Right Hemisphere

Corporate giants Nike, Boeing and  Chrysler are among those who have chosen Right Hemisphere's solutions to help them synthesize, compress and re-purpose valuable design content for wider use in a 3D format. Think 3D versions of product catalogues, training documents, technical documentation and manufacturing instructions.

"We help companies extract information from the engineering environment and use it for communications of all types within their company, with suppliers, with customers, with service people…keeping the information co-ordinated and linked back to engineering design changes," explains Right Hemisphere President and Chief Technical Officer Mark Thomas.

The company, founded by Thomas in 1997, shifted its headquarters from Auckland to San Ramon, California two years later - a decision that has proved vital to its success.

"The companies with the most valuable data and the biggest problems to solve are typically automotive, aerospace and heavy manufacturing in North America. It's been critical to go after a global market, to be able to put direct sales and support and decision making right next to the key customers," says Thomas.

Cultural and cost benefits to NZ R&D base

While the company is headquartered in the US alongside most of its key customers and backers, it has retained its research and development in Auckland - a decision that is delivering significant cost advantages.

Thomas estimates an approximately 30 percent saving across the whole of business compared with carrying out research and development in the US. This includes the cost of managing the development process - a vital consideration if drawing comparisons between New Zealand and other countries offering lower cost outsourcing options.

Thomas says the company's analysis has showed that while outsourcing may initially look attractive in these other countries, middle management costs tend to skyrocket when dealing remotely with differences in language and culture.

In contrast, New Zealand's English speaking culture is closely aligned with the United States, and combined with its expertise, makes for a cost-effective solution.

"Managing resource from the US and managing communications in both directions is obviously a little easier between a unified development in New Zealand versus some other places that are more well known for low cost programming," says Thomas.

This close understanding between Right Hemisphere's two main locations has helped the company flourish, despite different regulatory environments and time zones. Staff numbers have grown from around a dozen people in 1997 to 90 currently working across its operations, and in 2008 the company opened an office in Germany to service its European market.

Thomas says the growth of the enterprise-level visual solutions industry will, however, depend on companies realizing the competitive advantage 3D solutions offer for global operations. But, he believes the future is bright.

"It's about a $2 billion per year opportunity at the moment and it's growing fast," he says.

And, he says Right Hemisphere's plan for its future in this space is to remain out front as the market leader.