SCCS vies for public sector with "aggressive strategy"

Southern Cross Computer Systems is hunting public sector clients with its expansion into Brisbane.

Melbourne-headquartered SCCS had been covering Queensland from its Victorian and New South Wales operations but opted to set up a satellite office in the state as it targets Queensland government contracts.

"What we looked at within Queensland is that they're heavily influenced by the government and some of the bigger enterprises there, which make it a very good market for SCCS to get into," managing director Mike Sakalas told CRN.

He said that by working closely with vendors currently on the Queensland government ICT services panel, SCCS would get the greatest chance of winning future government contracts.

"We have very strong relationships with some of the vendors that sit on the panel. We have the ability to work with the government through the different vendors, until we get those contracts directly."

"It wasn't cost effective to continue to cover Queensland from NSW or Victoria," said Sakalas. "It's gone off the ground very quickly.

"We already have multimillion-dollar contracts with customers in the Queensland market for the delivery of products and services. We have a footprint of eight to nine customers."

It is hoped the new branch will contribute up to 10 percent of revenue growth going into FY14.

It follows a period of strong organic growth at the company, which reported $83 million in sales when it was named number 30 on CRN's 2012 Fast50.

The most popular categories driving SCCS's growth are security services, managed services and cloud services.

The Queensland branch currently has three staff and the company is in the process of hiring five additional employees.

Sakalas was appointed as chief executive of SCCS last month after joining the company as a national sales manager in 2012.

"Taking on the CEO role, I want to make sure we're taking a very aggressive strategy and not backing down.

"We're still in a growth rate now. Were not losing customers, we're gaining customers."