Regional Resellers: Geelong

SkySoftware: Nick Stanley, CEO

Sky Software, established in 2010 by merging Pepi Systems and Accounts IQ, was bought last year by British education services provider Tribal Group. We now employ 68 staff, mostly in Geelong, and provide education management systems. 

Our Sky Campus integrates student administration functions and includes a web-based, self-service portal for students that can be deployed in the cloud or on-premise. We’re rolling out the portal to a state-based education provider serving 172,000 students in a five-year managed services contract. Since students can action their own requests, this will cut contact centre costs and delays. 

Work-life balance is great in Geelong but access to resources at scale is limited. I’m passionate about technology and how it drives positive behaviours. If, through Sky Software, I can make our clients’ lives easier, along with their students, then I have the energy to drive forwards.

Geelong Telephone Company: Renato Trentin, managing director

I bought into this 35-year-old business in July 2013. We now employ 12 and have plans to add three more staff. 

We have two divisions: cabling, which manages infrastructure; and voice solutions, which sells and manages PABX, cloud, carrier and other services. We resell NEC, Panasonic, Aria Technologies Solutions, Huawei and AAPT. 

We are certified on TE Connectivity, Panduit, Molex, and AFC cabling and fibre. Before coming here, I worked in IT for 30 years in senior executive roles at Nortel, Lucent, Ericsson, and Openwave Systems. 

Late last year we won the project to install telecommunications infrastructure at Epworth Geelong Hospital – our biggest project. Cash flow is our major challenge; large construction industry players have long payment terms. But Geelong Chamber of Commerce has been very supportive.

While the region’s poor data infrastructure is frustrating, 2015 is looking to be one of our best years yet.

Geelong Technology Group: Ben Russell, founder

From a business I founded in my spare bedroom in 2000, we now employ eight staff at our new premises in the Waurn Ponds Shopping Centre, servicing Macs and PCs for home, small businesses and education. 

Recently, we were appointed as the only Apple-authorised iPhone service provider in Geelong; and the NBN rollout here has also kept us busy. 

We just won a bid to set up a new cardiology business customer on a Mac and Genie clinical management solution. 

Living in Geelong is great: no traffic, amazing beaches and Melbourne an hour away. But being in a small town, bad word-of-mouth travels fast. Finding the right staff to represent us in a service environment is our biggest challenge and one of the most rewarding.  

Another reward is the satisfaction from designing systems to suit clients’ needs and into the future. Watching our business grow with the hard work and dedication of our great staff makes it a pleasure to come in every day.