benefits

A uniform method of golfer identification

Verification of each visitor's membership and handicap

Automatic return of each visitors score to their home club

Consistent application of AGU handicapping rules

Corporate Information Manager, Accor Asia Pacific

Challenge

Accor is Australia's largest hotel management group with over 8,000 employees and 90 hotels - including brands such as Sofitel, Novotel, and Mercure. Accor needed a central portal to connect its dispersed operations and allow employees to share vital information such as company promotions, policies and procedures.

Solution

Simbient leveraged MS SharePoint to create various reporting and process-oriented modules using MS SQL Server. The latest upgrade for AccorNet is a workflow management product, K2.NET. This workflow engine is fast becoming Accor's online collaboration environment and will be key in automating business processes.

Benefits

The platform Simbient has built is both flexible and dynamic, allowing Accor to build any number of new processes and improvements as required.

The benefits for Accor:

• A flexible, easy-to-use system that connects all of the hotels across Australia.
• Allows connection for remote users.
• Reduces the need for constant email communication, cutting administration time and enabling instant distribution of reports across the Accor network.

Challenge

Magshop is the online division of ACP Magazines, selling subscriptions to a wide range of magazines as well as books and gift items. The challenge this company presented was a challenge that has been spread over time with a series of upgrades for aesthetic, functionality, and the overall feel of the site.

Solution

The solutions Simbient has provided for this company has been through a gradual process by identifying what the website needed and taking it step by step through each project Magshop requested to achieve maximum results. Creating systems that allowed affiliates (vendors of the merchandise) to self-administer, designing a site that enhances market penetration, added functions such as 'Gift Finder' service, customer account page, 'you might also like' and a 'top 10' features to improve the sites functionality. Simbient has added these items in a way that has maintianed the websites clean look and simple-to-use functionality.

Benefits

The partnership between Simbient and Magshop has resulted in steep revenue growth, with current sales exceeding $8 million, a significant increase from site's beginnings.

The Magshop websites benefits are:

• Elements that keep visitors exploring the site longer.
• A clean look and simple-to-use functionality
• Significant growth in internet sales going from less them one percent to a growth of 20 percent.

"Magshop has enjoyed a long and fruitful relationship with Simbient. We place a high value on being able to establish a level of trust with a company such as Simbient that allows us to seek strategic advice to constantly steer our website in a direction that is beneficial to our business. We believe it's important to have an aggressive plan for moving ahead with our website strategy balanced by a need to manage risk. Magshop has experienced significant growth in its online presence and Simbient have played a large part in achieving that success." Doug Macfarlane Subscriptions Manager, Magshop

"Much of the success has to be attributed to the website. If visitors are driven to a site that doesn't work they wouldn't stay very long and they certainly wouldn't purchase from it. In December alone Magshop had over 100,000 transactions."
Doug MacFarlane, Project Manager, Magshop

Simbient has worked with Aussie for many years. Since early 2003, Simbient has been Aussie's exclusive software development outsourcing partner.

In this role we proudly develop the software applications and platforms that help sustain Aussie's reputation as the most innovative and agile mortgage broker in their industry.

Over the years, we have worked strategically with Aussie to develop and integrate their websites, content management systems, Aussie Mortgage Explorer™, Aussie Toolbox and numerous other systems.

Aussie and Simbient have worked together on many strategic initiatives such as Mortgage Explorer™, Aussie Mortgage Market, the opening of retail outlets and the highly successful launch of the Aussie Credit Card.

Challenge

Beginning life in 2000 Legalco was a company that encountered phenomenal growth, the organisation became the sum of 12 businesses with 250 staff in eight separate offices. In july 2005, Espreon was conceived as the single name, band and vision for this burgeoning business. With the web being critical enablers of their business, Espreon turned to Simbient to tackle the challenge of representing its unified vision online.

Solution

Simbient built a customised content management system (CMS) for Espreon, a .NET application that encompassed all the functionality and aesthetic that the website needed.

Benefits

The Benefit of the Espreon website:

• The site is user friendly, informative and current, with a modern interface and professional image.
• Promotes full capabilities of products and encourages cross-selling.
• The website has delivered a common identity and voice across all parts of the business.

Challenge

When EzyBite launched its innovative employee benefits scheme in Australia, the new enterprise needed a software developer to provide intelligent technology solutions to supports their business objectives.

Solution

The EzyBite website uses Simbient's content management technologies to connect securely to the company's back end systems. This makes it simple to update the website, change pages and load content remotely, without needing a third party. The EzyBite program combines a dynamic web portal with the latest smartcard technology which workers can use to pay for purchases using pre-tax dollars.

Benefits

The system allows the employee benefit program to give employees access to a variety of online menus for delivery of food from nearby cafes and restaurants to their workplace.

The system allows EzyBite:

• Provide customers with key information eg account usage
• Easily update the website, change pages, etc with out the need of a third party.
• Close integration with EzyBite's back office systems

Challenge

Australian's largest pub company, Australian Leisure and Hospitality Group (ALH) needed to consolidate its finance systems to maintain smooth operations across the country and manage data from 600 separate venues and three different finance systems. Simbient was brought on board to provide distributed data entry systems to make it simple for venue staff to enter financial data into ALH's central ERP.

Solution

The system needed to be complex yet easy to use so ALH did not have to spend an excessive amount of time to train staff at individual venues. Simbient's solution involved the implementation of an ASP.Net web application that runs on Microsoft SQL server and is delivered via Sharepoint. Simbient developed the solution by highly customising Microsoft Business Portal, the portal allows venue managers at individual outlets to search and access finance information in Great Plains

Benefits

The system is complex yet easy to use, allowing ALH to :

• Garner financial data from many disparate locations to be input.
• Managed and stored in one central system.
• Easily train staff without spending excessive amounts of time.

Challenge

Gallagher Bassett Services Pty. Ltd. is an Australian-based company with over 20 years experience providing specialist risk, claims management and professional services to corporate businesses, government departments, insurance companies, underwriters and agencies throughout Australia and New Zealand.

Gallagher Bassett's focus on innovation, commitment to quality and strategic decision-making alerted them to the fact that they had outgrown their existing applications partner.

"Essentially, we were looking to engage with a strategic partner who could handle the scope and complexity of our IT needs," says Marc Diffey, the company's General Manager - Business Improvement and Strategy.

"I heard about Simbient from a colleague who had worked with Simbient before. We wanted to significantly improve our system, and having access to Simbient's diverse technologies and creative ideas enabled us to do that. Simbient progressed our current system to such a better state that it now gives us a real competitive advantage."

Solution

Closely working with Gallagher Bassett, the Simbient team enhanced the Gallagher Premium System (GPS). Simbient investigated and learnt the system, planned ways to optimise it, and helped create the vision for a roadmap of continuous improvement aligned with Gallagher's enterprise strategy.

Gallagher Bassett's partnership with Simbient has resulted in an enhanced system, specifically improving:

• System stability and performance
• Efficiency of internal and statutory reporting
• System usability

Benefits

Gallagher Bassett benefited from Simbient's:

• Quick transition
• Ownership of code
• Fresh ideas
• Diverse expertise in various technologies
• Local presence
• Easy accessibility
• Ability to grow with the business

Gallagher Bassett takes comfort in knowing that their system can now be adequately supported and maintained, and are working with a partner that can develop their application into the future.