MINCOM AWARD IS BIG BREAK FOR ICT FIRM: PREMIER

Premier Peter Beattie has today congratulated Springwood-based information and communications technology (ICT) company Mediasphere on winning the inaugural Mincom Connect Award 2007 – Gateway to USA.

Mr Beattie said this up-and-coming Queensland firm would be groomed under the award to take on the lucrative American software market.

“Again the Smart State is taking on the world, this time through a promising ICT company which is developing innovative e-learning solutions,” Mr Beattie said.

“The prize will be a big career break, offering accommodation at Mincom's Colorado office for six months, an opportunity to learn from this global giant, and assistance from the Trade Queensland Office in Los Angeles,” he said.

“It's a priceless opportunity to learn from Mincom, which is a Smart State success story.

“I want to commend Mincom for recognising the benefits of investment in research and development, and growing the Smart State's IT sector. Through this new prize, Mincom is helping aspiring IT firms follow in its footsteps and take a crack at the highly competitive global market.

“Congratulations to Mediasphere – I wish this company every future success.”

Mr Beattie also commended award finalists Vigil Systems and Absolute Data Group.

Mincom chief executive officer Richard Mathews said Mincom had started out as a small ICT company and was aware of the many challenges faced by smaller ICT organisations in their efforts to innovate, grow and develop their businesses internationally.

“Through this award, Mincom will leverage its strong presence within the US marketplace to help Mediasphere take its technology to the world stage,” Mr Matthews said.

ICT has been a target industry nurtured under the Queensland Government's Smart State Strategy.

Today there are more than 77,000 Queenslanders employed in about 5600 ICT businesses, including Mincom, and the sector generates over $23 billion in sales, including $1.3 billion in export income.

Tuesday, July 3, 2007

Media Contacts: Premier's Office – 3224 4500

Mincom, Meredith Bird – 3303 3418

**Company background attached

COMPANY BACKGROUND

Mediasphere

Mediasphere is one of the world’s leading digital content publishing companies committed to the design and development of connected e-learning communities. Mediasphere has developed its own interactive products for the education and corporate sector. The company has created a library of software products for the English language market in education and the corporate sector. Mediasphere has fostered key partnerships with ABC Learning Centres, University of Queensland ICTE and the Australian Council for Educational Research to offer leading edge solutions for a global market

Vigil Systems Pty Ltd

Vigil Systems develops, sells and supports technologies for training professional vehicle drivers, including transportation (Bus, Rail), Mining, Fire & Emergency Response, Airports and Municipal Fleets. Vigil Systems has over 30 satisfied customers throughout the USA, Canada, Australia, and Asia providing training solutions that are used to increase safety, reduce risk and improve driver performance. Vigil’s training systems have been used to train thousands of drivers across a number of transport fleets and have reduced the cost and severity of accidents by as much as 76%. Vigil customers have experienced dramatic reductions in claims costs, fatalities and passenger injuries.

Absolute Data Group

Broadcaster is a business unit of Absolute Data Group, which has a proven history of developing leading edge software applications for industry and government. With a clientele that includes some of the world’s largest organisations, ADG has for the past 10 years provided mission critical database and content management software systems to Aerospace, Military and Heavy Industries. Leveraging their experience of enterprise data delivery, in August 2005 ADG launched a new mobile software project named Broadcaster – a permission-based active marketing application for mobile devices that delivers interactive, media rich, branded content direct to a users handset.

ABOUT MINCOM

This multi-award winning company was established in Brisbane in 1979 and today boasts customer support sites in more than 40 countries around the world. It employs more than 1,250 professionals in 18 offices across Australia, North America, South America, South East Asia, Africa, the United Kingdom, Russia and China. Mincom is Queensland's largest software company and has a North American headquarters in Denver, Colorado. In 2006 it won the Queensland Premier's Export Award and Australian National Export Award for ICT. This year it was awarded overall winner for the Premier of Queensland Smart Awards.