Winner: Information and Communication Technology

Patrick Costigan,
MotorWeb Services

Patrick Costigan is the founder of MotorWeb, a web based e-government system for the motor industry.

In starting up MotorWeb, Patrick became a pioneer in the e-govt space. At a time when the Internet was in its infancy, he sought to gain electronic access to government registries to generate comprehensive legal reports on vehicles and facilitate changes of ownership and other legal compliance transactions. The
MotorWeb system has since grown to include online documentation and is expanding to take on overseas opportunities.

The innovation behind MotorWeb also lay in its choice of market. Patrick recognised the potential of facilitating motor industry transactions with various government departments to improve consumer protection and reduce legal compliance costs (business-to-government).

This was unlike every other web enterprise that seemed to be pursuing the sale of retail products to the public (business-to-consumer). MotorWeb was also a true e-business with all aspects of the company conducted electronically, for example account setup, product delivery, invoicing and collection.

MotorWeb has been recognised for its innovation and success through awards such as the Computerworld e-Business of the Year award in 2003, highly commended in the Westpac High-Tech Awards 2004, and placed within the Deloittes Fast 50 in both 2005 and 2006. Patrick was recently featured in the IBM Business Insights campaign on innovation.

For over 10 years Patrick has also been the Chairman of The Inventors Trust, which helps inventors and entrepreneurs to protect, develop and commercialise their ideas.

Over the last 14 years Patrick has spent a huge amount of time sharing his experience with inventors on idea and business development, entrepreneurship, patent and IP protection.

Patrick has been granted 12 patents in the area of communications and information services and is very proud to be called an Inventor. He has also assisted the Foundation for Science, Research, and Technology (FRST) on ICT funding strategy, and research grant awards.

Patrick holds a BSc. in Electronics Engineering and a minor degree in Computer Engineering from the University of Calgary, and a Network Engineering qualification from the University of Toronto. Patrick was one of a handful of people to start-up Clear Communications.

Original article: Bayer Innovators