Alliance approach delivers real results to both businesses
“The results speak for themselves. Under our previous suppliers our business had stalled
and was at a critical point. Since partnering with Macquarie Telecom, Micronet's business
is burgeoning and we are easily achieving our customer take-up targets. This demonstrates
the value of a good partnership.”
Drew Arthur,
Director, Micronet Systems Australia
Overview
For many businesses, the decision to outsource their technology can be relatively clear-cut.
A lack of infrastructure, limited capital and insufficient resources can mean it is the only
sensible option. Finding a suitable vendor however, and getting the company to deliver on
its promises can prove to be a long, difficult and frustrating journey.
For Micronet Systems Australia, finding the right vendor was vital. The growth and success
of its new hosted services offering was counting on it.
After two failed outsourcing attempts, Micronet partnered with Macquarie Telecom for the
provision of a high-availability, complex managed hosting solution. The result is a relationship
that is of benefit to both companies: as demand for Micronet's infrastructure and services
escalates, Macquarie Telecom's revenue base increases correspondingly.
The Opportunity
Micronet is a leading developer of commercial business systems specifically designed for
small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs). Since it began in 1983, Micronet's range of financial
accounting software has been implemented in over 2000 importers, distributors, retailers,
job costing, manufacturing and service based companies throughout Australia.
Over the years, Micronet has increased its product offering to include Warehouse Management
Systems, CRM solutions and eBusiness applications. This enabled the company to provide clients
with an entire suite of business-critical software ranging from point of sale (POS) and accounting
right through to people management and paperless picking and packing products.
Micronet saw an opportunity to build on the products and services it offered and become
a one-stop technology shop for SMEs.
Its goal was to offer current and potential clients hosted data, storage, security and
disaster recovery services. These would be backed by customer support, warrantee fulfilment,
and ongoing training and development.
“We wanted SMEs to be able to connect and forget,” added Mr Arthur.
Micronet did not have the infrastructure, capital or resources to build and manage its
own network and data centre. It needed to find a partner with a strong customer service ethic
that could deliver the infrastructure and help it achieve its business goal.
“Like many of our clients our main concern was cost. This was a new market we were entering
so we were focused on finding a partner that would provide a lot of infrastructure upfront
and support it with a flexible payment option to mirror the growth of our client base,” he
said.
Despite appointing two consecutive companies – one of Australia's largest telecommunications
companies and a smaller hosting specialist – Micronet was unable to find a service offering
that met its needs.
Its hosted services business was stalled and at a serious risk if the company did not find
an effective partner.
The Solution
Following a three-month evaluation period, Macquarie Telecom was selected from a short-list
of three companies. Macquarie Telecom provides Micronet with a high-availability, complex
business managed hosting solution. This includes provision of multiple managed services, storage
on demand, dual homed VLAN, managed load balancing, managed firewall services and managed
intrusion detection systems.
“It was Macquarie Telecom's commitment to going that extra mile and desire to understand
our business which made it stand out from the crowd,”
The infrastructure is supported with 24x7 security monitoring and detection, regular patch
upgrades, application optimisation and regular performance optimisation. It is all underpinned
by Macquarie Telecom's business class DSL service and delivered via its nationwide data network.
Macquarie Telecom worked with Micronet to develop a contract that was sensitive to the
start -up nature of its hosting service.
The result is that both companies are now working together to grow each other's business.
According to Glen Noble, Macquarie Telecom's General Manager Hosting Solutions, “We developed
an alliance program with Micronet that sees Macquarie Telecom's revenue base increase as Micronet
experiences demand for its infrastructure and services escalate.”
Results
Since the move to Macquarie Telecom, the biggest single result Micronet has seen is the
reduction of downtime to insignificant levels. This has been supported by a four-fold increase
in server performance and extremely high levels of customer service.
“The alliance program means we now spend less time managing the contract than ever before.
As a result we have been able to focus our attention on growing the business and exceeding
our customer targets,” said Mr Arthur.
More than 10 per cent of Micronet's client base is currently signed as hosted services
clients. It is on track to reaching a targeted 15 per cent by the end of 2003.
“The results speak for themselves,” said Mr Arthur. “Under our previous suppliers our
business had stalled and was at a critical point. Since partnering with Macquarie Telecom,
Micronet's business is burgeoning and we are easily achieving our customer take-up
targets. This demonstrates the value of a good partnership.”
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