Empired targets HR shift

SOFTWARE development company Empired Limited seized the opportunity to develop a solution for what it saw as a paradigm shift in recruitment and business technology and processes.

The company has been a major player in driving this shift, as it pushed its e-recruitment solution BigRedSky to clients by demonstrating the benefits and hard cost savings the system could deliver.

Now, after five years of product development coupled with market education campaigns, the hard work is reaping rewards, with major contract wins and business growth.

The company recently secured a high-profile contract with the State Government to implement a system to deliver the public service’s employment requirements online.

The system, Recruitment Advertising and Management Systems (RAMS), allows all public service agencies to have multiple employment services via a single point of entry.

In a three-year contract worth more than $500,000, RAMS was rolled out to agencies through the Department of Premier and Cabinet and is now the subject of a government advertising campaign. The deal has also opened doors to provide a similar solution with other State governments.

“Other State governments are currently evaluating their requirements, and as part of that we’ve been invited in during their research phase to demonstrate what we’ve done with the WA State Government,” Empired managing director Justin Miller said. “What we’ve got is a complete paradigm shift in how people recruit, advertise and run human resources.”

However, e-recruitment is just one aspect of Empired’s business. The company also specialises in system integration, desktop-managed services and IT consulting.

Empired also signed a contract with Edith Cowan University in May 2003 to expedite its academic promotions process. Other universities also have expressed interest in the system.

“The business is more than BigRedSky, but BigRedSky is where we think we’ll get exponential growth,” Mr Miller said.

“We have had a very good services business that has helped complete and tweak the product.”

The RAMS contract win represents just one of many for Empired, with the company last year signing deals with Sons of Gwalia, Caltex, the City of Fremantle, and the Port of Brisbane.

Empired executive director Gavin Burnett indicated other contract wins were imminent, with the company forging into new eastern States and international markets. Mr Burnett said the company would be establishing a permanent presence in several eastern States capitals to service new and existing contracts, which may involve acquiring established companies.

“The business is considering options with regards to direction and growth and that may or may not involve capital raising, acquisitions or a listing,” he said.

Mr Burnett said the time frame for exercising those options would be between six and nine months.

“Needless to say, we are talking to various consultants and brokers,” he said.

Messrs Miller and Burnett formed Empired Limited in 2002 with the merger of their existing firms, Tusk and BigRedSky.

Since then, the company has anticipated changes in how companies manage the recruitment process and implement and use technology.

Empired software is built using open-source software, with Linux at its core, which means the company has been able to offer a more cost-effective offering, as it does not pay royalties to third parties for its software. Open-source systems are also less vulnerable to virus attacks.

In addition to educating the market with regards to a new era of e-recruitment, the use of open-source software has presented its own challenges, with the market taking a while to warm to the idea.

However, Mr Miller said Empired had won contracts by delivering hard-cost benefits with process efficiencies a favourable add-on effect.

“When we are pitching a solution to a client we have to demonste hard-cost efficiencies,” he said. “We are winning contracts on hard-cost benefits.”

Alison Birrane