Mobile software firm OpenCloud warns that its Wellington-based research and development centre might shift overseas if it cannot find experienced software developers with the right skills.
The company counts Nokia Siemens among its shareholders after the mobile technology giant bought a stake for $8.5 million in September, but missed out on research and development funding from the Government’s Technology Development Grant programme.
OpenCloud’s Rhino Java-based software helps telcos deploy new products and services for their mobile customers.
Engineering vice-president David Long said it was looking to recruit 20 Java developers in Wellington in the next year, but was struggling to find the right people.
It wanted Java developers experienced in building application server platforms for telecoms, but most local developers had experience in building information technology, rather than telephone company solutions, that ran on top of application platforms.
The skill shortage was partly a by-product of New Zealand’s small population, but being overlooked for a research and development grant, which would have covered 20 per cent or up to $2.4m of its annual research costs had not helped its case, he said.
“Trying to attract people back into New Zealand is a challenge. We would like to think the work we do is compelling and interesting, but unless there’s support to keep research and development laboratories like ours going, we will gradually decline and that will have a growing negative effect on the whole market.
“This is high-yield, innovative work, which could become a growth industry and create substantial revenues for New Zealand.”
Local firms wanted to build solutions for OpenCloud’s platform, but were reluctant to divert staff from paid project work, and the Government could step in with funding to support them, he said.
He was unsure why OpenCloud missed out on the grant last year, saying it had met all the criteria.
The previous research and development scheme, which let businesses claim 15 cents in tax breaks back for every $1 they spent on research and development, was criticised because undeserving companies could rort the system.
“But that’s not a justifiable reason to stop it for everybody who does need it. The Government by proxy is determining winners.”
The company, which has about 60 staff, is opening an office in Shanghai after a successful pilot with China’s second largest mobile provider, China Unicom.
Asia-Pacific general manager Bob Drummond said China Unicom was using its software to let mobile customers see the location and status of their contacts, such as whether they had their phones on or had switched to voicemail.
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China Unicom had bought an initial licence for the software.
“We’re hoping to expand from there. It’s not one of our bigger orders initially, but the China market is huge and the operators in China are much bigger than you get in Europe or the United States. The potential for us is huge – we charge based on subscriber volume.”
China Unicom has about 140 million mobile subscribers and plans to sign up another 50 million this year.
OpenCloud sold software to more than 30 mobile operators around the world including Vodafone, British Telecom, Indonesia’s Telkomsel, Spain’s Telefonica and, more recently, the France Telecom/Orange Group, Mr Dummond said.
“We’ve doubled the number of employees in the past 12 months and tripled our revenues.”
Telecom industry website Light Reading, part of UBM TechWeb, last year named OpenCloud in its top 10 private communications companies after Nokia Siemens’ investment.
Source:http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/4681183/Mobile-software-firm-struggles-to-recruit
