Auckland-based software company Author-it makes words pay for cost-conscious companies. By Kim Triegaardt

For many companies, words are a bit like the loose change in your pocket. You think they aren’t worth much, but when you count the cents it’s surprising the dollars they can add up to.

“The investment made in the written word often isn’t visible,” says Paul Trotter, CEO of Auckland-based Author-it, a specialist content management and authoring program developed around the principle of single-source publishing.

Author-it was born out of Trotter’s frustrations as a technical writer. In many companies, for example, time and money is wasted when workers recreate corporate documents from scratch, correct inconsistencies in style created by different authors, and spend time (estimated at up to 30% of their workday) looking for content that already exists.

Author-it’s key innovation over the last 12 months is suggestive reuse: as the author types, the software suggests paragraphs that have already been written and signed off by someone else. It’s a unique feature among competing products and Trotter has patented the technology.

Twelve years after its inception, the company has more than 3,500 clients in over 50 countries around the world, including big names, such as international consumer electronics giant Philips.

“Philips generates over 200 million words a year in everything from internal communications to translating over 5,000 manuals into 50 different languages. At an average cost of 50 cents a word, the investment in writing is huge,” says Trotter.

Strategic positioning in the US market has seen Author-it achieve annual growth of nearly 120% and back-to-back appearances on the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 Asia Pacific list, but it has meant camouflaging the true nerve centre.

“Being a Kiw-i makes us interesting but it doesn’t guarantee sales,” says Trotter. “It can be very difficult to do business in the US if you are not seen to be American. If a company is going to be spending a large amount of money with you, they worry about things like your offices being far away.”

So, as part of his long-term strategic plan, Trotter set up an office in Orange County, Southern California, switched from being a company to a corporation, and changed job titles to suit US hierarchies – Steve Davis who runs Author-it’s day-to-day operations was renamed ‘president’ from ‘general manager’. Trotter also introduced a new tier of employees – sales engineers – to support sales staff.“Everything we do, even down to the way we spell things, is done with the objective that we are seen to be American.”

The global economic downturn means the company has to work harder. The most recent sales trip to Europe and the US covered 23 cities in 28 days, involving 16 flights and 12 train journeys. But the cost-savings of the product are a significant selling point in this climate, says Trotter.

“American companies are savvier than New Zealand companies when it comes to spending money if they can see long-term savings. Because of the way Author-it manages information in paragraph blocks, it allows companies to be able to update only the content that has changed or is new. We are getting savings of 50-70% which is why we can still sell in this economy.”

The company also chooses prospective customers carefully. “It helps to target industries such as health care, credit checking and outsource help desks that thrive in these conditions.”

Trotter says technology over the next five years will focus on ways of making content more relevant to users. His team is already working on the next generation of a content management system clearly aimed at the Gen Y worker and due for release in early 2009.

“People increasingly want to be participants in what they read and they want information to be relevant to them. The future of content delivery is to make content personalised by enabling information to change and build itself dynamically, based on who you are and what your preferences are.

“For instance, if you are based in Auckland, or in a particular department, the company human resources manual will only show you information that is relevant to you.”
Trotter believes that, once global markets turn, his company will be on track for turnover of $100 million. “It will take about three years,” says Trotter, “but we’ve got a well-defined plan.” And they’ll keeping track of every word.

Ageless and edgy

NOM*D label owner Margarita Robertson is determined her brand won’t compromise – or age with her. By Suzanne McFadden

Margarita Robertson has stuck to the pledge she made when she first dived into the maelstrom that is the fashion world: never ride the trends or create easy-sell garments for the sake of making money. After 22 years, her NOM*D label remains nonconformist and edgy, and continues to grow in stature on the international fashion stage.

“We could make clothes that were way easier to sell or be accepted simply for the sake of making money, but our ambition isn’t to be the winners. I like the underground feel; we want to be recognised as different. And we just seem to be gaining more support. ”
At 56, the silver-haired and celebrated Dunedin designer puts NOM*D’s success down to constantly looking forward but making careful decisions and to keeping an ageless outlook.

“I’ve seen a lot of designers whose collections have grown older as they’ve grown older. I was always quite determined that wouldn’t happen to me. I always wanted to have a fresh, unique feel about it; people my age can still wear it, and do.”

Robertson learned a lot from working in retail, starting out in 1975 with Dunedin boutique store Hang Ups. In 1986, she and husband Chris created the dark, androgynous NOM*D label, specialising in knitwear and woven garments. She now has Plume (as in ‘nom de plume’) stores in Christchurch and Dunedin, and a NOM*D store in Melbourne.

London Fashion Week, 1999, was the biggest break for the label. It debuted as one of the renowned “New Zealand Four”, alongside Karen Walker, World, and Zambesi, founded by Robertson’s sister Liz Findlay. NOM*D was suddenly an international brand.

“We got orders immediately out of Japan; it was quite massive. Being in New Zealand, particularly in Dunedin, you can often think you aren’t good enough; you’re in awe of the international labels. But we got a PR and sales representative up there and it changed our world.”

Today NOM*D is represented in London and Tokyo, and Robertson travels twice-yearly to Paris as the company’s creative director. “The more I travel, the more I feel satisfied that what NOM*D is doing is unique. We’re not copying brands we see.”

The design has sustained a traditional look, tailored into what Robertson calls “the NOM*D feel”. She still scours op shops and vintage stores to build up her back-room archive of classically tailored clothes. In designing a collection, she never forgets to ask, “Who’s going to buy this?”

Comfort is also at the forefront of her mind. Influenced by Dunedin’s colder climes, the garments were initially heavy and dark, but now she considers what Sydneysiders may want to wear in spring. A case in point is the NOM*D cardigan that transforms into a vest.

Robertson won $30,000 worth of travel with her 2008 Air New Zealand Fashion Week export award for growth, and this year will explore new markets in Europe, particularly Germany and Scandinavia. Of NOM*D’s 60 outlets, 40 are in Australasia, the other 20 in Europe, the United States and Asia.

“Australasia has always been very loyal to us. We’re a big fish in a small pond here, but then there’s the huge sea in the northern hemisphere.” Robertson is now looking for a distributor in that part of the world, where she’s found buyers are “a little freaked” by duty and freight taxes.

NOM*D’s turnover continues to grow, but new challenges face the company this year. Robertson believes in reciprocating the loyalty shown to her brand, so she uses cut, make and trim services in Dunedin, Invercargill and Christchurch, and knitwear companies in Auckland. In the current climate, the company will have to deal not only with the escalating price of European fabric, but also with the shutdown of clothing manufacturing companies in New Zealand.