Reboot those headaches

By Shaun Inguanzo
A KEYSBOROUGH company is hoping to cure the headaches Greater Dandenong businesses experience while trying to simultaneously manage a computer network and general business.
Director of Keysborough-based information technology (IT) services business ExpressApps, Phil Lancaster, this week said local businesses would eventually move away from maintaining their own hardware and software and leave it to the hands of a service provider, similar to telephony services.
He hopes ExpressApps will be the first choice for Greater Dandenong businesses due to its long history in the region, but says education is needed to convince skeptical businesses of the benefits of having an external company manage their IT services.
ExpressApps first opened in Dandenong South in 1989 as a small business building PCs and selling computer parts, and has since changed its focus to providing networking solutions for companies.
“Now most of our revenue comes from providing services, and we sell only a small amount of equipment,” Mr Lancaster said.
“We provide quite a range of computer services where we do things from complete management of someone’s IT, for what we call the Small to Medium Enterprise (SME) area, through to large corporates.
“One of our key customers in fact is in Dandenong South where we manage their complete IT nationally, and host it for them in a data centre.
“So they actually don’t have any IT staff and we look after their entire IT requirements.”
With large industrial and commercial developments planned for the city’s future, such as the Dandenong South Logis project, Mr Lancaster said the company was already trying to get its foot in the door with Dandenong companies.
But that is proving to be a challenge, he said, with many SME businesses not seeking the service until their IT management became a headache.
“You have to articulate the fact that at the end of the day business owners can save money and make the company more profitable by allowing us to focus on what we are good at, and at what they are good at,” Mr Lancaster said.
“Those businesses that understand that appear to benefit.”
In a bid to increase its clientele in Dandenong, and spread word of the benefits of having an external company manage IT services, ExpressApps is holding a seminar next week on 6 June.
For more information contact the company on 9798 4799.