MCR goes bigger, better in Sydney

Sydney infrastructure and services provider MCR has ramped up for the new year, opening a larger office in Sydney to cope with increased demand for its new security practice and status as a government-endorsed supplier.

Miles Liversage, chief marketing officer at MCR, said all 35 staff had moved to new digs in North Sydney as the firm kicked off a dedicated security and risk management practice to serve demand from corporations and government.

'We've had a 90 percent growth rate year-on-year for the past 12 months. We had 117 new customers last year, mainly in the big corporation and government market,' Liversage said. 'But I can't give out revenue figures -- it's a private company.'

MCR staff were previously split between a smaller office in North Sydney and another in Chatswood. The company was also on a recruitment drive, hiring several sales and services staff and looking for 'a few' more, he said. 'We found we were outgrowing both premises,' Liversage said. 'We wanted to bring everybody together and use that [new office] as a showcase for our newer technologies.'

The past year saw MCR's local government business grow to 20 percent of total revenue. The company is banking on increased demand stemming from its recent designation as a government-endorsed supplier for all kinds of IT, he said.

Security -- and more specifically risk management -- was expected to take off next year in corporations and government, and MCR was predicting good sales for all its products and services from banking, insurance, finance and verticals, he said.

'We're looking at new technologies in the new year -- there's getting to be quite a lot of investment in wireless and mobility. And RFID, which we're starting to see a bit of demand for and really also just building on what we've already got,' Liversage said.

Too few businesses took a holistic approach to security, concentrating on ambulance-at-the-bottom-of-the-cliff tactics and technologies such as firewalls rather than risk management. Thus, MCR would concentrate on trying to provide an overall, prevention-based offering, Liversage added.

He said MCR partners companies such as Cisco, Nokia, SurfControl, Check Point, HP and Sun. Revenue from Sun products and services had grown 100 percent, and support 400 percent, in the past year, he said, but MCR was also working with rival vendor HP to drive sales of Itanium-based offerings. 'Certainly, in the Itanium space we're seeing a growth area,' Liversage said.

MCR last month won a services partner award at Sun's iForce partner ceremony. 'We really look at what customers are wanting and we're finding all our customers are wanting to consolidate their technology. Gone are the days when you could use a single vendor,' Liversage said.