When new Australian software company LongReach Software was launched in Melbourne last week a common thread linking the key players was immediately apparent linking the owners and several key executives: Hypertec.

The owners of the business are Geoff O'Reilly, formerly chairman and shareholder of Hypertec; Colin Lilywhite, formerly managing director of Hypertec; and Greg Scholten, who joined the company from MobileSoft although he had previously been national sales manager of Hypertec.

In addition, the developer of the Datalive technology at the heart of the company's product offerings, and now chief technology officer of LongReach, is James Ross, formerly a development specialist with Hypertec.

Datalive is described as a middleware product for database owners which eliminates the need for Web page programming when migrating corporate databases online. The company has an enterprise edition of the product for large organisations, a version for ASPs and a version for Microsoft Access users.

LongReach is wasting no time getting on to the international stage as CEO Scholten already has plans to set up operations in the US and to appoint international distributors.

Hypertec was taken over last year by Danish company Memory Card Technology following which O'Reilly and Lilywhite joined forces when they launched RAM-based solid state drive company Platypus Technology in March.

Sausage founder cashes in his chips

Steve Outtrim has resigned from Sausage Software, the Internet tools developer he founded five years ago. "The company has come a long way in five years and I'm proud of what it has become," said a quite seriously wealthy Outtrim. "We have faced many challenges together and have overcome them all to enter the 21st century as Australia's largest electronic commerce company".

Gil Hoskins, chairman of Sausage, acknowledged Outtrim's contribution to the company when he said his "enthusiasm and innovative spirit are ingrained in our corporate culture and represent an enduring legacy that will shape the way we grow".

In the wake of Outtrim's departure the company will restructure its board.

Around the traps

In a search for stability following the departure of CEO Chris Tyler, Solution 6 has boosted its board with the appointment of three new directors. The three are:

John Burrows, who has held a number of positions at Arthur Andersen and is a member of the firm's Global Executive Committee;Neil Gamble, an IT industry veteran who held senior positions with DEC and Wang in the 1980s and was more recently CEO of Star City Holdings and Australis Media; andTom Montgomery, the CFO of Solution 6.

AMP has recruited Warwick Foster from its rival Colonial Ltd to fill the CIO's role. Foster had been at Colonial for five years, prior to which he had held a number of positions at Coles Myer, including general manger of information services at K-Mart. His appointment to AMP follows the transfer of the AMPlus technology group - formed by AMP and Andersen Consulting - back to AMP. Current CIO Dave Hoffman will return to Andersen Consulting after a transition period.

Contract manufacturing company HarTec has restructured its board to capitalise on a number of recent business successes.

Morris Symonds will resign as CEO and become executive chairman;Andrea Taylor has been appointed managing director. She was previously executive director of corporate services;Roger Flynn has been appointed non-executive director. A former managing director of Siddons Ramset he is also on the boards of Hills Industries and Wattle Ltd;Allan Farrar will resign as non-executive chairman but will remain on the board; and Michelle Frosley, formerly finance manager, has been appointed CFO and company secretary.

Lindsay Fisher, chairman of the board of Westel, has assumed the roles of managing director and CEO following the resignation of Scott Frayne.