Harvest Technology’s remote-communications solution is an unsung Aussie innovation story, says its turnaround specialist CEO
The company is on a three-year mission to sing it louder and to reach profitability
Expanding from hardware tech to include a premium SaaS offering is expected to turbo-boost growth
Special Report: Harvest Technology is predicting a bright future for the success of its unique comms tech – and its share price – via a move to stability helmed by a proven “Mr Fixit” CEO.
One look at Harvest Technology Group (ASX:HTG) share price graph will tell you the homegrown, mission-critical-focused, remote communications tech company has had a choppy time over the past 12 months. Of course, this tells you nothing about the company itself, what it offers global industries, or where it firmly believes it will be placed in coming years.
So let’s look at exactly that, not least because it’s a classic case study of sorts, proving why even a company with a very strong unique selling point invariably needs much more than the strength of its products to thrive.
Stockhead got some insights from the top executive setting an agenda to bring the tech company to profitability and beyond. That person is the company’s recently appointed CEO and executive director, Ilario Faenza, known to those who know as a proven company “turnaround specialist”.
First, though, what is Harvest Technology?
Based in Perth and supporting communications-reliant industries and sectors worldwide—including defence, law enforcement, emergency services, energy and resources, and more—the company’s website notes that Harvest “enables industries to navigate the complexities of remote communications effectively.”
Its core offering is “Nodestream”, a sophisticated communications protocol designed to facilitate secure and efficient transmission of video, audio and data across diverse network environments, making optimal use of bandwidth, enabling situation awareness from remote sites and the ability to control assets remotely.
Faenza says, “Think mission-critical operations where it’s imperative you do not lose connection, for example, in defence operations or with autonomous vessels, in telehealth applications, or subsea operations. Nodestream is the communications protocol that enables communication in typically poor or limited network connection environments. That’s what Harvest does.”
If Hollywood were to portray this tech, we’re picturing it might look like a scene from a Jason Bourne film – a wall of screens, high-tech vibes and buzzing activity.
“That’s pretty much it, says Faenza – we’re talking cameras, drones, large screens, vessels at sea and more, embedded with the Nodestream tech, control rooms, the works.”
He adds: “If you understand TCP/IP, which is the internet protocol, think of it like Harvest wrote a better version!”
So, if this tech is so good, why isn’t it everywhere?
“I was sceptical at first,” says Faenza, who came on board in January this year, “but I’ve got a network engineering background, and frankly, the tech amazed me.
“And I equally couldn’t believe it hasn’t been properly commercialised. Why isn’t it everywhere?”
Why indeed?
“Most companies are good at building something or selling something. Not many companies are good at doing both,” adds the exec.
And it’s these two areas he’s come on board to solve and weld.
Faenza suggests that although Harvest has several existing customers and contracts worldwide (including notable ones in the defence, government, maritime, offshore, and energy sectors—e.g., Fugro, ExxonMobil, Marlink), It has yet to maximise its commercial potential.
“It’s an incredible, unknown story of Australian innovation,” he says. “All the tech is built and the code written by Australians in Australia.
“There are competitors, but ours is the only tech that can do as many as 16 channels down one connection and do video, audio and data and at the high level of encryption we offer.”
A three-year turnaround plan
So how does Harvest Technology maximise its potential?
The company believes turnaround man Ilario Faenza’s three-year plan to achieve profitability is a major step towards this.
Faenza has form here – having been instrumental in the People Telecom takeover success for its shareholders for example, among several other different turnaround stories with strong results.
Essentially, says Faenza, the plan is to deliver stability and profitability for HTG by the end of a three-year period through increased capability and productivity, strategic acquisitions, tight financial management, “leveraging existing top-tier clients”, negotiating major global customer contracts of $3m+ each, and “targeting new verticals.”
There is also a funding, capital-raising component, targeting a minimum of $2m but realistically requiring up to $4m.
The company’s first acquisition in the Ilario Faenza era is locked in. It is a small IT company that addresses capability and productivity gaps and offers more sales capability. No funding is required for this acquisition as it’s a 100% equity and profit share earn-out deal.
The plan aims to see revenue exceed $10.0m by FY27, and if Ilario’s record as Chair of Biome (ASX: BIO) is anything to go by, there’s a good chance that the target will be reached even sooner.
One final, crucial point – “diverse revenue streams and flexibility are essential in this market”
Another inclusion in Faenza’s three-year master plan was already just underway when he came on board.
The new SaaS version of Nodestream, “Nodestream Live,” now enables rapid service deployment anytime via easy online access. “Clients can subscribe and go live on their own hardware within hours rather than waiting for hardware to be delivered.”
“This flexibility and go-live turnaround time opens up additional applications and revenue streams in new markets.”
“Watch this space!”
This article was produced in collaboration with Harvest Technology, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of writing.
This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.
The post How this turnaround specialist aims to scale a high-tech Aussie remote-comms firm to profitability and beyond appeared first on Stockhead.
