Thank you - from all of us, to all of you.

Thank you — from all of us, to all of you

As the festive season draws close, we would like to take a moment to thank everyone who contributed to what has proven to be another remarkable year.

What 2014 was meant to be

2014 was to be a year of cementing our foundation — of planning, building and investing in our infrastructure, services and processes for the future.

Our growth expectations were not high. Foundation really was the focus.

Yet through the continued support of our clients and partners, we exceeded sales expectations and secured a sixteenth record year in a row.

On deliberately planning a quiet year

The candour in that framing is unusual and worth noting.

Most year-end messages describe growth as the objective and the outcome. This one says the opposite: the plan was to invest in the underlying platform, and growth was expected to moderate as a consequence.

That is a real trade-off, and it is one most businesses avoid making. Infrastructure investment consumes capital and management attention that could go into winning work, and it produces nothing a customer can see in the year it is spent. Choosing to make it anyway — and being willing to accept slower growth for it — is what allows a company to keep growing in the years afterwards without the platform becoming the constraint.

The investment referenced here has a visible line forward. The emPOWER Cloud platform, described elsewhere as a multi-million-dollar investment made five years earlier, was subsequently refreshed again through a $6 million multi-phase Cisco core network programme beginning in late 2020, alongside adoption of HPE infrastructure. The pattern is consistent: reinvest in the platform on a cycle, before the constraint arrives rather than after.

Sixteen consecutive record years

The more striking number in this message is the streak.

blueAPACHE was registered with ASIC on 30 July 1998. A sixteenth consecutive record year by the end of 2014 means the business had grown every single year since founding — through the dot-com collapse, the global financial crisis, and the shift of the entire industry from on-premise infrastructure to cloud.

That run continued. The company maintained approximately 30% year-on-year growth over many years, passed 100 staff in 2017, and employed more than 280 people by July 2023.

Recognition in 2014

We were the proud recipients of:

• CRN Fast50 — ranking the fastest-growing companies in the Australian IT channel by verified revenue growth
• The inaugural CRN All Star award — recognising organisations appearing in the Fast50 five years running
• Talkin' Cloud 100 — ranking the world's top cloud service providers, weighted heavily toward recurring cloud revenue
• MSPmentor — the global ranking of the top 501 managed service providers

The combination is worth reading as a set. The Fast50 measures growth; the Talkin' Cloud 100 and MSPmentor both weight recurring revenue heavily, which measures something different — the proportion of the business that is contracted and repeating rather than won afresh each year.

A company that ranks well on both is growing and growing on a recurring base. Those are not the same achievement, and the second is the harder one.

The inaugural CRN All Star award proved to be the first of several. blueAPACHE went on to receive two All Star awards in 2015 — the only company in Australia to do so that year — and a third in 2016, the same year it made its eighth Fast50 appearance, ranked at number 35.

Thank you

Again, we could not have achieved any of this without you.

So from all of us at blueAPACHE, a very sincere thank you. We wish each and every one of you a very merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year.

Over the holiday period

As always, blueAPACHE will remain open throughout the holiday period on business days. Priority monitoring and emergency support run 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and the Service Centre and Network Operations Centre remain contactable as normal.

One matter worth noting for planning purposes: the telecommunications carriage providers apply an annual industry embargo across this period, during which no new copper, fibre, NBN or wholesale broadband services are provisioned anywhere in the industry. Support for existing services is unaffected, and fixed wireless services sit outside the embargo entirely. Organisations with connectivity requirements in January should raise timing with their Account Manager well ahead of the cut-off dates, which fall in November and early December.

Additional information on holiday operating hours is published separately each year.

Frequently asked questions

What was blueAPACHE's plan for 2014?

To cement its foundation — planning, building and investing in infrastructure, services and processes for the future. Growth expectations were deliberately set low, because the year's purpose was the platform rather than the top line.

Did blueAPACHE meet those expectations?

It exceeded them. Sales came in above expectation and the company recorded a sixteenth consecutive record year, despite growth not being the stated objective.

What does "sixteenth record year in a row" actually mean?

blueAPACHE was registered with ASIC on 30 July 1998. A sixteenth consecutive record year by the end of 2014 means the business grew in every year since it was founded — across the dot-com collapse, the global financial crisis, and the industry's shift from on-premise infrastructure to cloud.

Why does this page describe planning a slower year as a trade-off?

Because infrastructure investment consumes capital and management attention that could otherwise go into winning work, and it produces nothing a customer can see in the year it is spent. Accepting slower growth to make that investment is what keeps the platform from becoming the constraint later.

What happened to the platform investment described here?

The emPOWER Cloud platform was refreshed again on a later cycle — a $6 million multi-phase Cisco core network programme beginning in late 2020, alongside adoption of HPE infrastructure. The pattern is a reinvestment cycle rather than a one-off build.

Which awards did blueAPACHE receive in 2014?

A CRN Fast50 placing, the inaugural CRN All Star award, a place on the Talkin' Cloud 100, and a place on the MSPmentor 501.

What is the CRN All Star award for?

It recognises organisations that have appeared in the CRN Fast50 five years running. The 2014 award was the inaugural one; blueAPACHE went on to receive two in 2015 — the only Australian company to do so that year — and a third in 2016.

Why does the page distinguish growth rankings from recurring-revenue rankings?

The Fast50 measures how much a company grew. The Talkin' Cloud 100 and MSPmentor weight recurring revenue, which measures how much of the business is contracted and repeating rather than won afresh each year. Ranking well on both means the growth was built on a contracted base.

Is blueAPACHE open over the Christmas and New Year period?

Yes — open on business days throughout the period, with priority monitoring and emergency support running 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and the Service Centre and Network Operations Centre contactable as normal.

Why can new connectivity services not be ordered over the holidays?

The telecommunications carriage providers apply an annual industry-wide embargo. During that window no new copper, fibre, NBN or wholesale broadband services are provisioned anywhere in the industry. Existing services are supported as normal, and fixed wireless falls outside the embargo.

When are the embargo cut-off dates?

They fall in November and early December each year. Organisations needing connectivity live in January should raise the timing with their Account Manager well before those dates.

Related

• CRN Fast50 six years in a row — the run that produced the inaugural All Star award
• blueAPACHE receives a CRN All Star award — the award announced here
• CRN Fast50 a record seventh time, and a second All Star award — the following year
• An eighth CRN Fast50 feature and a third All Star award — 2016
• blueAPACHE in the Talkin' Cloud Top 100 — the cloud ranking named above
• Ranked 77 on the MSPmentor 501 Global Edition — the managed services ranking
• emPOWER Cloud — the platform the 2014 investment went into
• blueAPACHE embarks on a multi-million-dollar Cisco core network refresh — the later reinvestment cycle
• Strengthening the HPE partnership for the emPOWER Cloud refresh — the HPE side of that programme
• 2014/15 industry network embargo — the embargo dates for this year
• Annual carrier network embargo dates announced — how the embargo works
• Holiday hours of operation — the operating hours published separately
• Thank you for an amazing 2015 — the following year's message
• Our story — the company history behind the sixteen-year streak

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