Peter Kazacos - A numbers man at heart

PK Business Advantage (PKBA), is ready to take products and solutions from technology companies and combine it with voice products and deliver them to thousands of businesses across Australia.

“We believe Australian businesses deserve the best IT and communications service levels and expertise to give them a competitive advantage,” said Peter Kazacos, PKBA managing director.

“PKBA will offer the best technologies from global players to everyone — from city-based enterprises to emerging regional firms — enabling them to grow their business, improve service to customers and become more profitable.

“We have identified a clear need by the SMB market in particular, for a comprehensive, tailor-made IT and communications service.” He has built the company to act as a trusted advisor to emerging enterprises.

On the go
Since February 2007, PKBA has acquired regional-based IT and communications companies in South Australia, North Queensland and Tasmania, forming a national team of 80, which is growing. These companies include CWS in Queensland, Comstra in Tasmania, and Pecol in South Australia.
PKBA’s national network will provide a wide suite of IT business applications, services and infrastructure technologies, including IP telephony, hosting,
and consulting. PKBA has obtained top-level relationships with IBM, HP, Cisco, Microsoft, Symantec and other IT vendors to deliver these services. PKBA aims to be a natural home for innovators, encouraging the development of cutting-edge technology.

“These technologies will be implemented by PKBA’s locally-based operators, enabling regional Australia to rapidly improve their IT capabilities,” Kazacos said.

PKBA has offices in Sydney, Adelaide, Townsville, Hobart, Launceston and Burnie and plans to expand to other centres, as well as establish a national network of resellers, partners and vendors.

“Regional areas are currently under-served when it comes to gaining access to top-quality IT services. The SMB market is also lacking a one-stop solution to meet IT and communications needs. We believe PKBA will deliver considerable benefits to businesses as they seek to grow, no matter where they are located,” Kazacos said.

“The vision of PKBA is to enable emerging enterprises as well as large organisations to get the best out of their IT investments by deploying advanced technologies and working closely with our local service delivery teams.”

PKBA has already secured a number of state governments and regional IT contracts. Networking vendor Cisco will provide its suite of advanced communications technologies, enabling businesses to improve productivity, collaborate on projects and cut costs.

Former Servcorp chief technology officer Steve Lombardo will lead as PKBA’s technical director. Former Telstra executive Mark Stead and KAZ Group executives Conrad Hilder and Grant Anderson make up the rest of the senior management team. The 70-strong national team is likely to increase substantially as more acquisitions are made.

“The next big wave of IT is about everyone being connected,” Kazacos said. “The trick is to provide solutions that enable companies and people to do exactly that efficiently and effectively.
“PKBA will realise that vision for Australian businesses, both large and small, metropolitan and regional. We are empowering them to make decisions quickly while providing rewarding experiences for their staff.”

Finding KAZ
People may remember Kazacos as the founder of the KAZ Group, which he formed in 1988, and turned into one of Australia’s largest IT consulting and outsourcing IT services providers, employing around 3000 people.
In 2004, KAZ was sold to Telstra. Kazacos was kept on and stayed for around two years. However he saw Telstra lose focus on the business and decided to move onto the next stage of his business life, helping build premium IT and communications infrastructure across regional Australia.

“When I sold the business to Telstra 2004, for the first year I oversaw the business, but in the past year I have been working part-time. The other half was spent pottering around the house and I decided I had enough of time off and I wanted to do something in communications, where my passion lies,” he said.

Kazacos said he thought he had his dream of integrating IT and communication when he sold the business to Telstra. However when Telstra CEO Sol Trujillo took over, the service provider began focusing on Telstra and not fulfilling Kazacos’ combined dream.

“I think initially it was going the right way, however the government sold its stake in Telstra. Although KAZ is a large IT services company, in terms of its contribution to Telstra it’s small. The service provider is more focused on other areas in terms of investing and integration,” he said.
However Kazacos believes KAZ’s services to regional areas suits it better and the service arm of Telstra also has good customers.
“In the regional space there’s not much competition and there is a challenge to find the right solution, as companies can’t afford ‘perceived’ expensive solution from the likes of IBM,” said Kazacos.

A long time in IT
A 30-year IT industry veteran, Kazacos was the recipient of the inaugural Australian Technology Entrepreneur of the Year award in 2001, and was inducted into the IT and T Hall of Fame in 2004. He is also the current chairman of the Australian Information Industry Association, one of the peak industry bodies for the IT sector.

In these 30 years, Kazacos has seen everything from mainframes to PCs; to the start of the Internet which ended with a crash, and now the resurgence in IT and the Internet.

“It was sad in 2001 with the crash and the IT industry is suffering now because of the skills shortage. During the era of the bust not many people were taking on training in the IT sector,” he said.
Kazacos said he floated KAZ on the Australian Stock Exchange just as the Internet boom crashed, but was fortunate to have survived because it was a fairly new business.

“We floated in March 2000, four weeks before the market peaked. Then suddenly, it started to go down. We didn’t suffer as much as other companies because there wasn’t as much exposure of KAZ on the Internet, which saw us through the era,” he said.

After that, Kazacos (through KAZ) made a lot of money selling AS400, now called iSeries, by IBM. KAZ was also at the right place at the right time — a relationship with AMP saw it through Australia’s recession.
“At the time AMP was one of our biggest customers and the superannuation industry was recession-proof. I saw a lot of colleagues turned out because of the recession, but KAZ got through the period with that relationship,” he said.
Kazacos has certainly come a long way from his school days when there were no computers and just typewriters, and when calculators where only used in universities.

“I have always enjoyed business and I see this as something I enjoy doing.”
He obtained his formal qualifications from the University of NSW, where he did a double degree in engineering and mathematics and hasn’t looked back since.
According to Kazacos, back then all they had were giant machines and the key aspect of the IT industry was all about ‘information technology’ and how to benefit from it.

“People forget that in the early days in that industry analysts were looking at the way information floated and had nothing to do with computers, rather what it can do for you,” he said.

Going back to what IT really means
He believes now there isn’t the right level of information and people don’t know how to use powerful machines properly. “When I got my first laptop it was always running out of disk space, today USB keys have more space than the old diskettes,” said Kazacos.
“However people aren’t asking how to use the machines they have to gain business advantage. That is what the name of the game is now and a lot of people don’t understand the analysis of computer power. They use technology to cloud real IT issues.”
While the self-confessed gadget guy loves to play with technology and understands people’s need to have a go at new technology, he believes people should just leave
it at ‘playing’.
“Some organisations get bleeding-edge technology and use it for business. They become guinea pigs for suppliers. Investment in new technologies should only be made when it’s the right time. Do that and you will see an organisation get more satisfaction out of it,” said Kazacos.

“The next big wave of IT is about everyone being connected.”

“Investment in new technologies should only be made when it’s the right time.”