Smart50 rank: 48
Revenue: $4.01 million
Growth: 21.48%
Founders: Campbell Dobbin, 39; Connie Pandos, 39
Based: Victoria
Employees: 36
Industry: Information technology
Website: www.adweb.com.au and www.intranetdashboard.com
A change in business direction brought on by the dot-com crash has proved a blessing in disguise for Melbourne intranet software vendor The ADWEB Agency.
The business was an early entrant into the web development space when it was founded in 1995, becoming an innovator in educating business about the possibilities of the web.
Like so many internet businesses, the firm prospered during the dot-com boom and then came close to catastrophe when the bubble burst.
Rather than shutting up shop when the web industry died in 2001, founders Campbell Dobbin (above) and Connie Pandos (right) decided to use their earnings and take The ADWEB Agency in a different direction.
The result, in 2003, was the launch of the Intranet Dashboard, a software product that helps businesses and organisations to manage their intranets.
The move from web design to software sales has proved successful, helping the business to generate 21.48% growth in the two years to 2007-08, with revenue just topping $4 million last financial year, compared with $3.6 million.
The business’s next frontier is to finalise and launch a business intelligence software product and continue its growth in the US and Britain, where it already earns significant revenue, and other overseas markets.
