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Datacom Australia takes a hit, while group profits and revenue grow

Datacom Australia and South-East Asia revenue was down on last year, reflecting a depressed IT project spend in the Australian market during calendar 2013.

Datacom Group has reported a 1.3 per cent increase in overall revenues to $881 million as compared to last year’s $870 million, and total group profit before tax of $64.7 million compared to last year’s $50.9 million, for the year ending March 31, 2014.

Revenue for Datacom New Zealand rose by 12 per cent to $466 million for the year. According to the company, this growth was achieved through improvement in the core service lines of software development, IT management and data centres across all locations.

Datacom has also aapointed Theresa Eyssens as CEO of Datacom Systems Australia.

Datacom Group chairman, Craig Boyce said, “Overall the group maintained a 10-year compound annual growth rate of 12.5 per cent for revenue and 11 per cent for profit; this result demonstrates the sound strategic direction of the company and the long-term financial stability of the Datacom Group.”

According to a statement by the firm, the New Zealand payroll business increased its total payee base by over 12 per cent, while the business process outsourcing division, which is now organised on a trans-Tasman basis and named Datacom Connect, hit all its targets.

Datacom Australia and South-East Asia revenue was down on last year, reflecting a depressed IT project spend in the Australian market during calendar 2013, along with a reduction in revenue from Asia as a result of the company’s contact centre business divestment.

“We have increased our business in both the state and local government sectors in Australia and our third-party hardware resale business grew during the year and increased its market share and customer base in what has been a difficult market,” said Datacom Group CEO Jonathan Ladd.

“Our Asia IT services business is poised to capitalise on the opportunity of a rapidly maturing IT market in Asia, a market which Datacom remains committed to growing its presence,” he added.

In March 2014, Datacom acquired Origen Technology, a New Zealand-based supplier of software and services to local government. This business operates under Datacom Solutions, the unit focused on providing IT products and services to the local government, payroll, education and other sectors.

Datacom currently has a network of 12 data centres located in Australian and New Zealand. Seven are owned and operated by Datacom and five are partner facilities.

Ladd said, “While customer requirements are evolving with virtualisation and cloud adoption, Datacom’s regional data centre network is a core platform to enable further competitive growth in the emerging as-a-service delivery paradigm.”

Excluding the impact of the divestment of Datacom's Asia contact centres, resulting in 850 staff shifting to Convergys, staff numbers increased by 6 per cent. At year end staff numbers totalled 3756 with 2371 in New Zealand, 1245 in Australia and 140 in Asia