TPG is one Australian company that has, over a twelve year period, quietly and successfully built an international, research, design, development, manufacturing, sales and support capability that will help this country remain in control of its own destiny.

Altruism With Financial Stability

TPG has been profitable in each of the twelve years of its business life and its aggressive growth plans and considerable investment programs are premised on continuing, strong profitability. Each of its four separate operating companies have their own profit objectives. However, one of TPG’s major strengths is that the operations of each of the separate companies interlink to add to the presence and capabilities of the others.

TPG’s diverse operations employ the following people:

Management and Administration Sales and Marketing Customer Support and Service Product Development and Research & Development Manufacturing and Assembly

Recognising the inherent, eventual, limitation of Australia’s relatively small population base TPG has also established operations in New Zealand (1989), Singapore (1990) and Malaysia (1994).

TPG has a 12 year track record of continuous commercial success and is more successful in delivering real products to the user than any other Australian owned IT company and many multinational companies.

TPG remains one of Australia’s most successful locally owned IT companies.

Network Communications

TPG Network had its origins in the Federally funded, CSIRONET project commenced in 1969. This project’s Australia wide network and Australian developed packet switches were subsequently used by Federal and State Government bodies around Australia. There is no doubt that the network hardware and software products developed by this company over the past 25 years were, and are, in world class.

Since TPG acquired the company in 1992 it has become more tightly focused and has regained a commercial viability as well as significantly increasing its penetration of the Australian marketplace. There are now over 1000 of its TPG 7000 and 5000 Frame Relay Packet switches installed. This number continues to increase on a monthly basis.

This company has become a significant Value Added Network provider of growing status and is in the process of expanding its State Capital City trunk network into 100 country areas of Australia and also to New Zealand.

World Class Communications Designed

TPG Network evolved from the original group of people involved in network research and development at the CSIRO in the late 1960’s. This project became CSIRONET which first established a network between computers in Canberra and Melbourne in 1972 and progressively expanded that network to over 100 nodes and 10 host sites in Australia with a smaller scale version of the network being run by DSIR in New Zealand.

This network’s nodes/switches were based on PDP-11 hardware from Digital which by the end of 1970’s was becoming dated. CSIRONET put out a replacement hardware tender in 1980. When no suitable replies were received it was decided to develop the new network solutions ‘in house’. The first of these new products (Ultranode) was put into service in April 1983 and by late 1986 there were over 300 Ultranodes in four networks around Australia used by both government and commercial organisations.

By this time the project group was a commercially oriented enterprise and CSIRO decided to formally sever its connection by privatising the operation. This was done in January 1987 and many of the key hardware and software development engineers accepted positions with the new commercial enterprise.

The first major project undertaken by the new commercial organisation was the development of a new Frame Relay based packet switch and a continuation and widening of the development of supported protocols.

Major contracts for the supply of the new Frame Relay packet switch hardware and software were won in 1988 against the best, and much better known, products then available from US and European companies. From 1988 onwards the company’s Frame Relay switches, routers and software products remained at the forefront of communications technology and were selected, not only by Australian organisations but also by the New Zealand Defence Department.

Communications Hardware Total Solution

TPG Network’s current range of communications hardware products have evolved from an unbroken R & D and manufacturing effort that goes back to 1980. The TPG 7000 and 5000 Frame Relay packet switches allow a user to connect their LAN, PABX, Multiplexers, Voice Multiplexers, Video Conference Stations, Host Computers, Terminals, PC’s and other devices to virtually any communication medium.

These connections can be made over ISDN, DDS, Fibre Optic Cable, Microwave and Radio Modem links. The TPG 7000 and 5000 allow for the ability to integrate already installed facilities including Voice/Data/LAN/WAN and other network equipment. TPG Network also offers router and terminal adaptor products of its own design and manufacture.

Implementing The World’s Most Efficient Networks

Australia is a very large geographic area with a very small population that is largely concentrated around its shore line; over 50% of the total population resides in five seaboard cities. Compared to other countries it is also very different with a very significant proportion of its communications traffic being generated and received by its Federal administration base and by a number of remotely located mineral operations.

Communications models based on USA or European requirements simply do not match Australia’s topography and topology. Its three most, relatively, populous States (Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria) also exhibit hugely different characteristics. Queensland’s population is, essentially, concentrated in Brisbane plus five coastal locations. New South Wales’s population covers a similar geographic area but comprises Sydney plus twelve other locations, while Victoria is a fraction of the size of Queensland and New South Wales, with its population based in Melbourne and a, scattered, number of other locations.

In building its Australian communications network TPG Network has, obviously, first established trunk connections to the seven state and territory capital cities. It has also established trunk links to the two largest New Zealand population centres of Auckland and Wellington. With a growing demand for Internet services it has also established links to the USA and plans further direct links to the Asia Region.

TPG Network recognises the great importance of Australia’s non capital city areas and has made major strides in implementing a program to connect all of those population centres into its communications network by the end of 1997. This program will result in a Frame Relay (or ATM) connection of around 100 non-capital city locations into TPGN’s Value Added Network by the end of 1997.

TPG Network is an Australian company committed to providing all of Australia with the same connection capabilities as those enjoyed by residents of the world’s largest cities at lower costs by the end of this century.

Internet Communications

TPG Internet was established to service the growing need for cost/effective connection to the Internet by home users, small businesses and large organisations (both commercial and government).

The company has become one of the key Internet providers in Australia by providing the most cost effective services, not only in capital cities, but also in regional centres where its goal is to provide country communications users (both personal and organisational) with the same facilities and costs as capital city users.

World Class Personal Communications

Australia’s population of 18 million occupy an area slightly larger than that available to the 240 million people who live in the USA. The UK’s 60 million people live in an area about the size of Victoria which has less than 5 million people. However Australians need the same availability and quality of communications as do USA and UK citizens if they are to learn, work and compete on equal terms.

TPG Internet is a tiny company compared with the USA and European communication giants and Internet service providers who are able to access their facilities. However, the latest member of the TPG organisation, is able to offer communications access facilities to over 85% of Australia’s population at a lower cost in most circumstances.

From its inception TPG Internet has set out to offer the best Internet and Intranet access facilities in the world at the world’s lowest per hour and/or per connect costings.

It was given a head start to achieving this objective by gaining access to TPG Network’s trunk line backbone, Frame Relay hardware and software plus TPG Systems server products, offering best price/performance available to any Internet provider.

It was therefore not a newcomer in providing a comprehensive access topology and avoided the formidable amount of infrastructural set up costs and the acquisition of the wide range and quality of in depth technical expertise required to set up a competitive ‘carrier’ capability. It was also able to utilise TPG Network’s 10 years of experience in designing and operating a bottleneck free and optimally redundant carrying facility that would have taken many years to develop from scratch.

TPG Internet has therefore been able to establish an Australia wide network of scalable line bandwidth with fully redundant and bottleneck free Point of Presence servers and switches.

Providing Data Security

A main concern to Internet users over the past 25 years, since its original inception, has been the fear that by connecting their computer(s) to it they were exposing their key data to unauthorised access or destruction by disruptive persons.

There are certainly security issues to be addressed by anyone using the Internet who needs to protect their data. However, the protection levels and measures put in place are little/no different to those needed to protect data from other forms of unlawful access. TPG Internet will implement whatever level of ‘firewall’ protection a serious commercial user requires either at the users site or at our Point of Presence.

Providing Consistent Performance

TPG Internet has implemented a triply redundant approach to its main Points of Presence implementing three separate, very powerfully configured, servers to handle different aspects of Internet access and processing. These PoPs are connected by scalable trunk lines that can be ‘immediately’ incremented when traffic loads begin to approach levels that will degrade a user’s performance or increase their connection time charges.

TPG Internet continuously logs all traffic levels across all lines and all access points to determine, literally, minute by minute levels of all aspects of performance. The upgrading to ensure that additional capacity can be added as required without any disruption to any users’ access abilities or response times is assured.

TPG Internet intends to set the standards for Internet access and service, not just in Australia, but in the world for today and into the future.

Selling Australia’s Products Internationally

TPG Internet’s Web Site Hosting service specialises in advising small businesses on how to use the Internet to promote their products and services and also instructs them or contracts to design and set up the various components that will be the most effective in bringing about the desired results.

TPG Internet services continue to help Australia’s smaller businesses sell more to newer markets more cost effectively than almost all other media.

TPG Internet Helps Employees Become More Productive

Reasons for providing personnel with Internet access vary widely but the consensus of opinion is it improves personnel effectiveness in their jobs and provides them with a higher level of job satisfaction and enjoyment.

TPG Internet has made it much easier for Australian organisations to provide their personnel with Internet access by providing high bandwidth access facilities at much lower costs than have been available in the past.

By using TPG Internet an organisation can gain access to the world’s information sources that can assist a wide variety of different types of personnel at a wide variety of management or operative levels perform better in all sorts of different jobs.

Personal Computing

TPG Systems is based in a 4,200 square metre facility assembly plant and head office in North Ryde, Sydney, and has since 1986, assembled PC and server hardware which it supplies to the Australian marketplace through a 1,000+ dealer network.

The company’s production lines have the capacity to produce some 150,000 PC systems annually. Manufacturing around 4,000 PCs, Notebooks and Servers a month.

We provide a 3 year warranty on our desktop and server systems which we carry out on either a return to base or an on-site basis, depending on the clients’ choice and budget.

World Class Design and Manufacturing

TPG Systems has been assembling personal computers since 1986 and has been building file servers since 1991. From the first PC that was assembled on a cramped bench in November 1986, to the workstations that now come off the fully computerised moving assembly lines and burn in racks at North Ryde, the objective has been to produce computer systems of the highest quality but at a price that would ensure that they were competitive in what has proved to be one of the most competitive product market places in the history of the world’s commerce.

The TPG desktop and server products have been built using long term technology partnerships with key developers in Taiwan, Singapore and the USA. TPG’s motherboard designer and manufacturer, its disk drive supplier and monitor manufacturer have been integral to the consistency and quality that has been a hallmark of the product’s reputation for performance and reliability.

World Class Cost Effectiveness

TPG Systems’ automated assembly lines, long term technology partnerships and very astute buying capabilities have allowed it to continue to offer a high quality product at a very competitive purchase price. This policy will be continued into the future as more and more of the components of a personal computer and a low end server must be procured from Intel, Microsoft, Seagate and the two or three major CRT manufacturers.

TPG Systems, has an exceptionally streamlined, low cost, and efficient procurement and assembly infrastructure that minimises each cost associated with the production of a customer ready product. It can also utilise its relatively small size, compared with the USA multinationals, to implement the ever changing technologies used in computer systems faster than its larger competitors whose size actually produces significant cost inefficiencies in terms of forward ordering and multilayered inventory holdings. Being smaller than the larger manufacturers does not necessarily carry a cost of production penalty in this industry, often the reverse is true.

World Class Product Quality

TPG Systems sources the best components available anywhere in the world to build its systems and uses the most efficient and effective means of assembly that are available. The systems and processes used to construct a TPG product at North Ryde meet, and exceed, the international standards set for computer production (TPG has been certified ISO9002 compliant) and are constantly audited and modified to ensure that each individual system meets the exact expectations and requirements of its purchaser.

As well as component, system and process quality standards each TPG person involved in the selection, sourcing, preparation, assembly and shipment of a TPG computer system is carefully chosen against ‘world’s best practice’ selection guidelines and is initially trained and then retrained to perform each task to a standard that strives to achieve perfection.

We are not yet perfect and indeed we may never reach perfection in everything we do. However that is our goal and we know that to remain a viable supplier to our growing customer base we need to be better than our competitors in everything we do. This is our commitment to our own and to Australia’s future and to you, our clients.

Accounting Software

TPG Software (trading under the name Catsoft) was established in 1984. The company has written, sold and serviced a range of small and medium user accounting packages that have successfully competed with the best of their type anywhere in the world for over a decade.

With thousands of users in Australia alone (and a client list that looks like the ‘who’s who’ of Australia’s largest organisations) the company continues to invest heavily in new software developments and remains at the cutting edge of financial software innovation.

World Class Software Development

In 1984 two accountants in Melbourne grew frustrated with the limitations of the software packages that were then available on PC equipment to automate the preparation of various statutory documents and reports. They decided to form a software company that designed software ‘by accountants for accountants’.

The company they formed was named Catsoft (CAT being the acronym for Contemporary Accounting and Taxation SOFTware) and began the development of a series of accounting packages aimed at providing sensible solutions to all levels of the accounting profession, whether they operated in an advisory accounting practice or within a commercial or government structure.

Over the next eight years the company grew from modest beginnings to a well regarded, innovative accounting software developer with a growing customer base and a reputation for well-written products and excellent support. The four packages available (Assetcat, Leasecat, Taxcat and Ledgercat) each became the benchmark packages by which others of their kind were judged.

In 1992 Catsoft became a part of the Total Peripherals Group and since that time the growth of business has considerably accelerated. The four original product suites have all been upgraded and new packages released to serve the exacting requirements of Catsoft clients.

TPG Software (which continues to trade under the popular Catsoft name) has offices in both Melbourne and Sydney with a nationwide network of approved agents. The company enjoys a highly trained staff of programmers proficient in the latest development languages and techniques to maintain and update its leading edge applications. The company also retains its policy of only using people with accounting qualifications to design and test the code for its products.

Over its many years of existence the company has established and built on a reputation of excellence not only in the quality of the software it ships, but the ongoing service it provides to all clients. Catsoft has a number of support staff each proficient in a number of its products, available to render immediate assistance with all client enquiries via a toll-free 1-800 number. Catsoft’s sales consultants and agents are also highly experienced and qualified accounting professionals, able to provide expert advice and solutions to all customer enquiries.

Meeting All Of Today’s Requirements

Catsoft products are used by thousands of clients in every state and territory of Australia, as well as a number of overseas locations. These clients range from one man tax agents through all levels and sizes of accounting practices to a majority of the top 20 major accounting firms in Australia, and all of the ‘big six’ accounting firms. The products are also used by some of the largest commercial and government enterprises in the country, as well as a number of Federal, State and Local Government departments.

The diversified range of products cover a range of areas including taxation, general ledger, depreciation, fixed asset management and lease registers, and corporate register applications. Catsoft also provides a range of specialised services, such as consultation and on-site training. The flagship lease and asset register packages the company began with in the 1980’s remain the best of their type, and the strong market growth of the newer depreciation, client cash book and other products ensure that Catsoft will continue to be a force in accounting and taxation software for many years to come.

Catsoft staff will be delighted to provide you with more information on our company and services. They are based in the Melbourne and Sydney offices of TPG, contact details for which are on the back cover of this profile. Alternatively, why not visit the internet home page at: