News

Kiwi emergency response technology goes global

TVNZ - NZI Business, August 4, 2010

A Kiwi research company is earning big plaudits in the US for its mathematically based emergency response software.

The Optima Corporation, founded in 1998 from Auckland University's engineering science department, now sells software in six countries and has established itself in the United States, Australia, Canada, Denmark and the United Kingdom.

It has products which even help predict where ambulances need to be.

Optima describes itself as an operations research company that delivers simulation software solutions for the emergency services, airline and health industries.

CEO Chris Mackay told NZI Business today that the business initially started out doing airline crew rostering for Air New Zealand but has expanded hugely and now focuses on two problems in emergency services. "How do you improve response time performance for emergency calls and how do you do that while reducing operational costs?"

He points out that ambulances cost up to $1 million a year to run so there is potential in the industry for massive cost-saving.

The software is based on complex maths and maps the status and availability of emergency response vehicles like ambulances versus the exact area they could conceivably be able to get to within a specified response time.

That real time data is then overlaid on top of the actual demand at the particular time which essentially means emergency services can start being pro-active.

"Dispatchers are sitting there looking at their current coverage across a geographical location and the system will give them recommendations of where they should move their available vehicles to, to provide the best possible response time."

Mackay admits they faced challenges in commercialising research out of a university and into a successful company.

"There has been a lot of investment into the actual product and the challenge we have had is investing a similar amount in sales and marketing to actually make something happen. Fortunately the founders were comfortable enough, and insightful enough, to realise that there were other skills they needed in the business."

He said capital was hard to acquire in a market like New Zealand for a small and unproven product and the support of New Zealand Trade and Enterprise and angel investors like Stephen Tindall's K1W1 had been critical.

Watch CEO Chris Mckay's interview - NZI Business SME: The Optima Corporation (3:41)