All Quayed up

Quay Corporate’s Managing Director, Delia Gill, tells The Channel about the company’s journey from retail to the business sector and shares its secret to success.

How did it all begin?In 1997 the retail store on Lambton Quay was getting numerous requests for business services, so resource was given  for one sales guy and ‘half’ an engineer. Twelve years later we have 12 full-time staff.

What changes has the business undergone?Quay Corporate started out producing PCs for the likes of Victoria University, Weta, MetService and various local  schools. Victoria (the main purchaser) moved the business to Dell in 2003. What was once a PC business that did a  small amount of network support became a network support and infrastructure business that also sells PCs.

What is your core business?It’s network infrastructure and support, based on Microsoft, Symantec, Cisco and HP products.

What are your clients and what business challenges do they face?Quay Corporate has an extremely varied and diverse client base, in industries such as aviation, retail, legal, maritime  specialists and government agencies; the list goes on! They range from one to 200 staff and stretch from Stewart Island to Darwin.

The recession has hit many of us and we are finding clients want to achieve more for less. Our challenge is to show our  customers how our IT support can help them reduce costs. We also have some clients suffering growing pains, so we  need to manage their current requirements, while considering their future needs and ensuring it is all cost-effective and flexible. No pressure, huh?

Is your physical location a challenge to doing business?Unless we have an earthquake (although, of course, we’re confi dent our building will survive) our location is great.  Being in Wellington, most of the CBD is within walking distance and the engineers can walk or bike to a number of our  clients’ sites. And of course, most things can be fixed remotely these days without leaving the office, saving our clients  costs of travel. So summing it up, I would say it’s more of an asset than a challenge.

What technology is hot right now?Hyper V R2 Clustering, Windows 7, virtualisation, SBS2008 and iPhones are all really popular right now.

What’s not?If it’s not hot, why mention it?

What’s the best thing about your location?We are right on the edge of the CBD, so we have direct access to the motorway just behind our building and our  premises has parking for 10 cars, which is a must given that our seven engineers all have cars.

Without giving away valuable IP – what do you think is the secret to your success?The team! We don’t really have much in the way of staff changes; we have been together for a long time now and  clients appreciate that. We have relationships that we have worked very hard on for the last 12 years. I think the other  thing we do well is knowing our strengths and weaknesses and not losing focus on our core business; for example, we don’t do CRM – we don’t want to do it – so we partner with someone who is awesome in that area. The trust our  clients have in us allows us to bring in external consultants when required.

We have a couple of mottos that have got us though the current recession so far:

• Continue to do what you have always done and you’ll get what you’ve always got.
• Find a partner that you really like and hold hands – life is so much easier when you have good mates.
• Keep your head down, bum up and move forward!