Strategic partnerships and a recent surge in unified communications sales have driven Cisco partner Pepperstorm to strong growth and the confidence to enter the CRN Fast50 awards list for the first time.
Launched in 2001, the integrator and Cisco training house has achieved Cisco advanced specialisations in unified communications, wireless, security and routing and switching, and is the national integrator for white goods retailer Good Guys.
According to Stuart Sharman, Pepperstorm's general manager, the company's policy is to work "flawlessly".
"Our previous owner and managing director was German, our CTO is German and one of our lead engineers is German, so we very much [do business] flawlessly; that's the philosophy of the company from way back," Sharman said.
Sharman said strategic partnerships - especially a recent relationship with Telstra - were a major driver for the business in recent years.
Pepperstorm supplies Cisco Unified Communications kit to Telstra customers with less than 1000 seats.
"We're a Telstra dealer now," Sharman said. "We're the Crazy Johns - if you will - of Cisco Unified Comms and we're actually the only dealer in Melbourne. Cisco does all the billing and we get all the commissions in the sales.
According to Sharman, the company "has always worn two hats".
"We're an integrator and we're a [Cisco] training partner. We've been number one rated trainer for a number of years. What's different about us is that we don't hires trainers, we hire engineers who work in our education business who can teach people.
"So when someone comes to one of our courses they're not just sitting there with someone that is showing slides from a book, it's a real engineer that does it in real life," he said.
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