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Hobart's Compago Technologies emerges after Axsys split

Following MYOB's acquisition of Axsys in July.
Craig Lamprey (Compago Technologies)

Craig Lamprey (Compago Technologies)

Hobart-based Axsys IT has transformed into a new company called Compago Technologies led by Craig Lamprey. 

The IT company embarked on a new era as of 1 September following an acquisition between ERP reseller Axsys and MYOB in July, leaving Lamprey in the prime position to take charge of its 20-year old IT department, which was separate from that portion of the MYOB purchase. 

Lamprey was the general manager for Axsys leading up to the MYOB buy. However, he said, when Axsys first started reselling finance systems, they discovered a lot of organisations could not understand its technical elements, leading to Axsys' formation of an IT business.

“Part of Axsys was the IT arm, which was predominantly Hobart-based," Lamprey said. "But we do service clients on the mainland and it wasn’t a core business focus for MYOB,” he explained. “Through that process, I decided to buy the business. If an opportunity presents itself, you should take it.”

Lamprey is leading Compago along with chief technology officer Anthony Tracey, who specialises in networking, Microsoft products and fit-for-purpose business technology solutions and services for clients. Datto, Aruba, HP and Lenovo are some of its vendor partnerships.

Identity management was one cornerstone following a recent partnership with Okta, which will help customers manage and secure user authentication into applications.

Compago, which is Latin for structure, framework, joining, and connection, has a well-established team of 10, who will all continue in their roles in their new office space. Part of the company’s logo is a knight chess piece and Lamprey’s equestrian background fitting in with the partnership and strategy mantra. 

“What’s important to me is developing partnerships, relationships, structures, frameworks and bringing a strategy to our clients in how IT is managed to enable them to concentrate on their business,” he said. “The partnership aspect and keeping our clients central to everything we do is really important. We want our clients to be in partnership with us and vice versa, all the way through.”

Lamprey said as part of the newly formed entity, it has set up new quoting, billing, tasking and finance systems, but there was still work to do in continually improving the systems, particularly on the client engagement front.

“The best feedback we’ve had from our clients is that although in the space of a day we changed ownership, moved offices and implemented all new systems they didn’t even notice,” he said. “From an internal point of view, our staff are proud of that and we’re all working towards the success of the business."

Compago predominately focuses on the 20 - 100 seat customer space and Lamprey said in this particular corner of the market, the lack of IT strategy and planning is an area that is causing cost inefficiencies. 

“If there’s no IT strategy aligned to their business strategy, it becomes a piecemeal approach because it doesn’t actually align to any IT strategy,” he said. “We try to help clients with developing an IT strategy that aligns with their business, and gain a three-year view of what their business will require, and over time that will bring down their IT costs.”