Time Rhipe for bold expansion

Rhipe is promising 'really bold expansion plans' for Australia – and the rest of the region, as the company seeks new growth opportunities.

"We have really bold expansion plans everywhere," Dominic O'Hanlon, Rhipe chief executive, says. "We want to be the Asia Pacific lead in cloud and in channel.

"And if we can do that we are going to have a very sustainable business.

O'Hanlon notes that the company has $100 million in annual recurring revenue already and is growing at 45% per annum. Rhipe stock has been added to the all ordinaries index in Australia.

"So we're becoming a pretty serious company and we want to keep it up.

The company, previously known as NewLease, is currently bidding for Microsoft Cloud Solution Provider, tier two status in seven countries.

Winning the bid would see Rhipe as the first Australian distributor to gain entry into a fairly exclusive club, and spur further growth for the company, which O'Hanlon says would need to add additional resources.

Tier two CSPs are required to off 24/7 support, among other things.

O'Hanlon says he expects an announcement on the successful bidders in a month.

Late last year the company acquired nSynergy, a specialist Office 365 company and specialist in implementation of SharePoint, Lync and Yammer for the enterprise.

"In the last six months we have done so much," says O'Hanlon.

"We have changed our name, we have doubled our work force, we have gone from 1000 service providers to 1500 and we have grown our revenue by 45%.

"Our strategy is clear. The next part is execution," O'Hanlon says.

"We are just at the beginning of this thing. We are nowhere near the end of it.

"If you take our current business and map it out for two years, you can make some pretty strong predictions about where we're going to be.

"Except you'd be wrong. Because I have no idea what this business is going to look like two years from now.

"It is growing that fast and there are than many new opportunities.

O'Hanlon says the company identified 46 new vendors and geographies of interest, but accepts that is far too many to pursue at once. However, he says the company is actively seeking new vendors.