Atlas battles to get on the map

ATLAS Technology Group was set up two years ago by a trio of veteran Microsoft executives to provide around-the-clock application support to businesses around the world from offices in Seattle, Wellington and Malta.

Aiming to capture a "solid share" of a market valued at about US$200 billion (NZ$299 billion), it is the type of ambitious, borderless and knowledge-based business that economic development agencies fall over themselves to attract.

Why Wellington? Seattle-based technology operations director Michael Hughes says it was mainly down to the time-zone, language issues and the exchange rate, but New Zealand's "pretty good talent pool" was also a drawcard.

Despite the credentials of the founders – chairman Robert Altinger was a director of product group IT services for Microsoft worldwide, and co-founder Michael Murphy was worldwide senior director of its business group IT organisation – Atlas hasn't yet proved a profit-making proposition or gained critical mass.

The company lost US$3.4 million on revenues of $396,000 during the six months to June, and last month closed its centre in Malta, consolidating in Seattle, where it employs 12 staff, and Wellington, where it has seven.

Atlas' shares are traded on the over-the-counter (OTC) market in the United States, where the firm is valued at US$6.4 million, but have fallen from a peak of $1.30 in January to 16 cents.

Mr Hughes believes Atlas is poised to benefit from the global economic downturn, as cash- strapped firms look to outsourcing to cut costs, and is for the first time trying to sign up customers in New Zealand to complement its six United States clients. These include a shoe retailer and a company that provides content for mobile phones.

"In New Zealand there are a lot of small and medium-sized businesses looking for support that the big companies don't usually provide. We can provide coverage 24 hours a day, seven days a week, we will learn any application you give us, be it bespoke or packaged, and we have a pretty robust implementation process."

Atlas is also hedging its bets by morphing into a software-as-a- service (Saas) business, offering to rent out its software tools online to customers who would rather manage their own applications.

And it has revisited the question of what qualities are required in a successful start-up. "We are trying to provide a much more agile service. Part of the problem was the people who set [Atlas] up were 'big' Microsoft people, so they did have this very cumbersome way of doing things.

"We have said 'lets trim everything back' and give customers an answer within a day or two – whereas previously it could take a week or two."

- © Fairfax NZ News