Wellington (New Zealand), Apr. 6 : Former Black Caps captain Stephen Fleming and former Black Cap bowler Richard Petrie have set up Digital Publications, a company with the New Zealand licence for SmartBook software, which lets companies distribute large, media-rich documents electronically without losing image quality.

Neil Hucksteppe, a Kiwi based in Singapore, has developed the software - to distribute travel brochures, and is used by Premier League football club Manchester United to create electronic match programmes for overseas fans before games, reports the Dominion Post.

Fleming became aware of the software through Australian licensee Insite Interactive, a marketing agency.

"Insite used to manage me when I played international cricket and they came across to New Zealand about 18 months ago to talk about it. I was ''talent'' for them, I suppose, and I was looking for life after cricket," Fleming was quoted, as saying.

Australian businesses using the software include Commonwealth Bank, Telstra, Westpac and HSBC. Heat pump and air conditioning supplier Fujitsu is one of 20 companies in New Zealand to have expressed interest in the software.

Petrie says government departments and large city councils could benefit.

"There are a lot of organisations who want to save money and know that digitising things is the way to go but still think the technology is not up to standard."

Fleming says customers pay about 130 dollars a page to have "hard copy" documents converted into a SmartBook format.

Pages with embedded videos and other features such as audio and e-commerce facilities cost 200 to 300 dollars, but pricing varies depending on volume.

Businesses can then email a link to the electronic document to staff and clients who can download it to their desktops to read online or offline. Video clips and interactive features such as website links are available only online. Downloading documents will save businesses millions of dollars in printing and storage costs, Fleming said. (ANI)