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Contents 
Introduction
Profitability plus
Improving on multinationals
Niche skills on tap
The local touch
In defence of multinationals
Executive summary |
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Other local companies manage to make their local services compelling by not only pitching at the right level for local companies but actually designing them to exceed the services offered by multinationals.
Simon Durkin, sales director of Melbourne-based Interactive, a provider of support for third-party hardware including proprietary platforms built by offshore companies, says his company strives to beat offshore competitors with a more comprehensive service, delivered more consistently.
"We have every spare part for every machine we support in Sydney and Melbourne," he says. 'We guarantee 100 percent availability in our contracts," so that whatever component a customer needs, Interactive delivers and installs it within hours.
To enable this service the company operates warehouses full of components, and also operates computer rooms full of equipment waiting for its customers to use in the event of a disaster, and sells either dedicated replacement units or shared subscriptions.
Durkin believes the company's double-digit year-on-year growth is testimony to the fact that it offers better support services for IBM and HP hardware than those vendors' own services organisations.
"We say to customers: ‘come in and touch the tin'," he says. "We are often competing with the people who made the machines, but customers can see the investment we have made, because sometimes even when they are under warranty they cannot get a fan from the OEM." Interactive is also transparent in its dealings with customers, telling them up-front how many others share access to its systems.
Investments in customer service also help outdo the global players. "Each customer gets a dedicated engineer," Durkin says. "Our large competitors might send a different engineer to each support call. Our customers get someone they know and who knows their business."
Relationships develop to the extent that Durkin says Interactive's engineers often become a trusted source of casual IT advice. "You can only do that through having good relationships in place," he says.
Professional Advantage's Rippingdale has similar views. "As a smaller company you have to live with your actions," he says. "You can't sign a deal and then walk away from it."
Professional Advantage makes a large investment in training and retaining staff. "They don't stay with us because we have a halo," he says. "They stay with us because of the experience. We expose them to different things; give them different roles on each project."
"What is good for the staff is good for the customer because they get someone who can be responsive."
