HubOne(Strategic 100 2010)

Website: www.hubone.com
Global leader: Nick Beaugeard, managing director and chairman
Core activity: Cloud integration
Revenue: A$1 million
Key customers: Microsoft, Best International, Country Rugby League NSW, Entertainment Publications, Live Payment, REA Group
Employees: 7

Cloud. It is a word that means so many things, but it is the absolute definition of HubOne’s ‘raison d’être’ this year.
Founded in 2008, the Australian start-up released its first product, an enterprise profile management tool, last year.

However, managing director Nick Beaugeard considers the biggest change came this year when Microsoft began producing enterprise class software as a service, at a price accessible to customers of all sizes.

“We quickly realised that an amazing convergence of events had occurred,” he explains.

Those being broadly accessible broadband, easing of budgets post-global financial crisis and the delivery of software as a service into the Australian marketplace. “In addition to that was our ability to rapidly refocus on cloud computing in advance of many of our competitors,” says Beaugeard. “This enabled us to achieve a leading market share and an awesome first-mover advantage.”

The company hopes to use the year ahead to leverage that perceived advantage and grow. Rachael Bolton