ICL Australia Pty Ltd has teamed up with local firm Datacraft Ltd to seek a major share of the networking market Down Under. The two plan initially to make joint bids for large government and commercial tenders, with ICL bringing its public sector, retailing and financial systems skills to the party, and Datacraft its networking products and support skills – Datacraft is keen to expand its X25 packet switching systems business, and to find export channels for its products. It will also market ICL communications products such as the OSLAN local area network and integrated management systems on an exclusive basis. The agreement also involves joint development of new products, and Datacraft manufacturing ICL products in Australia under licence. Datacraft claims to be the leading Australian supplier and manufacturer of data communications systems and equipment, with annual turnover of $Aus60m – that’s $41m.
