Skills and growth, Perth's Qbit finds success – ARNnet

The ‘Partner Spotlight’ series explores partners operating in the local channel landscape right around the country, from Cape York to Hobart, Byron Bay to Fremantle and beyond. This edition focuses on Perth-based managed services provider (MSP) Qbit.
When it comes to opening a business, it’s always important to consider where you set up shop. This couldn’t be more true for Qbit, which while it took time to find its roots, the managed service provider (MSP) was able to weather some harsh storms and come out on top.
Qbit formed in 2010 through the combination of two businesses – Up Time Solutions and Intelligent Products. The latter’s owner, Fabio Suffell, became the combined business’ director and has held that role ever since.
At the start, the business had less than 10 employees and was based in Malaga, Perth. However, Suffell said the business outgrew it and moved to an office in Westminster 10 minutes north of the city. However, this wasn’t enough and the decision was made to buy an office in West Perth, two minutes from the CBD.
That expansion didn’t just help internal operations but cut down response times for clients in the city, according to Suffell. It also helped the business expand into mining and exploration, as West Perth is home to a large part of this sector, he added.
In hindsight, Suffell said he would have opted for its big office in the first place, with it located just outside of the city with lots of parking, “so we can stop playing musical cars”.
Many small business owners suffered during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns, but Suffell made sure Qbit was well prepared for what was coming and claims that the business was “very lucky to be living in WA”.
“In February 2020 we sent out a newsletter telling customers that a lock down could happen in WA and to be ready for it,” he said to ARN.
“We were also concerned about shortages of IT equipment so we put [$80,000] of stock into our stock room, which we sold in the March lockdown.
“Most our customers in 2020 already had a lot of cloud services, from Microsoft 365 to 3CX phone systems and they had [the] NBN so they found the transition to working from home very easy. It was during this time that we picked up many new customers helping them to deal with what COVID was throwing at them.”
Not only did Qbit find success through preparation, but Suffell claims the business’ continuous mindset has also contributed significantly to its prosperity. One example of this in particular was its achievement of its ISO9001 and ISO27001 certifications.
“Putting the work into these certifications has been well and truly worth it,” he said. “It means that we no longer just say that we have well thought out policies and procedures in place around all key service delivery metrics, and hope that clients believe us. Now we have continuously audited proof of that.
“Anyone that knows the amount of work that goes into ISO Certification understands what clout that carries.”
Even though Suffell admitted that Qbit has made its fair share of mistakes along the way, because of the skilled employees in the business, “no mistake has really had a lasting impact”.
“The IT landscape never stops changing so you just need to stay flexible and keep your eyes open,” he added.
Want to be featured in ‘Partner Spotlight’? Send an email to Sasha_Karen@foundryco.com with the contact details of the partner you’d like to nominate for us to profile.
Sasha Karen is a nationally recognised highly commended senior journalist at ARN. With a decade’s worth of experience, Sasha serves the local channel community with news and inspiration about channel partners.

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