Distance works for Comscentre

WITH hard work comes good fortune; at least that’s what Ben Shipley and business partner Mike Dobbins have found since they established communications service and internet protocol systems provider, Comscentre, in 2002.

The duo spent almost four years of extensive research and development into wholesale price modelling, proof of concept and systems building, before launching the Comscentre platform onto the market.

By the end of 2005, the business achieved its goal of developing a product combining all-voice communications, consolidating a dozen suppliers into one.

During the past four years, Comscentre has expanded nationally with offices now in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, and Perth, which is taking on almost 30 new clients a year.

John Kennedy was recently brought to Perth as acting state manager to oversee the growth of the branch in Western Australia.

The national company, which employs 47 full-time staff and about 20 contractors, with the Perth office expanding to six workers, has used WA’s isolation to its advantage to take a stronghold in the burgeoning mining industry.

Comscentre WA’s current key clients include mining equipment manufacturer Cameron Australasia, minerals explorer Regis Resources, and oil and gas exploration company Oilex.

“We have always seen Western Australia as a key market. It is a harder market to support than the east coast, because of the distance and cost of doing business is high,” Mr Kennedy told WA Business News.

“We have found that wages pressure is acute, however this is also our competitive advantage in working in Western Australia.

“We are able to provide resources and a complete service that is not reliant on local labour. This means we can provide support and services to the most remote parts of Western Australia at a fraction of the price.”

An ongoing issue for the company, however, has been labour resources and maintaining a high level of service.

Both Mr Shipley and Mr Kennedy concede that, at times, the business has struggled in that regard.

“The only real way we have been able to combat quality, and at the same time keep growth growing, especially in state like WA where we have real competitive advantage, is to invest in systems,” Mr Kennedy said.

Each year the business spends more than 15 per cent of turnover on existing systems maintenance, new system development and enhancements to products.

This has helped reduce costs and keep a lid on prices to customers.

Comscentre is yet to raise prices on an existing customer for its current suite of services.

Mr Shipley said the business was careful to grow its WA branch in line with increasing revenues from the state.

He said the distance issue had been overcome by way of a 24-hour help desk and national agreements, which meant the east coast operations subsidised the remote WA clients.

In turn the revenue raised by clients in the eastern states had facilitated the company’s expansion in WA.

“The system development enhancements have also given greater visibility to these clients for remote diagnosis and faster turnaround times,” Mr Shipley said.

“This has meant that we have been able to centrally locate highly skilled engineers who can talk work, diagnose and solve problems literally thousands of kilometres away.”

As a result, Comscentre has increased productivity, lowered service delivery costs and enhanced customer satisfaction levels, while decreasing the amount of hours required for staff to work.

“Our model is based upon converging existing voice and data networks on a single IP-based network,” Mr Kennedy said.

“We have found that businesses can significantly lower their total cost of network ownership by reducing expenditures associated with ad-hoc equipment purchases, network administration and carrier charges.

"Profitability is increased through the better use of communication systems, slashing the amount of time spent using the phone and increasing efficiency by a measurable amount."