Regional resellers: Alice Springs

MacHeads: Brad Bellette, managing director

MacHeads started about four years ago. We have a graphic design and web business, and we deal with clients who have Apple products. I have 15 staff and we’ve always done our own IT, and it’s all Apple. Customers were always asking for help on a casual basis, and then it grew into a business.

No one else up here has the same level of experience that we do. We are known for it in the Northern Territory.

A lot of the big aboriginal land councils up here who have IT staff often ring us, so we are providing a remote support role in their creative media departments. Some of these communities can be 1,500km from where we are.

Much of what we see is when people have run over a MacBook Pro with their troopie, or the computer turns up and it is chock full of red dust, or left in the back of a troopie that has been driving over a thousand kilometres of corrugated dirt and the thing has been shaken to pieces.

And if we get any PC owners who call us up, we say, ‘No thanks’.

FACT FILE

Staff 15

Founded 2012

Director Brad Bellette

Main vendors Apple, Synology

Bizcom: Paul Lewis, general manager

We started off selling office equipment about 20 years ago, and we were the first Telstra dealer in Alice Springs. A few years ago, we started to consolidate the business by moving away from the average consumer market and moved into mid-range to higher-end equipment. We had always done corporate IT and saw a need to offer professional services.

Late last year, we became a licensed internet carrier and while we are not planning to compete in the large telco space, we provide services to the ‘black spots’ around town. People need to remember that anything that the major telcos are doing or plan is based on ROI. While NBN seems to be a good solution, I am a little sceptical of the cost effectiveness in smallish towns. 

The future is in consolidating the areas that we do very well in, continuing our commitment to service and, most importantly, addressing the customers’ needs. This is very different from selling an out-of-the-box solution or just selling for margin. 

FACT FILE

Staff 14

Founded 1991

General manager Paul Lewis

Main vendors HP, Cisco, Fortinet, Ricoh, Fuji Xerox, Konica Minolta

Red Centre Technology Partners: Damian Tite, IT manager

Red Centre Technology Partners came into fruition in November last year. Originally called Red Centre Office Technology, which began in 2005, it had been responsible for multifunction printers, contract support and some government work.

In November last year, we won the contract from the Northern Territory government to do desktop support for all of Alice Springs, working with NEC.

We grew from five IT guys to 14, and have expanded into managed services support, break-fix support, on-site technical help – the works. There are 48 staff in total. Our vision for the IT side of things is to offer managed services to businesses throughout Alice. And as a Leading Edge computer store, we focus on professional quality, and providing that next level of competitive hardware. 

FACT FILE

Staff 48

Founded 2014

Director Craig Reid

Main vendors HP, MSI, Lenovo