Growth 2012: Channel opportunities

Growth is the fundamental aim of all businesses if they want to survive. Over the next two weeks ARN is looking at 10 channel-relevant technology companies that have achieved significant growth over the last three years. Our writers reveal some interesting game plans and methods of growth. The companies are drawn from the latest Deloitte Technology Fast 50 program. Now in its 11th year, the program ranks 50 of Australia’s fastest-growing public or private technology companies, based on percentage revenue growth over three years (2009 to 2011). For further information on the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 visit www.tech50.com.au.

Ultra Serve

• Deloitte Technology Fast 50 position: 34
• Interviewee: CEO Samuel Yeats
• Key quote: “We set ourselves apart from some of our competitors by not being just a carrier, a data centre or a systems integrator”

2011 was a successful year for Sydney-based Web hosting service provider, Ultra Serve, to such an extent that it came in at 34 in the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 Australia 2011 program.

Ultra Serve CEO, Samuel Yeats, attributes the company’s growth to a variety of channels, with one being its existing customers.

“We generally deal with high growth customers and they continue to grow, and we continue to increase capacity to service our existing customers,” he said.

The company also has a stream of new business that is significant, as well as a growing channel, which have contributed to Ultra Serve’s expansion in 2011.

“We set ourselves apart from some of our competitors by not being just a carrier, a datacentre or a systems integrator, which means we can partner neutrally with any of those vendors that have access to customers and deliver these key value added Cloud infrastructures and services,” Yeats explained.

He also points out that being an Australian founded company helped Ultra Serve stand out from some of the other international players, as local customers “tend to look for Australian operated and owned services” to give them certainty about the location of their data and other factors.

One of the challenges Ultra Serve had to contend with in 2011 was accommodating its growth through staffing.

“It’s a tough job market at the moment, so we need to create innovative ways to attract and maintain staff,” Yeats said.

“We’re recruiting across various parts of the business since we’re continuing to scale, so that’s probably the biggest challenge.”

Another challenge is continually staying ahead of demands and the company is constantly putting new capacity to service it, though Yeats admits that it is a “never ending cycle”.

When eyeing future growth, Yeats points out that some of Ultra Serve’s wholesale and distribution channel only began to gain traction at the end of the previous and current financial year, so he foresees these areas contributing greatly to growth in the short term.

“We also signed a partnership agreement with Ingram Micro, and that extends our services to potentially thousands of system integrators through the channel,” he said.

“That’s quite exciting for us, so we hope to have a bigger 2012.”

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