Australian tech companies are just returning from strutting their stuff in Silicon Valley. But is the US really taking Australian technology companies seriously?

Earlier this month governmental trade agency Austrade organised a tour of Silicon Valley for Australian businesses, which aimed to give them the opportunity to get mindspace with US companies.

Peter Lewis, consul-general and senior trade commissioner for Australia in San Francisco, said 12 companies had travelled to the US as part of the tour. The trip had included both a general briefing on trends in the US market, and one-on-one meetings with companies in the Valley.

Lewis said one company had signed an OEM deal with a US maintenance software company, and another had secured venture capital funding.

-They were surprised how cutting edge a lot of the Australian stuff was," Lewis said.

The US market has sometimes been seen as the holy grail for Australian technology companies wanting to extend their reach offshore.

John Brand, senior program director of electronic business strategies at META Group, said Australian companies have traditionally tackled the US market head on.

However, he said that this wasn't necessarily the best way to break into the US market for companies from Down Under. In contrast, Brand said that companies who based some of their operations, such as sales, in the US were more successful in penetrating the North American market.

He also cautioned that the US can be a tough market for Australian companies to break into. "The difficulty is we're always seen as the annoying kid on the block," Brand said.

According to Brand, Australian organisations were trying to break into the US market to either generate growth through targeting markets, to list on the stock market, or in order to be acquired.

He also said that the best time to target the US was when the market there was at a low. "It's actually a great opportunity for Australian technology companies to be more appreciatively compared," Brand said.

However, Australian companies are also being advised to look at other regions, in addition to the US, when looking to expand internationally.

Tony Burchill, ICT industry specialist at Australian government agency Austrade, said that between 200-300 tech companies contacted it each year to find out about doing business in the US.

Burchill said the US had always been the sector's strongest magnet in terms of overseas business. He attributed this to the size of both the IT and VC sector in the US.

However, Burchill said it was trying to build bridges globally, not just in the US. He said that companies were now more focussed on the global stage, rather than only targeting the US market.

Burchill said Austrade deliberately targeted the Australian technology sector. "If we want to be a smart country you encourage your smart businesses to internationalise," he said.

Austrade provides business consultancy style services to Australian companies wanting to break into overseas markets. It has 96 offices in more than 60 countries. "Because our charter is helping Australian business we have a very clear focus," Burchill said.

The agency has also just launched a new policy, aimed at doubling the number of Australian exporters from its current level of 25,000 across all industries by 2006.

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