An Adelaide software company has used the Internet to sell its products to clients in more than 40 countries. In fact, WebGenie Software has mastered the art of Internet marketing to such an extent that it has sold products in 32 countries before its first product was bought in South Australia.

While the Internet has generated a huge amount of Interest worldwide, with many millions of people logging on to use its resources regularly, the holy grail of actually making money from the Net has eluded many companies involved in the new medium.

With projected sales of $2 million for the next financial year and only nine part-time staff, WebGenie claims it has worked out the dynamics of successful electronic commerce. Describing itself as a "virtual corporation", WebGenie Software is the latest company to emerge from the University of Adelaide, assisted by the university's commercialisation company, Luminis. It has already been invited to become one the first companies to benefit from the Playford Centre, the State Government incubation facility for software companies.

"Our electronic shopfront is solely on the Web and all product distribution is carried out on-line," said Dr Arapaut Sivaprasad who founded WebGenie in 1995 when he was senior computing officer at the University of Adelaide's Department of Biochemistry.

"The business was originally created to provide Web page authoring and consulting services to customers wishing to utilise the Internet," he said. "Towards the end of 1995, it was evident that the area with almost unlimited potential was the development of quality Internet software tools."

WebGenie's flagship product, CGI*Star, allows users to receive and control input from forms on pages on the Internet's World Wide Web. It does this by automatically generating Common Gateway Interface (CGI) scripts, which allow form information from Web pages to be transmitted to specific e-mail addresses. This means someone browsing the Web can fill in their contact or product order details which are then transmitted via e-mail to the online retailer.

Effectively, CGI*Star can provide the backbone for companies selling products and services within the booming electronic commerce market. Web forms are also used conduct on-line surveys, feedback and subscription services.

Launched in January last year, CGI*Star has achieved outstanding results, with purchasers coming from more than 40 countries around the world. WebGenie's customers include Compaq Computer, General Electric Corporation, Lockheed, SkyNet Asia, US Robotics, KPMG Consulting (Japan), Monash University, US Government Department of Human Services and Health, the US Army, Brigham Young University, the US Air Force and Hewlett-Packard Germany.

Microsoft has recommended CGI*Star as a server tool while the software was selected in the March 1997 edition of PC Computing as a hot download on the Net.

Since the release of CGI*Star, WebGenie has created additional products including Banner-Show, a Windows application which simplifies the creation of Java and Javascript rotating banners. Banner-Show can be used to generate advertising banners on Web pages, rotating announcements, graphical links to other parts of the Web site and slideshows.

Another WebGenie product is Guestbook*Star, which creates guestbooks that can collect feedback from visitors to a Web site. WebGenie also creates a product that can help you send an unlimited number of personalised e-mail messages.

Mail*Wiz creates a Web-form based mailer that sends personalised messages to each person on a list, including a facility to address each recipient by name and include a personal message.

In February this year, WebGenie released CGI*StarPro, a fully featured professional version of the CGI*Star software product. CGI*StarPro creates instant Web forms which can be setup, tested and run on the WebGenie server.

By John Harris