The seed for his deep seated interest in the Web were sown and after four years with Suncorp Metway, he accepted the role of COO with WebCentral in 2000. “Four years on I took over the position of CEO. I’m more than happy to riding the WebCentral wave,” he says.
Spicer believes there’s been a resurgence of interest in the Internet again. After the internet bubble burst in the dot com era, companies were reluctant to touch the web.
However, big corporations and SMBs have figured out how to utilise the Internet. “They are really using the Web, because corporations to SMBs have worked out how to use it. They’ve realised unless the business sells books, CDs and DVDs, they can’t treat the web like an online store,” says Spicer. “Take the building industry for example; what these guys have worked out is their websites act as a lead generator. These guys realise no customer will buy a shower from an online store. However a website will help clarify questions have about installing a shower.”
Spicer says the internet has come along way with the distribution of ticketing, through online stores like Ticketek.
“It not just a sales process, it’s also become a delivery processes in ticketing. I am four train stops away from Suncorp stadium. If I want to go see a Rugby game all I have to do is go to Ticketek, make a purchase, print it out and fold the paper up so the barcode will work at the entrance. All that hassle with going to pick up the ticket after it’s purchased online is gone.”
He feels strongly about the growing trend coming from government departments to centralise their IT services and deliver it through the Internet. Education QLD has centralised its IT processes through WebCentral, instead of “teachers running dodgy systems”, says Spicer.
“I think there’s also a big wave coming through the small business sector. Virtually 12 months ago there were zero enquiries about our services. “Every business has an email server, but these are becoming expensive to maintain. Now they want fully managed email service which we host.”
According to Spicer, the technology industry is constantly changing and being logically minded has helped to ensure he’s caught the right technology wave. “Technology is such a rapidly moving innovative market and I’m a strategic person. I have to continually question which wave to catch, I don’t want to get to far ahead otherwise I might get dumped on. However I don’t want to get too far behind or I’ll miss it.”
Spicer continually keeps up with current product sets to see what technology is making money. However he believes knowing what’s going to make money tomorrow identifies who is the better company in IT.
“I think Apple is one of those great companies, especially at reinventing itself. It has created a whole new market for itself with the iPod and that’s the challenge in IT. It’s hard, but it makes life very interesting,” he says.
“I’ve been relatively lucky I made no bad bets in technology so far, not all of them have been correct, but it hasn’t been that bad.”
Spicer says WebCentral has been a really good decision in his life, even having to deal with difficult customers is not a big issue. “I think non-agreeable customers are interesting because they are usually the innovative ones that push the envelope, so it’s really important to listen to them. You will get the disagreeable customer who is obnoxious for obnoxious sake, but most of the time the difficult customers are leading edge.”
Good therapy
Spicer says there were seven members, including him, in the executive team and 200 staff members. He believes training staff to deal with these customers is crucial. Spicer also offers the ones that have to deal with difficult customers a lot support. “Especially the guys in debt collection, what those guys do can be difficult at times. We council them to talk to their colleagues, it’s good to get a bit of therapy,” he says.
Spicer knows the stress that can come with working in the IT industry. He has ensured the company has a ‘free Coke policy’, a fridge full of chocolates and free pizzas. “I think it is very important to attract and keep the right people. We also ensure there are drinks across the road every few months so everyone can have a casual catch up and we organise great Christmas parties,” he says.
Although he is dedicated to IT he tries hard not to let it take over his life, especially in the past couple of years. “I worked as a management consultant once and I had to commute between Perth-and-Sydney for seven months. I was only home one night a week, since then I tried really tried hard not to go through that,” he says.
“I have three boys and their endless sport regime keeps me busy. I also use to be in a band in my youth, so recently I bought a Gibson Guitar. I get a bunch of friends together and we have jam sessions.”
Spicer recently got back into surfing and has bought himself a McCoy surfboard and also relaxes with Hobie Cat, 14 ft Catamaran.
“After 10 years, my wife and finally finished renovating our QLD house, which we refer to as a house on a stump. It has great decks on every level, you could pick a deck for the season.” Balance is everything to Spicer, his job is far from dull, but it certainly not the only thing in his life.
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