Written by Lesley Springnall of Unlimited Magazine

- Issue 113, Sunday 1 March 2009


Tracking systems are a dime a dozen, so find your value proposition – that’s the sterling advice Dunedin’s Upstart business incubator boss Norman Evans gave software developer Chris Hinch.

On day one of American businessman Scott Kasprowicz’s attempt to break the round-the-world helicopter speed record, his satellite phone failed. All the months and months of planning Kasprowicz’s Grand Adventure 08 could have come to nothing, says Chris Hinch, founder and chief executive of Dunedin tracking technology firm TracPlus. But TracPlus, as well as providing real-time tracking for the record attempt, had written an application allowing Kasprowicz and his co-pilot Steve Sheik to use their tracking technology as a global text messaging system. “So they didn’t have to abandon the attempt. They could do all their coordinating and get all their messages through TracPlus,” explains Hinch. 

Using TracPlus’s newly-opened US office in Atlanta, Georgia, the adventure’s AgustaWestland Grand helicopter’s combined tracking and messaging system enabled ground control to coordinate extremely fast turnarounds at refuelling stops. The quickest was less than five minutes, says Hinch. Kasprowicz and Sheik went on to smash the previous world record by nearly six days, taking just 11 days, seven hours and two minutes to circumnavigate the globe.

An obviously proud Hinch says the attempt gave the fledgling Kiwi company unprecedented publicity for its new US office and a great deal of credibility within America’s aviation world. Using TracPlus technology, record watchers were able to clock Kasprowicz and Sheik’s progress on the Grand Adventure website.

Closer to home, Kiwi and Australian internet sports fans were equally enthralled with kayakers James Castrission and Justin Jones’ epic trans-Tasman voyage. Jones’ mum was so impressed by the technology, she was quoted as saying that it was the first time in years that she had known exactly where Justin was.

TracPlus volunteered its technology to the kayaking pair after reading that they were persisting with the record attempt, even after the tragic disappearance of fellow Australian kayaker Andrew McAuley on his trans-Tasman attempt a few months earlier.

Hinch says McAuley did have a tracking device, but it wasn’t appropriate for sea conditions. That’s the beauty of TracPlus, he says. It’s designed to work with any tracking software or hardware, and across any satellite or cellular network, delivering data to whoever might need or want it.

This flexibility led Coastguard New Zealand to install TracPlus on all the 96 boats and aircraft in its national search-and-rescue fleet in August last year. Mike Lawrence from Coastguard Northern Region says choosing TracPlus was basically a no-brainer, because it was the only system providing a national solution.

Hinch is a former staffer at Ian Taylor’s Animation Research, which developed America’s Cup software Virtual Spectator. He says the idea for TracPlus was born out of a fatal boating tragedy in 2003, when three men died off the north Otago coast after precious rescue time was wasted due to a mix up with beacon signals.

In his spare time, backed by revenue from his own software firm, Hinch set about developing a system that would allow rescuers to locate all their craft and seamlessly share that information with other rescue agencies to maximise coordination efforts.

But all that effort would have come to nothing, Hinch says, if not for TracPlus’s relationship with Dunedin’s Upstart business incubator and the advice of its chief executive Norman Evans. “Prior to our incubation, he said, ‘Look, tracking systems are a dime a dozen. Go away and work out what the value proposition is.’” That’s what prompted Hinch to develop a system that would work with any hardware, software and satellite system on the market.

Throughout the two-and-a-half year incubation of TracPlus, Upstart helped mentor the fledgling company, helping it build a board that kept Hinch’s eye on strategy and off the operations minutiae of the business. Without Upstart’s input, Hinch says TracPlus would probably still be a struggling bespoke software company with delusions of grandeur. “Now we’re a little multinational company with delusions of grandeur.”

To date it’s been all up for the company, having never lost a customer since TracPlus was launched in August 2007. As well as the Coastguard in New Zealand, TracPlus now supplies its tracking technology to more than 80% of New Zealand air rescue operators and support operations in 22 countries from Mongolia to Antarctica. Its main focus this year is the US, but there are plans to set up a European office within the next 12 months. Hinch is cagey about finances, but says the company is on target to break even this financial year.