SMS blows off downturn and starts hiring big time

Stan Beer
Tuesday, 02 June 2009 18:03

IT Industry - Market

As far as telecommunications is concerned, Stianos indicated that the market is bullish.

"ICT has been fairly strong for us. We've been doing a bit with Sensis and there's about 20 different projects with Telstra," said Mr Stianos.

"People like Alcatel and Australia Post and the rest of sector seems to be holding up pretty well."

According to Mr Stianos, the only weak area is federal government, which stands in stark contrast to the state governments which are going strong.

"The difference between the two (sectors) is bizarre. It's like a different country," he said.

"If you look at Victoria, New South wales and Queensland, all three are going quite strong. We're doing work in the various police jurisdictions, the RTAs, the road transport, rail, health, education - we're seeing quite a lot happening at the state level."

Mr Stianos said that utilities has now become a particularly bright growth area for SMS.

"Last year, utilities was a very small percentage of our revenue last year and we've actually increased our utilities work considerably in the last 12 months."

According to Mr Stianos, he is cautiously optimistic for the future so the company is looking for new people to ramp up operations.

"If I look forward, there is no sign of us falling off the edge of a cliff so we have tentatively started to recruit and increase numbers again. Particularly in Melbourne and Brisbane where we are quite short. We could use another 35 people in Melbourne right now."

SMS has put out the call for people with skills in .NET, Java, Sharepoint, as well as project managers.