Remote support demand drives CodeBlue

When running a nationwide operation you notice interesting regional variations, says Ian Funnell, general manager of CodeBlue

By Darren Greenwood, Auckland | Monday, 15 August 2011
When running a nationwide operation you notice interesting regional variations, says Ian Funnell, general manager of CodeBlue.

Yet, wherever you are in the country the company reports growing demand for remote support, as well as promising big savings in IT costs for its customers.

Funnell is also branch manager for CodeBlue’s Auckland head office, the Penrose “mothership”.

The Penrose headquarters is described as the “mothership” as it offers the centralised technology backbone for the provision of CodeBlue’s services nationwide. This includes backup and support systems, such as helpdesk, remote monitoring and diagnostic software tools.

Funnell has been with CodeBlue since April 2007, after joining the company from Gen-i, where he was regional head of solutions delivery for nearly two years. Prior to that, he has been infrastructure service manager at Computerland for five years.

“I joined CodeBlue because I wanted to move away from corporate service providers, towards something more nimble. The formation of CodeBlue pointed to fresh opportunities in the SMB market. Technology has progressed to a point where it was possible to provide smaller companies with ‘big company’ IT service,” he says.

He is an IT veteran of 20-plus years, having done a science degree at the University of Auckland with a major in computer science. His first job after graduation in 1987 was as a programmer for Farmers Trading Company.

CodeBlue was formed in 2004 by industry veterans Chris Mackay and Ken Davis – its cornerstone shareholders. Mackay had been at Computerland for 20 years, but left in 2005 when it was bought by Telecom New Zealand. Davis is an industry entrepreneur, having held roles such as senior executive at Oxygen Business Solutions [an SAP specialist] and country manager for Toshiba.

CodeBlue employs 50 staff nationwide, with branches in Penrose; on the North Shore; in Hamilton; Bay of Plenty; Hawke’s Bay; Wellington; Christchurch and Invercargill. It is said to be one of New Zealand’s leading monitoring and enterprise-level managed infrastructure services provider to medium companies.

Offerings include virtual server provider; enterprise virtualisation; disaster recovery and business continuity services; secure managed online backup services; managed infrastructure services; consulting, design and implementation; network maintenance plans and security solutions.

The company promises customers savings of 20-40 percent, positioning itself as a ‘trusted advisor’ who acts as a dedicated IT manager helping firms achieve business benefits.

“Proactive IT management for a fixed price has proved to be a winning formula for us across all our regions,” Funnell says.

Relationships, he says, are of greater importance in smaller centres, with the company’s strength in developing strong relationships fuelling its regional growth.

Hawke’s Bay features many packing houses and meat processors who have their export operations monitored and supported remotely by CodeBlue from Hastings. In Wellington, some clients have 500 users scattered across the main centres, and they can be tracked nationally. In Hamilton, customers include many service-orientated businesses and light industry.

CodeBlue uses “best of breed” products from a variety of suppliers and does a lot of business with HP and Microsoft.

Funnell says business is “exciting” with CodeBlue now delivering previously complex projects – such as implementing remote control of a network in days, not months.

“Small-to-medium-sized companies are embracing the cost and service advantages of outsourcing their information and communication technology. This trend will continue and accelerate because the business returns are so significant,” he says.

“Customers are increasingly opting for fixed prices for everything from PC and network management to disaster recovery.”

To strengthen its ‘trusted advisor’ role, CodeBlue is launching a ‘virtual CIO’ offering to help businesses with their business-related and strategic decisions as opposed to the more day-to-day deliverables.

“As part of our services contract with customers the ‘virtual CIO’ will develop a technology roadmap, and update it on a quarterly basis. The virtual CIO will help customers extract maximum value from their IT investment by delivering the most cost-effective IT infrastructure – one which is tightly managed through each phase of the IT infrastructure lifecycle. This includes strategy, procurement, implementation, service and replacement,” he says.