Dunedin company measures up globally
On the outside the building would not look out of place in 1910 Chicago – but as Consultancy House heads for its 100th birthday, one of its key tenants is very much a 21st Century Dunedin business.
ADInstruments beginnings go back to the 1980s when a young Michael Macknight finished high school and headed for the University of Otago to tackle the time-honoured science of physics and the new fangled discipline of computer science.
Casting round for a third year computer science project in 1985 Michael was aware that his father, Professor Tony Macknight – who was at that time the head of the Department of Physiology at the University of Otago – was unhappy with the performance of their old oscilloscopes and paper chart recorders. Developing a computer-based data acquisition system seemed like the perfect challenge.
“The Macintosh had just come out and I felt that here was a computer simple enough for people to use, without needing to understand DOS and other command language,” says Michael.
As he set about designing the electronics and writing the software it became apparent they could actually replace the paper chart recorders and offer a complete recording, display, storage and analysis system.
By September 1985 Michael had built his first MacLab and began to refine it into something that could be manufactured.
His father took the prototype to a conference in Washington DC where the system was soon spotted by Australian electronics engineer Boris Schlensky, who could see its possibilities for the world market.
Boris and Michael soon founded ADInstruments and worked together to develop the system, making them a market leader in the life sciences data acquisition area.
The company continued to grow and expand with the addition of Windows-based systems in 1997. A year later their entire range of PowerLab data acquisition systems had been made both Mac and Windows compatible.
Boris has now retired but ADInstruments continues to have its marketing and manufacturing operations in Sydney, while Michael has a team of more than 30 research and development people based in Dunedin.
The company has sales offices in the United States, UK, Germany, Japan, China, Brazil, India, Pakistan, Chile and Malaysia. Aside from the Dunedin contingent they also employ 40 people in Australia,15 in the US and others around the world. They also have company has distributors around the globe. The company has now grown to the stage where it will have over 100 staff and distributors attending the next company conference in Las Vegas.
PowerLab systems are largely used in life sciences, with about a 50-50 split between teaching and research across a range of fields ranging from biology, physiology and physical education to psychology.
ADInstruments have systems in hundreds of Universities world wide, including both the Oxford and Cambridge Physiology Departments.
The company also has industry sales, covering areas such as agresearch and pharmaceuticals.
Michael says ADInstruments’ focus now tends to be on developing more and better software.
“We are mainly a software company that also builds hardware. Software-wise there is more that we can do in the area of analysis.
“In science, techniques are always changing so there are also challenges. But there are also changes in technology that we can use to our advantage – for example huge hard drives that can store more data,” he says.
Technology is also allowing them to integrate video and data recording, and these sorts of innovations can be done more cheaply now with the development of simple USB cameras.
“Web-based technology also allows new opportunities with remote access to data and greater collaboration.”
It is this very same technology that makes it easy for a company like ADInstruments to be based in Dunedin, Michael explains.
“Being in Dunedin is not an issue. A lot of the technology documentation is available on the web, so being in Silicon Valley would make no difference to our access to technology.”
Running costs are much cheaper in Dunedin, which gives them a significant advantage when working in the software industry, and staff tend to live in the city for lifestyle reasons, giving the company a greater level of staff stability.
ADInstruments has also become an important focal point for the Macknight family. Michael’s wife Kelly is involved in business as an HR and administration manager, while his father is involved as a consultant, writing educational material.
The University of Otago is an enormous resource for the company. It provides new talent for ADInstruments, who offer a number of internships each year, and it is also a great place to trial new software and equipment.
“Our customers there are a microenvironment of the rest of the world. If they have problems, people elsewhere must be too,” he says. “The great thing is we can get there quickly to sort it out.”
Michael says if he didn’t live in Dunedin, he really doesn’t know where he would live.
“I live on the outskirts, just 15 minutes away and I can walk everywhere here to do business. There are no huge disadvantages – we have everything we need.”