Computer Brokers will unveil its new name and branding next month.
The company is changing the name as it believes that after 21 years, Computer Brokers no longer accurately reflects the business and has even become a roadblock to securing larger contracts.
The company will reveal its new identity to a staff-only conference on Waiheke Island at the start of September, which will be followed by an external launch.
The change is long overdue as the current name does not represent the services capability the company has added over the past three to four years, says general manager Noel Simpson.
“We’ve known for many years that the Computer Brokers name, particularly the Brokers component, did not truly reflect the business we were or the value that we offered. It has been a problem for some time.”
The Brokers part of the name creates the perception of a company that brokers in cheap or second-hand products and has been holding the company back, particularly with larger customers, says Simpson. “As we start to solution more and more [the name] continues to be a roadblock for sign-off within our larger customers. You are no longer dealing with the IT manager or even the CFO – it is now going up to the board and they are going: ‘Computer Brokers is selling you a $300,000 solution? Why are you dealing with a broker of product’?”
Even some customers have been actively lobbying for the name change, says Simpson. “Even though from their perspective we provide an excellent service, when they go to put approvals through their business, the name does not really represent the type of work we are doing.”
Computer Brokers has engaged the services of branding consulting house Brando to manage the name change. “We’ve been using their framework to analyse who we are, who we want to become and how that relates to the brand.”
As part of the process, Computer Brokers has also surveyed a number of customers to gauge perceptions of the company and to learn what it is doing well and where it can improve, says Simpson. “They gave us some very interesting and constructive feedback. The majority were very happy with the service we provide, but [said] there were some things holding us back and certainly the branding was one.”
Customers also perceived the company, which now has 70 staff, to be smaller than it in fact is, says Simpson. “They didn’t really understand how much we have grown over the past few years and that we were a lot bigger than the name represented.”
Meanwhile, the company also plans to take on two independent directors in the coming 12 months to complement its current management team as the business matures, says Simpson. “We need to look carefully at what we are strong at and what we need, and will pick people who bring the right characteristics to the business that allow us to continue to grow.”
