Who is OneNet?

OneNet Limited is an "On Demand" Computing company offering computer processing, information storage and software applications over the Internet to its clients on an "as needed" or permanent basis.

What is the history of OneNet Limited?

OneNet Limited is a division of Financial Systems Limited, a well regarded systems integrator operating in the multi-national corporate market for twenty-five years. Accordingly, OneNet Limited is a continuation of Financial Systems Limited's unique market position in the information technology (IT) industry.

Financial Systems Limited has had the same shareholders and directors since the date of its inception in 1983, thus providing a rare market position of stability, competence, commitment, IT industry credibility and enviable levels of personal and business reputation.

OneNet Limited was created in 2000, as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Financial Systems Limited, to address the emerging "On Demand" Computing market with a more appropriate company name and a clear market focus.

What does "On Demand" Computing mean?

The concept of "On Demand" Computing in the information technology market may be explained in terms that are familiar in other markets. As a simple example, the notion that one can draw water through a tap whenever it is needed and that only the volume consumed is charged for, is at the essence of the "On Demand" concept.

The consumption of electricity is a similar example in the sense that once a building or home is connected to the distribution power grid, a consumer can use as much or as little power as is required and only pay for the amount actually consumed. Both power and water suppliers also charge a fixed distribution fee for the pipes and power lines involved.

OneNet Limited offers the computing power, information storage and software applications required by its business clients delivered over the Internet.

It is important to recognise that OneNet runs its clients' software applications on their behalf. That is, each client's software licenses are provided to OneNet to allow each client's users to access them over the Internet, thus gaining most of the advantages of the compelling IT trend of "software as a service".

Clients may choose as much or as little computing and software application resource from OneNet as they wish, thus drawing information technology from a "tap" and only paying for what they actually consume.

The concept of "on demand" computing is also called "cloud computing" or "computing in the cloud", whereby software applications running on remote servers managed by third parties deliver application services to users over the Internet.

Anther information technology industry term in this context is "utility" computing, with a similar connotation to traditional suppliers of gas, water and electricity.

The concept of "on demand" computing is also reflected in the term "software as a service" or "SaaS". This is a very similar idea in that software vendors offer their applications over the Internet with processing and storage provided from a remote data centre.

The generic term of "computing as a service" is also used to describe the provision of computing capacity on an "as needed" or "on demand" basis, with organizations only paying for what they actually use, rather than the fixed costs associated with traditional IT investments.

The essence of the benefits of "on demand" computing are that the user does not need to buy and manage complex servers, security systems and worry about "up-time", data backups or running out of computing capacity with growth.

The concept of an IT pricing model which is based on a per user, per monthly fee, with no hidden costs, is very appealing. Organizations which have the ability to treat their IT infrastructure costs as a variable cost, paying only for what they actually use, while being able to match costs exactly with demand, benefit enormously from OneNet's concept of "On Demand" Computing.

Who is behind OneNet Limited?

The directors and shareholders of Financial Systems Limited and OneNet Limited are Dr Michael Snowden and Paulette Snowden. To answer the question "Who is behind OneNet Limited?", one must consider the history of Financial Systems Limited over the past twenty-five years.

Financial Systems Limited was founded by the Snowden's and commenced business in 1983 when IBM launched its PC onto the New Zealand market. With an unwavering focus on service quality rather than company size, together with a passionate long term commitment to a high level of client satisfaction, Financial Systems Limited has earned a well regarded and enviable company reputation for its reliability and trustworthiness.

From the first-ever PC hard disk drive in 1983 (10MB), to the first-ever local area network, to the first laser printer, to the first wide area network, to the introduction of e-mail, to the first client-server applications and, for many other new computer technologies, Financial Systems Limited has been in the forefront of providing practical business benefits from the introduction of new information technology solutions to its long-standing client base of largely multi-nationals.

From the mid-1980's, until the mid-1990's, Financial Systems Limited employed a team of more than thirty software developers and ancillary staff who developed sophisticated competitive advantage software applications for its corporate clients in banking, forestry, manufacturing, distribution and professional services.

During the mid-1990's, Financial Systems Limited created a new division called "The Great Elk Company Limited" to further develop two custom software developments into international software packages. The background to this period of Financial Systems Limited's commercial history is further explained under "Who is The Great Elk Company Limited"?

OneNet Limited was incorporated in 2000 as a division of Financial Systems Limited. From 2000 to 2004, OneNet Limited established its infrastructure, application hosting skills and early client reference sites in anticipation of a new and emerging trend in computing, namely the concept of computing "on demand".

Who are the directors and shareholders of OneNet Limited?

The directors and shareholders of OneNet Limited, and its corporate parent Financial Systems Limited, are Dr Michael Snowden and Paulette Snowden.

Dr Michael Snowden is a Chartered Accountant and holds several business degrees including a PhD in finance. Michael also completed the Owner-President Program at the Harvard Business School.

Paulette Snowden had an earlier career in radio, television and advertising prior to founding Financial Systems Limited with Michael Snowden in 1983. Paulette completed the Key Executives Program at the Harvard Business School.

Who is The Great Elk Company Limited?

During the mid-1990's, the Snowden's focused their attention on two custom software applications, previously developed by Financial Systems Limited, which offered a broader international market appeal. With the consent of the clients involved, a new subsidiary of Financial Systems Limited, was created, namely, The Great Elk Company Limited to further develop the custom software to a "packaged" stage and market them internationally.

The two products addressed the then emerging market segments of customer relationship management (CRM) and analytics or "data mining". Following a restructuring of Financial Systems Limited to fold its software development team into The Great Elk Company, the two products were refined for a more general corporate market.

The Great Elk Company took the opportunity to market its two products to the multi-national clients of its parent company, Financial Systems Limited. Within several years, The Great Elk Company's products were in use by multi-nationals in the USA, Europe, China, Australia and South-East Asia.

For example, in 1996 3M chose The Great Elk CRM package as a global solution and Canon distributed a Japanese version in Japan. A Mandarin version was installed in China in 1996 for GlaxoSmithKline. Eli Lilly installed The Great Elk CRM product in Europe and Asia. Glaxo SmithKline now employs the product in every country except the USA.

In 1999, The Great Elk Company launched a version of its CRM product as a "software as a service" offering in the USA market, using Web 2.0 tools, with a fee per user, per month sales model.

An international software product company had been created by the Snowden's and their talented team of professionals in five challenging years without the help of venture capital.

The Great Elk Company Limited was sold by the Snowden's in 2000 to a USA company, StayInFront Inc, operating in the CRM market, which has continued to prosper since then, along with the same core of research and development software engineers and marketing staff originally employed by Financial Systems Limited.

What are the capabilities of OneNet Limited?

In essence, OneNet Limited provides a hosting platform and supporting services for its clients to run their software applications under Windows Server 2003 or Linux. Each client's software applications are enabled on hosting servers within OneNet's data centres. The primary data centre from which these services are provided is the IBM Data Centre in Auckland.

Most importantly, OneNet's clients retain their existing business relationship with their current application software vendor (s). Support is still provided by the same application provider, whether the software is installed "in-house" or is hosted by OneNet Limited.

The systems engineering skill base of OneNet Limited provides professional resources to plan and implement a transition from an "in-house" solution to a hosted environment.

The OneNet team of systems engineers provides system upgrade services, system monitoring and support 24/7, security filters, data backups and maintains system up-time in excess of 99.5% over the long term.

OneNet's systems are audited annually by two independent organizations, on behalf of OneNet's government-owned and public listed corporate clients. One auditor is a member of the "big four" accounting firms and the second is a specialist IT security consulting firm. OneNet adopts any requests for changes in its security structure, as a result of the audits. This means OneNet's clients benehfit from a rigorous external and independent test of its security protection.

Who are OneNet's business partners?

With a twenty-five year heritage in the information technology market, OneNet Limited has inherited many long-term business partnerships from Financial Systems Limited. The initial business partnerships with IBM and Microsoft now exceed twenty-five years in duration. The business partnership with HP commenced when Compaq was first established in New Zealand in the late 1980's, and is now continued with HP.

Other relevant partnerships include Citrix and Cisco, each of which reaches back to the earliest versions of their software and product solutions.

IBM has been known throughout most of its recent history as the world's largest computer company, with over 350,000 employees worldwide. IBM and OneNet's relationship now exceeds twenty-five years in duration. OneNet employs IBM server and storage equipment almost exclusively. IBM also provides primary data centre services for housing OneNet's equipment.

OneNet Limited is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, the most prestigious ranking available, thus reflecting OneNet's technical capabilities.

Cisco provides OneNet's switches and routers while Citrix provides software which enables OneNet to deliver applications anywhere, at any time. OneNet maintains high professional qualifications with both Cisco and Citrix.

AT&T, the world's largest telecommunications company, provides OneNet with its primary Internet connectivity.

Why would OneNet Limited be chosen as a hosting partner?

OneNet Limited would be considered by most informed client organisations and software application vendors as their most preferred application hosting partner because of OneNet's high levels of technical competency, its price-competitive hosting fees, client-satisfaction focused corporate culture and its responsive and trustworthy partnership leadership.

 

 

OneNet's Technology Partners

AT&T (NYSE:T) is a global telecommunications company and provides enterprise-quality Internet and data communication services for OneNet. AT&T also provides data centre resources for OneNet. AT&T carries in excess of 25% of global Internet traffic. Total revenue is US$120 billion and total assets are US$285 billion.

BlackBerry (NASDAQ:RIMM) is the trade name for mobile communications products developed by Research in Motion (RIM). OneNet is one of three RIM Alliance Partners in New Zealand, and is qualified to offer hosted Microsoft Exchange e-mail and other software on BlackBerrys. RIM's revenue is US$11 billion and total assets are US$8 billion.

Cisco (NASDAQ:CSCO) is the global leader in networking and security solutions. OneNet is a long-standing Cisco business partner, and deploys dual Cisco firewalls, routers, switches and intrusion detection systems exclusively. Cisco's revenue is US$36 billion and total assets are US$68 billion.

Citrix (NASDAQ:CTXS) is the global leader in software used for the delivery of Windows and Linux/Unix software applications over the Internet or dedicated communications links. OneNet, with Financial Systems Limited, has had a twenty year business partnership with Citrix. Citrix's revenue is US$1.4 billion and total assets are US$2.5 billion.

HP (NYSE:HPQ) is a global leader in IT systems and hardware. OneNet recommends HP "thin client" hardware to its clients for use with OneNet's cloud computing services. HP's revenue is US$118 billion and total assets are US$51 billion.

IBM (NYSE:IBM)) is a global leader in IT. OneNet has, with its progenitor Financial Systems Limited, been an IBM Business Partner for over twenty-seven years. OneNet uses IBM blade server, server and storage equipment exclusively. OneNet also delivers its clients' software applications from IBM Data Centres. IBM's revenue is US$104 billion and total assets are US$109 billion.

Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) provides microprocessors for the majority of server technology products, as well as more than 95% of PC products. OneNet uses Intel processor-based servers exclusively. Intel's revenue is US$37 billion and total assets are US$51 billion.

Iron Mountain (NYSE:IRM) specialises in the secure retention of company data. The Iron Mountain Digital Division has partnered with OneNet since 2003 to provide data storage in the cloud. OneNet's off-site tape backups are held in Iron Mountain's vaults. Iron Mountain's revenue is US$3.1 billion.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MFST) has a twenty-six year business partner history with OneNet and Financial Systems Limited. OneNet is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner with specialty qualifications in networking infrastructure solutions, security solutions, advanced infrastructure solutions and information worker solutions.

VMware (NYSE:VMN) is a market leader in server virtualisation software, which is an enabling technology in cloud computing. OneNet is a registered VMware partner. VMware's revenue is US$1.9 billion.