Integ expands in the ACT with new office

Sydney-based voice and data integrator Integ Communications has opened another office, making Canberra its sixth state branch.

"We have got a number of customers in Canberra that we had been managing from Sydney, using business partners in Canberra account managed from Sydney," he said.

The new office would be initially staffed by one new hire with a technical person sought in coming months. Four or five new hires for Canberra were expected by 2005, he said.

Poole said Integ had grown "something like 28 percent" in the last 12 months. The market was ready to endure further Integ expansion.

"I'm very bullish about IT & T services over the next 12 months, although it might be quiet until after the election," he said.

Data applications and cabling were strong, although there had been a lull in voice work. However, Poole suggested this could be the calm before the storm.

The industry often experienced a lull during a phase of transition between two technologies, in this case Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) and IP telephony, Poole said.

"It's a full solution set we would be able to offer Federal Government," he said.

Poole said Integ had netted diverse Federal Government deals. However, the new office would enable Integ to work more closely with other companies in the UXC stable.

"Federal Government has always been important for us. We have had deals with IP Australia, Parliament House, and Canberra hotels and hospitals," Poole said.

Integ would be co-located with its sister UXC companies in Canberra, some of whom offered complementary services and products, he added.

"The big areas we are pushing in the next 12 months include IP telephony, security, and data. We're still seeing growth in higher level switching - layer four or layer five switching - and wireless both in the LAN and the WAN," Poole said.