Govt gets local touch as integrators fill out office networks

Government authorities can expect stronger levels of support after systems integrators Red Rock Consulting and Data#3 took advantage of burgeoning demand to expand their geographical reach with new offices.

Brisbane-based Data#3, which has been expanding steadily in recent years, has bolstered its presence in Melbourne by moving from its former Hawthorn office to a new Southbank office that has, like similar Data#3 facilities in Brisbane and Sydney, been designed to support a heavily mobile workforce.

The opening of the office drew the attention of Victorian technology minister Gordon Rich-Phillips, who has recently overseen a raft of recent ICT investments in Melbourne including Metronode's $150m, 25,000m² data centre in Derrimut, west of Melbourne; Fujitsu's $60m expansion of its Noble Park data centre; and the recent opening of a new office by healthcare software developer iCare Solutions.

Data#3 managing director John Grant called the opening of the new office a victory for public-private partnerships: "our confidence in making this considerable investment is underpinned by the positive support we have received from our customers, partners and the Victorian Government," he said in a statement.

Data#3 also runs an Integration Centre in the outer-metropolitan suburb of Braeside.

For its part, Red Rock – Australia's largest Oracle consultancy – has all but completed its network of capital-city offices with its new Perth office, which has been developed to bring the company's business applications expertise closer to WA government, mining, engineering, and other key industries.

Coming off the back of growth that has doubled in the past two years, Red Rock's investment in WA was a response to increasing customer demand, CEO Jonathan Rubinsztein told GTR. "There's a predominance of Oracle across government in WA," he explained, "and there really is a lack of capability of organisations that can deliver an end-to-end Oracle continuum."

Red Rock has secured a place on the WA government's Common Use Arrangement (CUA) panel for Finance, HR and Payroll Solutions, which will be a major contributor its growth in WA.

The office has commenced with 20 employees and is expected to grow to 100 employees within a year. Red Rock Consulting currently has 650 employees nationwide.

Rubinsztein was confident that, despite the ongoing skills shortage, the company would continue to be able to find skilled staff to support its growth. "There is a bit of a skills shortage," he said, "but I think our brand and strength in the market makes it marginally easier for us to recruit. When you win exciting work, it's easier to attract people – and we are winning a lot of pretty cool, leading-edge stuff in the Oracle space." – David Braue