Making efficiency pay
Mornington Based IT Company, Oasys IT became a managed-services provider in time to avoid the worst of the recession.
The introduction Oasys IT’s Net Protect managed services platform came at the right time for Oasys IT as it reinvented the traditional approach to serving customers.
“In our industry, traditionally, the better we are the less money we make,” Managing Director Glenn Phelps says.
“Why should the customer pay for a service technician’s ineptitude when an experienced technician can resolve an issue in 15 minutes that an inexperienced technician may take an hour or more?
“Under Net Protects managed services model the better we are at resolving issues efficiently and in a timely manner the more profitable we are and the customer benefits from that experience with less downtime and faster problem-resolution.”
Small businesses were quick to see the benefits, he says, especially since 90 percent of problems are fixed within the first 15 minutes of receiving the call using Net Protects remote access and diagnostic tools usually whilst the customer is still on the phone without resorting to a call out and the associated charges.
He says the new reseller model is a “win-win” for customers and Oasys IT because superior service is rewarded. Counting for over 40 percent of revenue, managed services are now a “significant part” of the business’s recurring revenue, he says.
The introduction of Windows Server 2008 with Hyper V also came at the right time for Oasys IT as it reinvented the traditional approach to serving customers.
Microsoft’s virtualisation technology, which more efficiently balances resources, also cuts down on the complexity his customers face, he says.
“Since the introduction of Server 2008 and Hyper V we have able to consolidate a lot of our customers’ server sprawl where they have been managing multiple servers for different roles and combine them all into one hardware platform with several virtual machines.”
Phelps says Oasys IT was built from the ground up with growth in mind and “worked hard to put in place the systems and processes required for a solid platform”.
“It wasn’t until we had all these elements in place, refined and tested that we put our foot on the accelerator,” he says. “Every project is carefully planned and resourced and we rely on our ability to utilise capacity planning to ensure that we have the right resources for the job.”
He likens the inability to plan to inability to feed: “Businesses that fail to plan will either die of starvation because they can’t attract or retain customers or they die of indigestion because they attract customers but don’t have the resources to manage them.”
The “science” behind managing growth extends to finding “good people”, professionals who know their products and implement the business’s plans and procedures.
Gazing into his crystal ball, Phelps identifies unified threat management, disaster recovery and backup services provided remotely through the internet or “in the cloud” as lucrative opportunities.
“We have invested heavily in the infrastructure to accomplish backup and disaster recovery in the cloud and provide cloud-based unified threat management solutions to protect our customers’ systems,” Phelps says. “We are already offering these services to customers so we see it as a competitive advantage for both us and them.
The other area for growth in cloud based computing is Software and Infrastructure as a service “It’s very flexible but I think the uptake will be slow and a lot of SMBs like the security of having their data under their control “[And] until Australia’s broadband network is capable of providing the speeds necessary, the uptake will be a gradual one.”
Despite these hurdles, he says the future of the IT industry in Australia is “bright for those astute enough stand out from the crowd”.
Oasys IT can be contacted on 1300 794 711 for more information or email info@oasysit.com.au.
