Business Micros completed its first software installation in Australia at the end of 2008 and has been monitoring the fenestration market there ever since to identify any further opportunities in a region where PVC-U so far accounts for only 2% of window and door sales.

In May this year, Overseas Development Manager Nick Bailey made the long trip back to that first customer in Perth to provide follow up support and updates and used the opportunity to evaluate the potential now for Business Micros in Australia.

Nick says: “Aluminium certainly dominates the market in Australia, but there is now a growing band of ambitious, entrepreneurial individuals who are promoting PVC-U and are starting to have some success.

“Some of the major systems companies are very active as well as some big name machinery and hardware suppliers so it is the obvious next step for us as the leading software supplier to become involved also.

“At this stage, most of the fabrication businesses are quite small scale, perhaps only producing 50 windows per week, but there is a growing momentum which we are in an excellent position to take advantage of. A number of the people I met were ex-pats from the UK who had been manufacturing windows over here and are now using their extensive knowledge and experience to help grow the market in Australia.

“There is also a growing awareness of the benefits of energy efficient windows and the aesthetics and costs of PVC-U which is translating into increased enquiries and sales.”

Whilst Nick was in Australia, he carried out a number of installations of the Business Micros Evolution manufacturing software in Perth, Melbourne, Brisbane and even remotely for a customer in the Philippines.

Many of these customers were aware of Business Micros from their knowledge of the UK market, whilst others were acting on recommendations from machinery and profile suppliers.

Nick says: “It was surprising to see that some fabricators were using machinery without software, whilst others were operating much less efficiently than we generally see in the UK. For example, I visited factories where they were not batching jobs, not fully utilising off cuts and holding lots of excess stock.

“The Evolution software we have installed will make a dramatic difference to them and will certainly give them the right platform from which to expand. Certainly, Duo Glass who were our original customer in Perth, have advanced considerably in the 18 months since we installed their Evolution package and have been able to increase both their efficiency and output per man.”

Business Micros is determined to continue its efforts in the Australian market and plans to develop bespoke versions of its software for Australian profile datasets and to set up a new company Business Micros (Asia) Ltd with its own dedicated office.