Fast50 firm is catching its breath after a growth spurt

With a name derived from the Roman god blessed with speed and a knack for commerce, you might assume that Gold Coast partnership Mercury IT would want to remain an eternal fixture on the CRN Fast50. But Luke Halliday says the consultancy he founded in 2004 with partner Aj Williams has been taking a breather since last year, when the company made its second appearance on the list, this time at number 10 with 66.28 percent annual growth.

"Our model is to go through a period of growth and then slow down to make sure that everything is on track and our customers have been well looked after and are still happy," Halliday says. "The new management solution tracks our SLAs and that we’re meeting targets with our customers, [ensures] our service work is in one place and that we’re keeping our fingers on the pulse."

[ENTER THE FAST 50. HURRY ENTRIES CLOSE SOON!]

Halliday says they chose Autotask to run the business because it dovetails with the LabTech remote management tool and iSell’s ITQuoter, both of which Mercury IT already uses.

"We want to go through another growth spurt this financial year. We used the last year to step back and say, ‘OK, we need to get workflows in place so, as we grow, new people can fit into different roles and follow the process through a central system."

Mercury IT has hired an operations manager and office manager while beefing up the responsibilities of the service manager, he says. This enables Halliday and Williams to spend time seeking opportunities with partners such as vendors and distributors, assay the landscape, speak to customers and mentor staff.

Recently, Mercury IT won an ongoing contract to service Cash Converters’ shops on the east coast with their IT and networking.

Looking ahead, Mercury IT is doubling down on managed services and is set to roll out an ‘office in a box’ for select industries, Halliday says.

The two-times Fast50 alum is also about to do something it hasn’t done before – marketing.

"We’re looking at building our customer acquisition," he says. "We’ve traditionally [benefited] on referrals from customers and partners. We’re looking at extending that out and to hunt for business."

In addition to vendors Cisco, Amazon Web Services and Telstra, Mercury IT has added EMC for storage because it blends with Cisco’s infrastructure and the validated designs provide confidence when consulting to customers, he says.

"It’s really important to have the vendor saying something will work so we can focus on delivering the solution."