Corporate news

The Shack Group has rolled out a 12 month plan to co-locate both of our West Coast data centers in Perth. The move will give the Shack Group a new opportunity to increase the scale and operability of security systems deployed within the data center. Drawing upon the success of 5 years of development in the Siphem and VPN divisions of the company, this move will also allow us to standardize and redeploy the applications developed by our branches into new versions across the network.

The Shack Group is in discussions with leading Australian mortgage brokers and lenders to finalize plans for launching an online Australian finance center in the first quarter of 2008. Our intention is to make comparative financial appraisals quick and simple for everyone involved in the Australian real estate and property markets. Merchant accounts and ecommerce services have formed the foundation of many of our company projects, and the new venture is a natural extension of this work, solidifying our relationships in the Australian banking sector.

Retail technology division Digital Combinations will be launching a new range of home automation products for the residential and commercial markets in 2008. This move will be in line with Digital Combinations efforts to expand their range of offerings in commercial security appliances. The new product line will focus on devices that are used to automate light systems, electronic appliances, and home security features by remote control and computer programming. The line will include all utilities that are necessary, including home automation kits, modules, and controllers.

The Shack Group has launched our company VPN to the public after utilizing the technology privately for the past three years to secure communications throughout the company infrastructure. The company VPN will be targeting the Australasian market with specific focus on China and its fast growing technology industry. Network security protocols continue to be a main focus of our development strategy at the Perth Data Centre, and are important to our core financial services at Siphem and CommerceBill.

Most businesses still outsource their media, design, and publishing needs to third party professionals who specialize in advertising, graphic art, or web development. The rationale is based not only on cost-effectiveness, but also in innovation and quality. In our years of experience in working with service bureaus in Australia and abroad, the Shack Group has developed a set of core guidelines to drive this process, and this year we have taken some steps to put them into practice.

One of the success stories of the Shack Group this year has been the continued development and expansion of Navaro Solutions in the realm of ecommerce. The company provides business solutions for web site management, secure data storage, client and stock management, as well as billing solutions and site appraisals. Two new services launched by Navaro Solutions this year stand poised to increase the company’s client base and popularity, namely SEO and VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol). The company reports sales increases for clients in the range of 300-400% annually.

The Shack Group continues its diversified investment and development work in the ecommerce sector in 2008 by launching the new CommerceBill web site in the fourth quarter. Having successfully established our own proprietary merchant accounts and credit card processing systems through the development team at Siphem, we are hoping to attract a broader base of customers in Australia through the new web site. CommerceBill provides everything local businesses need to operate a fully functional ecommerce site, including:

One of the main goals of the Shack Group is to push the envelope on technological advances and web implementation to bring innovation to business processes for our clients. In the fourth quarter of 2008, we will be launching a new service that promises to change the way people do email and international communications. The core of this new service is a partnership between the Perth Data Center and our new web site, emailsolutions.com.au.