Information technology services firm Datacom has reported another year of strong growth, with revenues up 9 per cent to $788 million and staff numbers up 13 per cent to more than 4000.

Net profit in the year to the end of March rose 12 per cent to $25m.

Analysts are divided on whether the rise of the privately-owned firm would be setting off alarm bells at the Asia-Pacific headquarters of United States multinationals IBM and Hewlett-Packard.

Just over half Datacom's revenues now come from outside New Zealand, mainly from Australia, but it also employs 800 people providing technical phone support services at offices in Malaysia and the Philippines. This year it expanded into China. Group chief executive Jonathan Ladd said Datacom did its first paid work in China in April and staff numbers there had now reached double figures.

During the financial year Datacom was selected as the prime contractor for an $80m overhaul of the Immigration Service's computer systems and was picked as one of three providers of data centre capacity and "infrastructure-as-a-service" to the Government. The latter win encouraged it to begin construction of a $30m data centre in Hamilton which will complement a similar facility in Auckland.

The result was posted days after Hewlett-Packard reported a US$8.9 billion quarterly loss and confirmed it would axe 27,000 jobs. Fairfax NZ

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