ABOUT KEPPEL NET

We're not going to do all the usual corporate profile stuff here, but instead tell an interesting tale, because frankly, Keppel Net has an interesting tale to tell for any budding entrepreneur.  You may even find it inspirational.

Keppel Net is what is referred to as an organic business, i.e. it was born out of need (or opportunity) from within another business; in this case a business which was entirely unrelated.  That business is called Body Sync, which at the time consisted of a single home based business in Tarragindi on Brisbane's inner Southside. 

Body Sync began in late 2001, a sole trader business with a shoestring budget, no capital, and no clients.  Naturally, it needed marketing and promotion but there was simply no money to outsource web design or IT.

Fortunately, and it remains our greatest strength to this day, that founding sole trader was adept in IT and had 20 years of marketing and management up his sleeve.  So, parallel to creating Body Sync, a fledgling IT arm called Keppel Net, its name taken from the Yeppoon region where the owner grew up, took form to manage all operations of the Body Sync business. 

The system worked well and Body Sync became a runaway success.  With the opening of its second branch in 2006, the sole trader business became incorporated as Body Sync Group Pty Ltd, with Keppel Net as a subsidiary.

As both divisions continued to flourish, the need for each business to have its own identity became obvious.  Body Sync Group was further divided in 2009 and a second company, Irukandji Group, was born from within, with Keppel Net the flagship marque for the new entity.  Body Sync and Keppel Net were finally and officially separate. 

At least on paper ...

That once-sole trader with a home based business was now a Director of two companies, three trusts, five business divisions, and fourteen businesses, all of which were organic.  Growth was phenomenal with new branches and business divisions popping up every few months.

But each business needed management, and a new problem presented itself; how to prevent spiralling expenses due to duplicated management, software, and processes, within business divisions that had to keep separate accounting and records.

The short of it is, if we wanted to maintain growth while not toppling over from costs or infringing the multitudinous laws that governed our diverse business divisions, we needed to invent a compliant system of controlled organic growth, and just as importantly, we needed to maintain our "small family business" cultural integrity while doing so.

SUPER ORGANICS

The idea of a centralised software and procedures manual system to manage multiple entities began to take root, in part based on the Quality Assurance culture of the 1990's.  While the emphasis on QA accreditation seems to have fallen by the wayside, its fundamental logic is arguably even more relevant in today's business environment.  Equally, the modern diversity of operating platforms now enable us to take that logic several steps further, to develop a new system for doing business. 

That system, being developed in-house by Keppel Net, is known as IBIS (Irukandji-Body Sync Integrated Systems).  IBIS works on a central assumption - "We will grow but our culture will not change".  Every system and procedure has that premise at its core.  This means that regardless of the business division within our group of companies, there is a central policy that governs how things are done, and there are technologies in place to manage each policy, while simultaneously allowing for rapid bursts of growth.  In essence, several businesses could have one manager, steering every department of those businesses.  Several businesses could also suddenly appear and the infrastructure and policy is already in place.

If you can imagine bringing together CRM, MYOB, a business advisor, a procedures manual, and real time teleconferencing, that's a rough idea of what IBIS is set to achieve.

The IBIS Project is in its infancy but functioning in beta form, and is already beginning to bring our goals together.  We will continue development for some time yet, and hopefully release a version to the public by 2012.

IBIS Management operates as a department of Keppel Net at our Mt Gravatt complex.

Keppel Net continues to run all operational, IT, and marketing aspects of every other business in the combined companies, including its original parent, Body Sync.