Regional resellers: Griffith

Three IT leaders tell us about doing business in the food bowl.

Tony Andreazza, Digihometech

My business partner Adrian MIttiga and I got together one day after being employed in the IT industry for a number of years and decided to start our own business. 

We are a reseller of Leader Computers. We have a retail shop and we also repair computers, desktops, laptops and phones. We focus on the home sector, but we service small business too. The average home now has more than one computer, tablet, smartphone and laptop, so the home market is booming with technology.

With the lower costs of laptops and desktops, in most cases people would rather buy a new one instead of repairing it. In that case, we can offer them a new machine. But there are still viruses around and people want their computers serviced to keep them running optimally. 

We believe the key is to always be honest with people and get customers to return by building a good relationship with them from the start. We give them a service which is fast, friendly and professional and offers them good value for their money.

Fact file

Headcount  2
Established  2008
Directors Tony Andreazza & Adrian MIttiga
Main suppliers  Leader Computers

Livio Mazzon, Veritech Corporation

My goal after I finished university was always to work for myself.

When I started I was on my own, doing project management and systems integration. But what I found quickly was that in regional areas there was a limited number of large opportunities, so as I started to put on staff we branched out into technical support and managed services.

People talk about changing opportunities with cloud, but this industry has always been in a state of flux. Growth comes through the local economy, where we are fortunate to have a broad agricultural base with the industries that support that: banking, accounting, and legal. 

On one hand we are focusing on our local market, but we also look to expand on a regional scale as well. In the last few years we have been acting as a distributor for Bacula Enterprise backup software. We act as their master distributor with first-level technical support and sales. We never want to be a broad-based distributor, but being a niche distributor is where we can add value.

Fact file

Headcount  9
Established  1994
Director Livio Mazzon
Main suppliers  Bacula Enterprise

Tegan Le Page, Leading Edge Griffith

My husband Aaron and I purchased the business in 2010. We were looking for a new challenge and jumped in head-first. It was mainly retail then.

We worked hard on getting the retail side of the business up to the standard we wanted, as we did with the workshop for home computer repairs. But then we also focused on B2B and bringing that in as a third part of the business.

We want to maintain our retail area and grow that. We recently moved into the old Dick Smith building and are in a prominent spot. In B2B we concentrate on the SMB market. We do network installations, a bit of break fix, and are growing quite a bit in managed services. We have a fantastic team, but we are very particular about what kind of people we bring in. It can be difficult, not only to find skilled people, but also to find those who are going to fit in and share the same values we do.

Fact file

Headcount  10
Established  2010
Directors Tegan Le Page & Aaron Le Page
Main suppliers  Apple, Cisco, Lenovo, Toshiba