Adelaide tech company Sine says it’s primed for rapid growth as site management becomes a priority
Sine’s technology, which allows organisations to know who’s been on site and when, is more relevant than ever.
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Contact-tracing, temperature testing and helping ensure aged care staff are not working across multiple sites are some of the COVID-specific responses Adelaide tech company Sine can offer in this new world, which has placed new pressures on many of its customers.
The business, founded five years ago by chief executive Antony Ceravolo, develops and deploys visitor, contractor and staff check-in and management technology internationally.
With many of its customers operating in the commercial property sector and staff globally moving rapidly to a work-from-home scenario, some of Sine’s customers were at the forefront of COVID-related business disruption.
But the company, which now employs about 80 people, has also been able to offer solutions including, soon, check-in stations with built-in temperature checks, contactless site check-in and as always, reliable and rapid access to data about who has had access to a workplace.
Mr Ceravolo said the company had always had the vision of being a software as a service business based out of South Australia, which due to a lack of skilled staff, was a challenge to start with.
The company, which has ambitions to rapidly grow its workforce in the medium term, is now attracting highly skilled staff to SA, drawn in by the rewarding work, but also the lifestyle and COVID-safe aspects.
Mr Ceravolo said half of their team was focused on research and development and software engineering.
“We’ve got a team of 35-40 engineers, testers, quality assurance, everything else.
“Adelaide has turned out to be a fantastic place to attract local talent but also internationally - Egyptian software engineers, English, German, French, Belgian.
“We’re attracting people now from New South Wales and Victoria.’’
Mr Ceravolo said the narrative about Adelaide being a good place to set up and run a flourishing tech business - as well as being a stable and COVID-free city, was starting to gain a lot of traction.
“Building a subscription business in Adelaide and scaling it globally is what we want to do,’’ Mr Ceravolo said.
“We’re seeing this as a great place to double down and go from 80, to 100, to maybe 300 people in the next 18 months to two years, subject to COVID issues, and keep growing the story out of Adelaide.’’
Mr Ceravolo said the company was now looking for staff who had “seen the movie before’’ in terms of scaling similar businesses on a global scale.
With regard to the COVID pandemic, Mr Ceravolo said many of the company’s customers were going through hard times, but it also created a surge in demand from essential services. Sine was well placed to assist, with hospitals, logistics and aged care facilities customers presenting large demand.
“They all have either a moral, legal or medical obligation to keep a record of who’s come into their premises and when, including the school markets.’’
Mr Ceravolo said both Thebarton Senior College and Roma Mitchell College where there were COVID outbreaks were clients, with Sine technology able to tell administrators who was on site and when.
In the early days the company built a minimum viable product, which was deployed in a number of schools, and has rapidly built out its suite of products from there.