It’s not a stretch to say that when it comes to consumer plays, Australian tech startups have been relatively unsuccessful. Of course there have been some hits (I won’t name any, because I’m scared of offending people who we may leave out) but in the greater scheme of things we’ve been woefully under-represented when you consider the skills and education that exist in this country.

With that in mind, it’s pleasing to see Aussie startups focusing on the enterprise competing not only with global tech startups, but the incumbents as well. Below is a list of some of those enterprise-focused companies that are out there creating a reputation for Australia as a breeding ground of high-quality business-relevant web apps.

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Atlassian - Collaboration Tools

Is it a startup? Who knows. Co-founder Mike Canon Brookes feels that it still is, so that’s good enough for us. Atlassian has been the shining light of the Aussie tech startup scene over the past few years. A company that focused on enterprise while everyone else was looking to consumers. A company that focused on revenues and a unique distribution model in order to compete with the incumbents rather looking to traffic and advertising as so many other were.

For those who question Atlassian’s success, the numbers don’t lie:

• Founded 2002
• 14,000+ customers in more than 108 countries
• 195 employees worldwide
• Headquartered in Sydney with offices in San Francisco and Amsterdam

The fact that the HQ is in Sydney also goes to show that it’s possible to stay local and succeed globally.

While Atlassian produces a wide-range of products, it’s their collaboration tools that we love the most. Definitely worth checking out if you can.

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Saasu - Accounting

When you think about business accounting software, the big names used to be Sol6, Quicken, Accpac and MYOB. That was, of course, until MYOB purchased Sol6’s accounting and compliance business and turned the market into a 3 horse race. Now Saasu has entered the market and is gaining reputation and customers every day because of the simplicity of its software, its wonderful customer service and it’s focus on Software as a Service (SaaS) as a distribution method while the big boys were convinced it was a fad.

If Saasu continues its stellar growth it won’t be long before it becomes one of the big boys too. If you’re looking to try it out, there’s even a transaction-limited free version for you to trial.

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Affinity by Hiive Systems - Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

CRM systems are a critical component of most businesses these days. There are a multitude of options, including Microsoft CRM, Salesforce.com, Oracle CRM and SageCRM. Despite this, we (at TechNation Australia) use Hiive Systems’ Affinity. We do so because of how complete, yet simple to use, the app is and because of the incredible support your get from the Hiive team.

Again, the sheer complexity of setting up and integrating a CRM system is often the highest barrier to entry for most organisations. Remove that and you have a solution like Affinity which is ready to take on the world.

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Ross Dawson, Mr Enterprise 2.0

It would be hard to speak about Web 2.0 in the workplace without including some info on Ross Dawson. Ross is a world-renowned thought leader on the future of business. He regularly does keynote speeches for some of the world’s largest organisations, about the role of Web 2.0 in the enterprise, and has a knack for providing wonderfully simple and visual models that explain complex ideas and relationships.

Having Ross as a resource, locally, is defineilty a competitive advantage for any local startup looking to move intot he Enterprise space.

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There are, no doubt, more Aussie startups playing in the enterprise space (feel free to give yourself a plug in the comments), but these guys are standouts.

While reviewing them, certain trends for success became evident:

1. Make software easy to use
2. Keep software functional and as powerful as necessary for your target market
3. Focus on Customer Service and Experience
4. Focus on innovation and keep looking ahead
5. Distribution is critical

Simple to say, and maybe even obvious, but the point is that these teams have done this and have positioned themselves to take on software bohemoths - something that was unthinkable 10 years ago.

If the consumer web 2.0 wasn’t really a big hit for Aussie startups, then maybe Enterprise 2.0 will be the driving force behind the local startup industry. In light of the current consumer startup conditions, that may very well be the best outcome for all of us.