Booming demand for computers and IT services in the education market helped to push Victorian reseller Network Neighborhood into the top 10 this year. Aside from strong demand through the sector, the company also rode the wave of the federal government's controversial Building the Education Revolution (BER) and Computers in Schools programs.
"It would be remiss not to say the Rudd/Gillard BER (Building the Education scheme) has helped with our growth in schools, as well as the PC grants," says managing director Hugh Marquis.
To date, most of the company's sales have come from metropolitan Victoria, although demand is beginning to increase in rural and regional areas. Marquis adds that the company is now getting calls from schools all over Australia including Queensland and Tasmania, two states where it is looking to establish operations in the not-too-distant future.
Network Neighborhood's vendor partners include HP, IBM and Lenovo. Perhaps the most important part of the company's story last year was its services business.
"Out PC business has grown amazingly, but it's really grown off the back of our support services," Marquis says. "You can't just move PCs without services."
Eighty percent of Network Neighborhood's new revenues for the year came from existing clients. Included as a proportion of services revenue for the first time were sales of extended warranties which have proved especially popular.
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