From “pulling things apart” to putting IT together

ProSouth's Lawrence Shannon

By Darren Greenwood, Auckland | Friday, 06 May 2011
He has barely been in the country two years, but Welshman Lawrence Shannon is currently the manager of ProSouth IT Solutions in Dunedin.

Shannon followed friends who emigrated to New Zealand and says Dunedin is the best place in the country, being a similar size to Cardiff and having better weather.

His interest in IT began when he started “pulling things apart”, a hobby that ultimately led him to graduating with an MSC in Engineering at University College London in 2001.

“My degree had a significant portion of IT and allowed me access to expertise and equipment that nourished my passion for technology — I am a big fan of lasers,” Shannon says. “I went to work for a wealth management company straight after university and covered IT support for several small businesses, whilst working as an office manager for one of the flagship practices.”

After eight years in London, Shannon decided it was time to emigrate. He secured the job as manager of ProSouth, just as the company went through a change of ownership in January 2010.

Previously the company operated for 10 years under former managing director Paul Matthews — CEO of the NZ Computer Society — who sold the IT services side to his parents while he ran the web/software development side as The Logic Studio.

ProSouth now focuses on small-to-medium entities, especially schools and charities.

Shannon says the company brands itself as the “IT department for organisations without their own,” and considers ProSouth clients as part of its business and vice-versa.

“We have good, long-term relationships both with businesses and the consumer market,” he says.

The company has three full-time and two part-time staff based in Dunedin, plus a further four full-time and several part-time staff based in Balclutha. The company covers an area around Dunedin, stretching from Clinton to the south and Palmerston to the north, with some clients in the North Island.

Shannon says ProSouth does not compete with big box retailers, though he can come close on price, and having two outlets means one can draw on the support of the other when needed.

“Our strongest asset is our staff,” he says, adding they will work around the clock to get the job done, so one of his tasks is to ensure they get home. “This separates good staff from great staff,” he says.

ProSouth maintains close relationships with electrical, telephony and internet firms, which helps it get bigger jobs and co-ordinate entire projects from start-to-finish.

Shannon says he has introduced more online services and broadened the scope of ProSouth’s offerings.

ProSouth uses about 15 regular suppliers from Dunedin, Christchurch, Auckland and overseas. It is a Dell partner, but uses what is “fit for purpose”, adding delivery is usually next-day from Christchurch or two days from Auckland.

“This is a bit of a change from the same day delivery I got used to in London,” he says. “But I realise that a slightly different approach is needed here and it hasn’t been an issue so far.”

Shannon says the most noticeable trend recently has been a focus on “efficiency,” with firms making equipment last longer without affecting productivity. Businesses are making it easier for employees to work remotely.

He says the recession hit spending, but companies realised they rely on their IT and skimping on costs can turn a small job into a large one.

To help this, Pro-South has begun rolling out managed services, including the monitoring and maintenance of company PCs and servers. This is to ensure they are working at optimum level.

“We can keep an entire organisation fully patched and identify machines that are being pushed too hard and perhaps need upgrading or relocating,” Shannon adds.

Consumers, meanwhile, are using netbooks more and ProSouth is building more gaming machines as faster hardware continues to come on the scene, with solid-state drives being the biggest leap forward.

“As enthusiasts, we do love to build machines for home users that meet their exact requirements and not a generic cookie cutter, ticks-most-of-the-boxes PC,” he says.