BCI Australia 
Smart50 rank: 32
Revenue: $9.03 million
Growth: 42.68%
Founders: Matthias Krups, 53
Based: New South Wales
Employees: 89
Industry: Property and business services
Website: www.bciaustralia.com
BCI Australia describes itself as the prospecting arm of its clients. It provides them with research on upcoming construction projects – from a solar power station to a hotel to simple roadworks – to help them scope the jobs, prepare for tenders and hopefully win work.
Australia’s booming construction industry has helped BCI post average annual growth of 42.68% in the past two years. Revenue was $9.03 million in 2007-08, up from $5.52 the previous year.
When Matthias Krups founded the company in 2002, he knew he was going head-to-head with Reed Construction Data, the market leader for 35 years. Taking on this giant, which has the backing of the global Reed publishing group, was daunting. Convincing clients that were paying more than $20,000 to BCI to trust the new player was even harder. Eventually though Krups and his team – which has now grown to 89 people – won through.
The business is heavily web-based, with 90% of its service provided online through the company’s project leads database. The site is currently undergoing a major overhaul, with a focus on introducing more web 2.0 tools.
BCI Australia also has a sister company called BCI Asia, which covers all of south-east Asia including Hong Kong.
