2 | Austech Building Automation Austec Building Automation is a company dedicated to dependability. Withmore than 12years’ experienceworking in a wide range of industries, they have provided building management systems for the defence, healthcare and commercial sectors.With every job, they seek to provide the highest level of engineering expertise and client satisfaction, and prove themselves even more dependable when it comes to building intelligence. Based in South East Queensland and with offices in Adelaide, Austec offers a complete controls solution – which can include air conditioning, power services, lighting services, car park services, green star/NABERS compliance and a lot more. Currently, the companyprovides these services in a number of cities across the country, and have completed projects in Queensland, Western Australia, New South Wales, and Victoria. “We’ve established a strong reputation in the industry,” says Graeme Edwards, Director of the company. “The market has learned they can come
Austech Building Automation | 3 to us and know that they’re going to be provided a product that’s as good as or better than the major providers, and they also know we’re going to support that product better than those providers.” BeforeEdwards joined Austec, he had spent quite a few years working in a service based business in South East Queensland.He and his fellow directors founded Austec in 2001 after a gap in the market was identified for open protocol products that were priced at acceptable commercial rates. At the time, the industry was dominated by a lot of big players, but Austec quickly found its niche and has grown at a rate of 25 per cent every year from the start. In that time, Austec has demonstrated a proven track record of flexibility by being highly responsive to opportunity and change. In the company’s early days, a lot of refurbishment work was done in the commercial sector – this included removing and replacing old systems in existing buildings. Gradually, as those markets contracted,
4 | Austech Building Automation
Austech Building Automation | 5 Austec ventured intothe public sector and now overseesmany major military sites in South East Queensland. They have also implemented systems for Queensland Health and a number of private hospitals in South East Queensland. A STRONG SUPPORTER According to Edwards, it’s “not magic or rocket science” that has enabled them to grow and thrive in an industry that is extremely competitive – it’s good old fashioned service. After Austecinstalsl a product, they pride themselves on maintaining it, and providing a high level of customer service in general. That customer focus, Edwards says, sets them apart from a most of their competitors in the market. “We push and promote a high level of service.We are very conscious of being able to service and provide strong support to clients,” he explains. Because of their commitment to service, Austec has been able to sustain long term relationships with customers. Edwards estimates that 95 per cent of their product installations are maintained and most of the clients that they work with currently have been with them since the start of the
6 | Austech Building Automation company. Austec has a high level of customer interaction. According to Edwards, that’s necessary in order to recognise their needs – and recognising their needs is an important first step for when it comes to meeting them. “We take the time to understand what the customer really wants and learn their processes,” Edwards explains. “We also take a real interest in what they are doing in the short, medium and longer term. If it’s a shopping centre, for instance,they may be planning to expand, and we’ll need to think about how we can match the needs of that expansion. If it is a military base, the recent focus has moved to energy and water usage, so we need to understand that and make sure the systems we install are up to date, and will be able to properly support them.” The management structure of Austec is an advantage when it comes to that aim, Edwards adds, because it permits a considerable level of elasticity in responding to industry change. “We are flexible in howwe manage, we try and change the way we do things to suit the market demand,” he says. He explains that the company has three directors who have expert knowledge and experience within their field, that all work in specific roles. One is an engineering and service director who oversees the service division, another is engineering and projects director who overlooks the engineering and programming of jobs, and the third is a finance, marketing and sales director.
Austech Building Automation | 7 The management at Austec also ensures that the company maintains a healthy relationship with its main suppliers – all of whom share Austec’s high standards of product quality.Those relationships, Edwards explains, safeguard the reliability and functionality of Austec’s products and ensure that when an issue does arise, it is easily and efficiently corrected. According to Edwards, the company rarely gets call backs or complaints from consumers, and he says their high quality suppliers have a lot to do with that. CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT Austec’s journey is one of continuous improvement – they are constantly looking for ways in which they can make their services and products better for those that they serve. As Austec advances within the building management industry, their main objective is always to perform to an optimum standard and deliver the best customer service possible. That’s what they want to be known for. Moving forward, Edwards says the company’s main competitive advantage will continue to be their flexibility – in other words, their ability to evolve to meet high demands of the ever changing industry environment. As part of his longer term vision, heexpects Austecto venture into new markets, all while continuing to value customer satisfaction above all else.
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