Oxygen outpost in Sydney

By ADAM GIFFORD

IT services company Oxygen has opened an office in Sydney, capping what has been an aggressive growth phase.

Chief executive Mike Smith said staff numbers jumped from 220 to 350 over the past two years and more than half of the company's revenue now came from customers outside parent company Carter Holt Harvey.

"We are getting double leverage from that. We are able to take what we have learned from the Carter Holt base and apply it to those customers, and we are also learning things from them that we are able to feed back into Carter Holt," Smith said.

"The increased capability of my team also gives me more flexibility."

He said Oxygen was now the largest specialist SAP consulting company in Australasia, and in a position to benefit from the German software company's double-digit growth in the region.

Australia was an important hunting ground, with 75 Oxygen staff already based in Melbourne. The Sydney office should have 50 consultants by the end of the year.

"If we are going to be serious about Sydney, we need to be there on the ground," Smith said.

Smith has also appointed an advisory board to help him with what he describes as the third phase of Oxygen's life.

As a divisional chief executive, Smith reports to Carter Holt chief financial officer Jonathan Mason, but felt the need for a board to bounce ideas off.

The board includes Mason, former Wang New Zealand head Anthony Howard, former EDS New Zealand head Tony Hood and Wellington public affairs consultant Leon Grice.

"It is great to enlist people I know who understand the industry and can add different perspectives," Smith said.

"We spent the first 18 months getting the basics right and benchmarking to make sure the Carter Holt Harvey businesses were getting a good deal, better than they could have got if they went to the market.

"The second phase was growth, establishing the offices in Wellington, Melbourne and now Sydney. We are now into the 'so what' phase. We have gone from 220 to 350 people, and about now the wheels could start to wobble. It is important to clarify, round some strategy or larger purpose."