CRN Fast50: No.3 Cool Chilli draws strength from peers

Andrew Smith's Canberra business Cool Chilli sprang into life in 1999, not long after executives from licensed clubs walked in to buy the sector's first networked computing systems in the ACT.

But it was only in the past year that Smith converted from "working in the business to working on the business" and saw his revenues more than double.

Cool Chilli pulls down on specialist vendors in the gaming and hospitality industries such as pokies maker Aristocrat ("the lifeblood of the business") and Sanyo for its point-of-sale systems as well as telcos and ISPs such as Transact and Internode. Smith says dealing with a telco that isn't as big as Telstra has immediate benefits for a reseller of his size.

Significant component

"Broadband is a significant component," he says. "Clearly you need access to the stuff - one of the difficulties early adopters find with hosted services is their ability to access information [quickly].

"We have a very good relationship with Transact. In our communications consultancy role they've been quite important. They're a terrific size for a carrier for a relatively small reseller to deal with and their products and pricing are terrific.

"We have very good access to commercial sales; they're very willing to let us know the reality of certain solutions." An example of that was selling VoIP, he says. "With Transact, if you want to talk VoIP you can talk VoIP but if the solution doesn't require VoIP you don't have to."