Rajitha Rajasingham and Sachin Verma (Oreta)
IT services provider Oreta has officially unveiled its new office in Melbourne which combines its existing practice with Telstra’s Business Technology Centre (BTC).
The new office houses both Oreta’s existing team of 60 and 40 people previously employed by the BTC before the service provider bought the Melbourne City franchise operation in November last year.
Based at Melbourne’s Rialto complex, the operation aims to provide IT services to both large enterprises and small-to-medium-sized businesses across networking, cloud and security, plus now mobile and telephony.
The Melbourne centre is the first to launch in Victoria and follows Telstra’s decision last year to close 78 of its own business centres and open 28 BTCs in their place which would be operated by partners in a franchise model.
The decision was made in an effort to bring IT skills in cloud and security to the centres, which had been traditionally focused on mobile and telephony solutions.
According to Rajitha Rajasingham, Oreta co-founder and director, Telstra invited the company to take part in the pitch for Melbourne last year
“When we pitched for it, we were very cautious of not devaluing what the Oreta business stood for and that's cloud, networking and security. The TBTC offered an extension of our skills, but to a different market segment, so that was very attractive for us.”
Oreta historically has worked on large overhaul projects for enterprise customers, while the TBTC’s existing repertoire consisted of multiple smaller sales across 9,000 customers.
After winning the TBTC bid in November, Oreta underwent six months of due diligence before launching it as a sister organisation in March.
“What we’re really trying to do now is introduce IT into the TBTC business, on both the delivery side and the managed service,” said Rajasingham. “It’s about teaching the IT salespeople in the TBTC how to have IT conversations about cloud and security.”
As well as housing the combined team, the new office will also include an experience centre to showcase its technology solutions from its vendor partners, which include Google, Cisco, Palo Alto and CheckPoint as well as Telstra.
“Telstra’s new premium offering will enable us to show small business what's possible with technology,” Sachin Verma, Oreta MD and co-founder added. “With a customer base of over 9,000 customers, this is a great opportunity to showcase innovation and job creation within the small business community in Victoria.”
In addition to Victoria, the centre will also serve Oreta’s pool of customers in South Australia. According to Rajasingham, the company has now hired a business development manager to explore its prospects in Sydney, having had a “couple of false starts” in the city previously.
Telstra has not provided details of who else will be in charge of other centres, however four have already opened according to Vita Group's most recent financial results.
On Oreta's TBC venture, Telstra described the provider as having "accomplished remarkable growth" through their existing partnership.
"Our ongoing partnership with cloud technology provider Oreta means that our Melbourne City centre can address the increasingly complex technology needs of small businesses, with experts on hand in cloud services, security and multi-site networks for larger operations," Michael Ackland, Telstra group executive for consumer and small business.
"Now, as a full service partner, Oreta is a trusted business advisor for Telstra's customers bringing together technology vendors and Telstra's world-class connectivity to deliver genuine customer-centric solutions to meet the unique needs of business customers."
