Profile: Premier Networks on a rapid growth path

Looking for trouble pays off.

Matthew Beesley (pictured centre back) is facing a problem many resellers would envy. His business, Premier Network Support Management (PNSM), needed to sustain a 35 percent yearly growth rate to keep his best employees, who started out with him four years ago.

“If we don’t grow quickly enough we don’t create the opportunities and that means you risk losing your good staff,” says Beesley, managing director of PNSM.

Beesley started out in 2006 as many a reseller has done before, advertising as a sole trader in the newspaper for home PC repairs. Then two customers who owned businesses asked him to work on their office machines as well. Word of mouth kicked in and within eight months Beesley had four staff him and had outgrown his garage.

“My wife got sick of four strangers rocking into my garage every morning at 9 o’clock,” Beesleysays.

In 41⁄2 years the company has grown to 16 staff working from offices in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne. Beesley attributes the success of the business to customer service.

Consulting sales have grown strongly, particularly in support of business applications such as CRM, because Premier Network always takes on any IT issues as its own, Beesley says.

“I don’t ever use that line that it’s not our problem. Customers love it because they just have to ring one number and we’ll contact the software accounting guys and get it fixed. The software companies really like it because they have had so much experience in the past where they blame the IT company and the IT company blames them. “If they buy it through us then the blame lands squarely on our shoulders.”