By ADAM GIFFORD
Fledgling e-procurement marketplace SupplyNet has lost another senior manager. Sales and marketing manager Frank Anderson is off to Sydney to work for storage company Storage Tech.
Chief operating officer Gary Fissenden has already crossed the Tasman to work for ANZ bank in Melbourne.
Mr Anderson said a lunch with
a former colleague over Queen's Birthday Weekend led to the offer to rejoin Storage Tech, whose New Zealand office he set up in 1992.
"This is not a vote of no confidence in SupplyNet. I've always worked on the basis if an opportunity is a good one, you should seize it with both hands," Mr Anderson said.
The market for storage systems is booming, and Storage Tech, which traditionally has supplied tape silos to mainframe computer sites, is starting to rebuild market confidence and move into new areas like storage area networks and smart software.
Mr Anderson was head hunted from Storage Tech in the mid-1990s to work for EDS, later going on to run Peoplesoft's New Zealand operation.
He will be Storage Tech's Australia and New Zealand sales manager, working with managing director Martin Hall and northern manager Denis Quaintance, another former New Zealand manager.
SupplyNet is attempting to build online marketplaces using technology from US company Commerce One. Mr Anderson said it had found New Zealand customers.
"There's been a lot of education in the market and we're starting to see the take-up from companies who have been looking at B to B.
"SupplyNet has been one of the catalysts, because we've engaged in it in a businesslike way rather than just selling technology."
He said to succeed in the country, marketplace providers must address the needs of small and medium-sized enterprises.
