DTSL on growth streak

New hires for a national IT solutions provider that sees business growing

By Randal Jackson, Auckland | Wednesday, 08 August 2012
Apparently not everyone has been feeling the pinch of the sluggish economy.

“What recession?” says Desktop Technology Services managing director Ian McGough. “Business is going gangbusters."

The Wellington-based IT solutions provider has taken on 12 new staff in the past two months and according to McGough, is looking to bring on least six more in the near future. The company now employs about 130 staff, including 20 part time contractors, working out of its headquarters and 15 branches around the country.

“Demand has been particularly strong in Auckland and Wellington, and we’ve also put more sales resource into Palmerston North,” McGough says.

DTSL was set up in 1997 to provide nationwide services for multinational vendor partners, beginning with its first customer, Unisys, and over the years adding the likes of Hewlett Packard, IBM, Microsoft and Apple. It now focuses on the SME market.

With business booming, McGough claims DTSL has been approached by smaller companies which want to be bought out.

“We haven’t done that recently," he says. "But we’re certainly open to making acquisitions.”

McGough's background made Unisys the logical vendor to partner with at the beginning. He spent 16 years with the vendor as an engineer and customer services general manager. Back then, he knew Unisys was looking to outsource its desktop services and find business outside the corporate areas.

“I’d put a pitch to Unisys and a year later got the contract," he says. "In the process, I bought a Palmerston North Apple reseller, The Computer Shop, whose owners were retiring. Palmerston North was a good location to run the outsourced contract.”

McGough hired Unisys regional engineers in nine locations, then opened a Wellington office because he lived there.