Hire Intelligence Neil Levin CEO on why they’re an “unusual reseller”

Operating in Australia for the past 30 years, CEO at the reseller wants to work deeper within the IT sector.

Australian IT equipment hire outfit Hire Intelligence wouldn’t class themselves as a retailer, but as an “unusual reseller”.

Hire Intelligence provides laptops, phones, AV, printers and virtual reality technology to customers on a short-term loan.

Speaking to CRN Australia, CEO Neil Levin said, “I've always believed that we are a reseller. We're just an unusual reseller, and people don't know about us.

“They know about us when they have a need, and they start searching online to see, 'I need a server, but only need it for three months, what do I do?’. They'll end up finding us.”

Beginning as a one stop computer shop in Perth in 1992, Levin joined Hire Intelligence as its general manager in 2005.

In October 2025, Levin, along with Jesse Alderton, George Longbottom and Scott Cole acquired the business.

In the late 90s, the company began expanding, with 40 franchises across the country.

"There was a franchisee for North Sydney, Sydney CBD, and a franchisee for Canberra, one in Wollongong, and one in Newcastle,” Levin told CRN Australia.

“I was managing Sydney Central, one of just two ‘company owned’ operations, the other in Perth. When I joined it had whittled down to probably maybe 10 franchises.”

Due to inconsistent pricing amongst the franchises, Levin decided to shift from franchise operations to a company‑owned model, with state‑based satellite distribution centres.

"We had company outlets in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Canberra, Perth and Adelaide. Then we centralised sales and finance in Sydney with satellite offices in all the states, with equipment, warehouses and technical staff,” he said.

How they work

For Hire Intelligence, Levin said they purchase all their technology outright and get a return from those assets.

Their refresh cycles are generally every three years, but it also depends on the devices and category.

“Our printers will probably refresh every five to six years. Some of our PCs are now coming to five years before we refresh them,” he said.

“We also have our high end, latest and greatest, where we're refreshing every year.

“Only 20 percent of our customer base calls up and says, ‘I need an Ultra 7, 512GB, latest and greatest’, the bulk of our clients are using our all-in ones and our laptops for exams.”

When someone rents a device, Hire Intelligence provides a full service.

“We will deploy SOE, we will test and tag it. That's all that gets done by us. Where we stop is when they want cybersecurity and managed services, that level of ticketing where you’re supporting software and environment on an ongoing basis,” Levin said.

However, when a device has broken down, Levin said they will pick it up within four hours and swap it out with an equivalent already deployed unit.

A typical hire period for the reseller would be a week, as a majority of their clients are event focused.

"Then it depends on also the industry, film and TV, it's always a month plus. Then it depends on the category, if it's a server rental, it's always three plus months, document scanners is three plus months. But it just really varies depending on the category of equipment,” he explained.

2026 plans

For 2026, Levin has his eyes on the IT sector.

"I want to do more servers and network attached storage devices and end user computing, device-as-a-service,” he said.

“My preference is IT over AV. Events lend themselves to AV, which is video walls, TVs and touch screens. They will always be an important sector for us, I always look after that end of the business, but we want to be focusing on IT over the next six months.”

He also wants to home in on the education sector, identifying a shift to computer based testing in the coming months and years.

“We own over 7000 laptops, and so the aim of the business is to get those laptops out on rent as often as possible, he explained.

Hire Intelligence works with MSPs offering a full service.

“We provide the hardware and the on-premise, deployment and tagging, and the MSP would then provide that extra level of service,” Levin explained.

With 60 percent of their business referral-based and 25 years of deep client relationships, Levin wants Hire Intelligence to be front‑of‑mind for vendors and the reseller channel, not only discovered when a short‑term hire requirement suddenly appears.