Running a business in the ‘now’ with an eye on predicting the future has led to Hawke’s Bay IT firm Prophecy Networks being acquired by leading national and fast growing IT firm Securecom.
Rachael Price is passionate about Hawke’s Bay and has been involved with Prophecy Networks since 2011 leading the Napier-based team and twelve years on, Rachael and the Prophecy team could see that it was time for investment and an injection of energy to set the company up for continued growth.
In short, it was a prophecy, to see that their existing client base as well as new clients would like to receive the highest level of service and expertise in an ever increasing cloud centric world. Securecom is a New Zealand managed and owned Managed Security Services Provider (MSSP) providing end-to-end IT services to New Zealand businesses across all industry sectors.
Rachael and the Hawke’s Bay team along with Securecom management in Auckland are in agreement that although there’s been a change in ownership and increase in the breadth of services offered, the Napier based office will remain under local management with Hawke’s Bay clients being supported onsite by local support engineers.
Rachael says Securecom’s suite of services is primarily aimed at the mid-market of around 150-500 staff, but has the ability to scale up with its its largest customer of 1800 staff and down to meet the needs of small owner operators.
“We take a fresh approach to delivering mission critical IT Support Services, improving business outcomes for our customers by partnering with them to lower their IT total cost of ownership (TCO), reduce their cyber security riskand improve the technology experience for their people and stakeholders.”
“We are careful in adding new customers and our focus is on quality and doing what we say we will do and living our values every day,” she says.
Securecom has operated in New Zealand for over 20 years; launched its first cloud service in 2003 and today manages mission critical IT infrastructure of over 250 New Zealand based clients.
Securecom shareholder and board chair Chris New says the joining of two well-established IT businesses is a win-win and injects additional investment, expertise and broader and robust IT provision into Hawke’ Bay. “We are rapt to have a strong presence in the Bay. It’s great that we can buy Prophecy, which has a strong presence and existing relationships and build on that with our capability and capacity.
“We love the Bay, it’s a great place to visit and enjoy and we have more reason’s to be actively involved in the community,” Chris says.
Chris adds that local clients can have confidence that they will get an enhanced customer experience.
“We are particularly proud that our client satisfaction ratings are consistently in the high 90% range. Ultimately, our values are reflected through 3 key stakeholders business is based on three key focus areas – our customers, our people, and our partners.”
“We firmly believe that we will not delight our customers unless we have highly motivated, well-trained people.” Local business development lead Clinton Scott says there’s wide ranging benefits for existing and new clients locally in Hawke’s Bay as well Securecom’s broader customer base around the country.
These range from an expanded product and service portfolio to enhanced expertise as well as investment in staff, research and development, greater market presence and the ability to expand beyond Auckland and Hawke’s Bay to other parts of New Zealand.
“We are also excited about the collective appetite to innovate through more collaboration between the teams in Auckland and Hawke’s Bay which will lead to the development of new opportunities to deliver better outcomes for our customers.
Rachael adds that the tight labour market has been a major issue in recruitment and retention of talent in the Napier office but staff in both offices can now see greater career pathways. “We have staff in Hawke’s Bay that will be very keen to experience working in Auckland while we also expect that some of our Auckland colleagues might find the Hawke’s Bay lifestyle attractive too and look to escape the hustle and bustle of the big city.”
The net result for our customers is access to wider pool of technical experts, focused on delivering very high levels of service. All existing Prophecy staff have been retained and since the acquisition we have employed four new people.
Rachael says the ever-evolving IT sector continues to move at pace. In recent years there’s been the introduction of cloud computing to enable businesses to store, access and process data ‘in the cloud’. Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) are revolutionising various industries, from personalized marketing to healthcare diagnostics and autonomous vehicles and these technologies are becoming more accessible and are driving innovation across sectors. 5G networks provide faster and more reliable connectivity, enabling new applications and use cases like augmented reality, virtual reality, and Internet of Things at a larger scale.
Cybersecurity has become a major threat to all businesses and securing networks and data from cyber threats has become a basic business imperative.
The adoption of hybrid working has created a whole new set of technology challenges as staff now expect to work from anywhere and companies need to find a way to embrace this is a secure way. “With the IT industry being ever-changing, and new developments occurring within the industry on a daily basis, it is crucial for companies to stay updated with the latest news and innovations in the IT space to stay ahead of emerging trends and opportunities.”
In line with our commitment to building meaningful connections, we will continue to host regular networking opportunities throughout the region. These gatherings offer an avenue to share knowledge, stay informed about industry trends, and collaboratively generate better outcomes for businesses. “For our loyal clients they will get the same level of local service but with a wider range of products, services and expertise while we are looking forward to welcoming new clients from throughout the Bay.”
Prophecy is a great company with a great local reputation and I’m very excited about being part of the Securecom family.
