Australian enterprise search software used in high places

Australian export case study

Australian-designed ISYS Enterprise Search (text retrieval) software, often called a ‘super index’, is so successful that it counts among its customers the CIA, the FBI, the US Federal Bureau of Prisons, and the US departments of Homeland Security, Justice and Agriculture, as well as Scotland Yard, the WTO, every Australian state police force, the Australian Defence Force and the Federal Court of Australia.

ISYS Search Software was founded in Sydney in 1988.

The company designs, develops, integrates and maintains search engine solutions for internal data which are easy and cost-effective to install and maintain.

ISYS recently made a large sale to the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), an independent agency that regulates the interstate transmission of electricity, natural gas and oil.

In this transaction, the FERC purchased a licence from ISYS for 1,500 desktop users and a copy of ISYS:web for the Commission’s website.

FERC employees are now using these products to search email repositories, document folders and shared drives.

ISYS General Manager Terry Clift says that the company’s exports into the US have been helped immeasurably in recent years by the Australia-United States Free Trade Agreement (AUSFTA) which came into effect on 1 January 2005.

“Under AUSFTA, Australian companies are offered ‘national treatment’,” Mr Clift said.

“Our experience shows that the Australian government really focused on important things when they negotiated AUSFTA,” he added.

“Because Australian companies can now hold GSA Schedule contracts, AUSFTA has literally brought millions of dollars of US government opportunities within easier reach.”

Mr Clift said that preparing and negotiating a GSA Schedule contract can appear to be very time consuming and expensive.

“However, many buyers want to do business this way, so the investment is well worth the return, and within the government, it lends credibility and makes the procurement process much quicker and easier for the buyer.”

Mr Clift said that Austrade’s ‘Selling to Government’ team, based in Washington DC, has been a vital support for the company in selling into the United States.

“The Austrade team is very knowledgeable and they have great contacts.

"They tell us about things on the ground in Washington and elsewhere about procurement with federal, state and local governments.

"And if I run into an issue, I know I can go to them.”