Overview and Background

Manaccom first entered the software market as a shareware distributor in 1986.  Today Manaccom is a leading software publisher and distributor supplying resellers across Australia and New Zealand.  In 2006, Manaccom qualified for listing in BRW magazine's prestigious 'Fast 100' companies.

The principal office is located in Brisbane, and the company also operates in Sydney and Melbourne, with representatives covering other states and New Zealand.  Combined, these sites employ 30 people in sales, marketing, help desk, administration and order fulfilment.

Manaccom is well placed to continue its growth both as a distributor and publisher within Australia, and as an exporter of Australian software products.

Some History

Manaccom pioneered retail distribution of shareware products, both in trial form and registered form.  The company became a significant shareware distributor on the world stage, and certainly the largest in Australia.  Ian Mackay, Manaccom's Managing Director, was included in the inaugural induction into The Shareware Hall of Fame, and is the only member outside of North America.

Software Publishing

During 1991 Manaccom commenced publishing products from local authors as well as a number of titles under licence from overseas publishers.

In 1993, Manaccom was the largest republisher and distributor in the world of games from the US based, Apogee Software Productions.  In addition to these games, Manaccom has also published games from Epic Megagames, id Software (the creators of DOOM and Wolfenstein 3D), 3D Realms/FormGen (Duke Nukem 3D) and numerous smaller publishers.  The business productivity and tutorial market has been very successfully addressed with predominantly local accounting products and the Easy Tutor range from the UK based Spring Interactive.  Music Works Personal, a number of products from the prolific David Ellsworth Productions, and the MAUS range of business products are particularly successful Australian titles.  Internet Security products have become a growing sector in the Manaccom range with titles including Net Nanny, ZoneAlarm and Trend Micro PC-cillin Internet Security.  The Trend product was #9 in the market when Manaccom commenced handling the product and it is now #2.

The contacts built up over years of operation facilitate the signing up of sublicence arrangements off-shore for suitable products.  Manaccom is one of the few organisations in Australia who can produce custom products for its reseller network and it has become a specialist in small production runs.  Under a variety of arrangements Manaccom produces innovative packaging for the products and manages all aspects of production and distribution.  Customers are reassured by the local address on the packaging and are comfortable that they can obtain technical assistance from Manaccom's help desk if required.

Censorship

Manaccom is well acquainted with the censorship of games in Australia and handles all aspects of the classification process.  (All non-business and educational products are subject to compulsory classification by the government.)

Member – Internet Industry Association (IIA)

The Internet Industry Association (IIA) is a non-profit organization devoted to formulating codes of practice for Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in Australia.  Their policies are aimed specifically at assisting parents to protect children from accessing damaging or misleading Internet content, or regulating the flow of unwanted Internet traffic such as email Spam.  The IIA works closely with federal government agencies like the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA – the Australian Government regulator for broadcasting and internet content), or Net Alert – a community advisory body whose primary role is to provide information about protecting families, and particularly children, on the Internet.

The role of the IIA is to reflect current community concerns about Internet content and to guard against exploitation of the technology in Australia.  Manaccom is a member of the IIA.

Software Distribution

Manaccom entered the "rack vending" business in 1988 to provide those computer users who didn't use mail-order a convenient way to try shareware products.  This distribution has developed into full scale retail distribution into all major outlets including: Tandy (Radio Shack), Harvey Norman, Dick Smith, David Jones, OfficeWorks, Electronic Boutique, the Retravision group, Leading Edge Computers, The Good Guys, and hundreds of independent computer stores.

Manaccom is one of the very few distributors in Australia that is able to service almost the whole country with its own representatives (using an agent only in Western Australia).  These representatives take orders in some stores and in others, which order through a central buying office, the representatives attend to in store merchandising to help maximise sell through.

Most stores including Harvey Norman (the largest computer retailer) are visited on a cyclical basis to ensure that our orders are maximised and stock properly displayed.  This ensures that our products are focussed upon rather than being part of a huge range handled by a commissioned agent.  In 2005 Manaccom was awarded the prestigious Software Supplier of the Year award by Harvey Norman.

As both a publisher and distributor Manaccom is able to offer retailers a sale or exchange arrangement, which helps ensure products get maximum exposure on retailers' shelves.  This dual role also means that royalties to developers are effectively calculated at the price ex distributor, rather than on the publishers price to a distributor.

Learn more about our publishing and distribution.

Promotion

Media coverage of products and general advertising promote wide market acceptance for products.  Sales are directed to the reseller network through a variety of innovative methods.  The thousands of users who have registered products are direct mailed or e-mailed on a cyclical basis to introduce new products that suit their demographic.

Direct mail, e-mail campaigns and WWW presence direct potential purchasers to reseller locations both in bricks and mortar stores and on-line.  Manaccom does not directly canvass for retail sales, as this is considered to be a conflict of interest by resellers.

Price Maintenance Policy

Manaccom supports the right of consumers to enjoy competitive pricing.

It is against the law to engage in price maintenance and to place pressure on entities who choose to offer discounted prices.

Manaccom does not support the practice of resale price maintenance. We do suggest prices at which retailers could sell our products but we do not direct or force resellers into maintaining set prices.

Manaccom understands the right of resellers to sell products at prices lower than that of competitors and we do not castigate entities who choose to sell at lower prices.

Customer Support

With around 100,000 users across Australia and New Zealand demanding support for over 200 products, the Manaccom Technical Help Desk located in Milton Queensland, is a focused and dynamic part of the Company's commitment to its clients and partners.

The Help Desk is staffed by qualified computer professionals with many years of both computer and business experience, and provides friendly and easy-to-understand assistance by phone, fax, email and also the popular Web Forum.

While the majority of support requests are handled with just one phone call, the Help Desk is able to escalate difficult issues through several phases until a resolution is obtained.

This ensures that whether a client's problem or a partner's product is simple or complex, both parties can be confident of having either their problems fixed or their products supported both professionally and within the shortest possible period of time.

All incoming calls to Manaccom are filtered by a state-of-the-art phone system with support calls being placed in queues according to the product and then directed to the next available staff member.  A comprehensive staff roster is maintained and monitored to ensure sufficient staff members are available during known busy periods.

Experience shows that the majority of support phone calls are concluded successfully during the first call and often this conclusion is achieved by directing clients to specific intranet and internet sites, or by email which will include information and/or attachments drawn from a comprehensive Support Knowledgebase.

In situations where suggested solutions are not effective, support staff are able to escalate issues to the appropriate software developers who are able to assist.

Emails are also a popular choice for clients seeking assistance and where sufficient information is provided by the client, solutions are usually quick and effective.  The processing of emails is also assisted by an intuitive one-time auto-responder that attempts to answer clients queries based on information provided – due to the fact that clients often do not provide sufficient information in their first email the auto-responder also requests specific information from the client.

Support requests by fax are minimal but nevertheless are handled by a manual tracking system to ensure that client support needs are met using this method of communication.

Finally, an online Forum has been established by Manaccom to provide clients with 24/7 access to support.  The Forum is monitored constantly throughout the day and has added another dimension to the Customer Support Centre, providing customers with the ability to have their support needs met by both Manaccom staff and other software users without being restricted to office hours.

The number of registered Forum users and the amount of quality support information available in the Forum is growing constantly.

Tomorrow...

Manaccom's experience in handling a wide variety of software products gives it the necessary marketing and technical depth to support almost any new product.

The company also has the flexibility to meet the needs of almost any market approach, such as providing an upgrade or customer assistance capability on behalf of a developer or bulk distributor.  Production and distribution of products to take advantage of bundling opportunities with hardware, peripherals or other software has been successful with appropriate products.  The company is continually looking for new titles ranging from business and personal productivity packages to exciting new games and educational software.

Of course, to preserve Manaccom's established reputation as a distributor of quality titles, each new product added to the company's range must represent exceptional value for money.

Products must also prove to be robust and easy to use, both for the end user's peace of mind and to support volume distribution which could be limited by a requirement for intensive technical support.

Since 1986 Manaccom has developed partnerships in countries all over the world, including:

1. All states of Australia
2. Austria
3. Belgium
4. Canada
5. Denmark
6. France
7. Germany
8. India
9. Italy
10. Luxembourg
11. Netherlands
12. New Caledonia
13. Norway
14. Poland
15. Romania
16. Russia
17. Singapore
18. South Africa
19. Spain
20. Sweden
21. Switzerland
22. Taiwan
23. Ukraine
24. United Kingdom
25. And these states in the USA
    • Arizona
    • California
    • Colorado
    • Florida
    • Massachussets
    • Michigan
    • Missouri
    • New York
    • Ohio
    • Utah
    • Rhode Island
    • Washington