Portacom goes from mice to mining

Neil Hancock, managing director of WA-based Portacom, invented the mouse. Well, in a sense he did. But we’ll get to that in a moment. The company, which celebrates its 30^th anniversary this month, is now a managed service provider, one of HP’s biggest west-coast distributors, and a leading provider of disaster recovery services.

But about that mouse. Just over two decades ago, Hancock had visited Comdex and noted the profusion of touch-screens beginning to creep into the market. At the same time, the portable computers of the day didn’t really offer much in the way of pointing devices.

“The Sharp 6220 had a plastic cover that was removable,” he told CRN. “You took it off, and you could slot in an optional modem.”

Hancock put two and two together, and realised he could integrate the electronics from a touch screen device under the plastic modem panel and, voila! a portable touch device was born. A mouse, if you will.

“We had a patent over it, but the market essentially got away on us,” he said.

The Portacom story started when Hancock was an engineering student, and programmable electronic calculators were becoming the rage among undergrads. “I always did things differently,” he recalls, “and Sharp had introduced a pocket computer. Unforunately it didn’t have some of the math capabilities I needed, and so I taught myself to program.”

That lead to a short-lived software business, and a much longer association with Sharp, which actively encouraged the youngster’s efforts. Not long after the software company folded, he came up with the name Portacom, emphasising a specialty in portable computers.

“My parents told me I needed to do something with what we had, and it was either that, or get a job,” he said. The company, which currently employs around 12 staff (it varies, said Hancock), has been in the same location in Hay Street, West Perth, since it was founded.

“We’re just around the corner from all the mining companies, many of whom are clients,” he noted.

“We’re basically a jack of all trades,” he added. “We’re doing managed services, portable computer servicing, reselling and disaster recovery.”

Not bad going for a company that started with a basic pocket computer and a mathematical itch to scratch.