That said, there is a lot of activity also in the New Zealand market. Owens says much of the technology in the sector is very old and needs to be refreshed. With the focus worldwide increasingly moving to smart metering, Equip is well placed to service that need. None of the legacy products can do that, Owens says.

Optimation developed Equip in partnership with Satyam but last year bought out the Indian company's share.

Owens says Asia is potentially a multi-billion-dollar market. 'We'll partner with a number of players, both in systems integration and with complementary products, such as Oracle and Microsoft. Asia will really open up in 2007-08. Power companies in India and China have concentrated on delivery. Now, they're getting serious about billing and things that manage power delivery.'