SecureTel rebrands, moves to larger site

Specialist IT security services provider SecureTel has rebranded as SecureTelecom and moved to larger premises in central Sydney.

Dave Stevens, managing director at SecureTelecom and sister company Brennan IT, said the company had been seeking to trademark its name to boost the brand to support ongoing growth in the business.

However, the company had not been able to trademark the name SecureTel because it was too similar to one already registered, he said.

"We were in the process of going through and trademarking our brand name. The likelihood of getting that trademark was small, just because of the similarity of the phonetic sound," he said.

SecureTelecom had meanwhile moved into new, larger premises at 45 Clarence Street in central Sydney, a few streets away from its previous site. "It's 50 percent bigger," Stevens said. "And beautiful."

He said the company had spent a couple of million dollars fitting out the new premises, which included a "big new data centre" and testing and delivery facilities complete with diesel generator backup in case of disaster in the central city.

Both moves were on the back of company growth, especially its success in selling desktop and network security services, Stevens said.

"This year it grew 44 percent [by turnover]. Last year, it grew 86 percent [by turnover]," he said.

People had originally thought SecureTel was a bit of a gamble when the operation started in 1999 but it was one that so far had paid off, he said.

Stevens said registering a business name as a trademark meant no one else could use that name or logo. The move, which he said generally cost a few thousand dollars, was an investment in brand equity for the future and a logical progression for the company.

"The problem is you've got to trademark in every country. We're going to do the NZ ones now," he said.

Brennan IT had also proved to be a difficult name to trademark, because it was a surname. But the company had got past that hurdle, Stevens added.