WebSpy prepares for growth

Perth e-security ISV WebSpy has moved to bigger premises after six years in one spot, following a year of revenue and sales growth tipped to fuel further expansion in 2004.
 
Jack Andrys, CEO at WebSpy, said the move should accommodate an expected six additional Perth staff by late 2004. 'If all goes according to plan,' he said. 'Business has gone quite well and we're expecting it to do even better this year.'
 
Andrys said WebSpy had seen 30 percent growth in the first half of the 2003-04 financial year, compared to the same period in 2002-03 –- despite a 45 percent drop in the value of the US dollar. Some 40 percent of the company's sales came from the US, he said.
 
Sales of enterprise reporting products had done especially well, with WebSpy Analyzer Giga sales up 200 percent this half from the previous six months. That product was now WebSpy's biggest selling application.
 
The company had also added 500 new licences to its client list, Andrys said.
 
WebSpy's inspection manager was also singled out as having extra sales potential in the 2004 business environment. 'If not in the bank in the next six months, deals will at least be signed on,' he said.
 
The firm's old 300-square-metre office had got rather crowded over the last year or so. Rooms designed for one or two staff were being forced to house four, he said.
 
'We needed to find about 500 square metres with ability to expand,' Andrys said. 'It just tends to grow about one or two [staff] a month and then slows down for a few months.'
 
The new premises at 33 Richardson Street, also in West Perth,  had 500 square metres of floor space, enabling the 25-strong Australian team to spread out. WebSpy also had five staff in Seattle in the US and five in London, England, he said.
 
'All the managers were having to share rooms with staff and we got down to one boardroom,' Andrys said. 'And at the same time, what we are planning to do over the next few years as far as growth was concerned was ... we needed a substantially cheaper space and better design, because it was an old mining company's office.'
 
He said the new site enabled WebSpy to dedicate areas to management, programming and development work. The ISV was now big enough to divide itself into a programming team and two sales teams.
 
'We now have two project rooms and two meeting rooms,' Andrys said. 'It works really well and gives us scope to grow.'
 
Better designed, larger premises would help WebSpy maximise the use of its growing resources, he added.

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