Brennan IT goes direct to mid-market

IT consultancy Brennan IT has announced plans to concentrate on direct sales to the mid-market following its recent sales and marketing expansion and boost to nationwide coverage.

David Stevens, managing director of Brennan IT and sister company SecureTel, said the service provider and outsourcer was targeting sales to companies with 500 seats or more and believed direct sales was the best approach.

"We won't be doing work with other organisations in terms of having a channel to market, but we will be direct to market," he said.

Part of the reason was avoiding potential conflicts of interest with competitors, particularly if they were trying to establish themselves in the services space, Stevens suggested.

However, Brennan IT might consider partners in particular segments, such as audio-visual market resellers or large software developers, Stevens said.

Matt Lovegrove, general manager for sales and marketing, said he would be concentrating on ramping up direct sales at the company.

"We've had direct salespeople before, but with varying levels of success," he said.

Lovegrove added that it was hard to get what he called "sales professionals" as opposed to sales staff -- sales staff with the right skills who had a strong understanding of what they were selling.

More sales staff were wanted. "We've got 10 percent vacancy, through growth," Lovegrove said.

Stevens said Australia had room for more players in the mid-market space. Few service providers were effectively tackling that opportunity, while those who had focused mainly on larger companies often weren't set up to serve smaller companies.

"If you're used to dealing with a 2000-seat organisation, you can't say you now necessarily understand the market for 500-seat [organisations]," he said.

Acquisition possibilities were also being explored, Stevens added.

Brennan IT has enjoyed seven years of consecutive growth, with strong revenue from all its divisions contributing to a total growth in earnings this last calendar year of 97 percent.

Stevens, then aged 36, was voted on to the Business Review Weekly's Young Rich List last year, where he was said to be worth some $35 million.

Brennan IT now has offices in Canberra, Adelaide and Perth, which it added in January to its sites in Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney.