Method on the move

METHOD + Madness is gearing up for major expansion.

The company will move in August into brand new premises on the corner of Hay and Rokeby Streets in Subiaco, to accommodate a planned growth in staff from 60 to 150.

The company, now part of the Sausage Software group, recently launched an e-bulletin service called WebLoop that features e-business news and events, networking opportunities, major issues in information technology and technological developments.

M+M head of marketing Lindsay Frangs said alliances had already been forged with many academic and corporate bodies, including Arthur Andersen, KPMG and UWA to provide content and comment for WebLoop. The first edition announced M+M’s new recruitment campaign aimed at identifying WA’s top web developers and programmers.

It encouraged Perth’s digital elite to register at the M+M web site for the chance to win a trip to Sydney and Melbourne to meet other IT professionals within the Sausage group.

M+M director Stephen Langsford said the company could now offer a career path for developers including stints in Sausage’s Hong Kong, UK and eastern states branches.

“This provides a very compelling proposition for restless local talent,” Mr Langsford said.

He said M+M planned to make its WA operation a major development hub for Sausage, servicing national and international clients.

M+M co-founder Ruwan Weerasoor-iya said, while the company didn’t rule out the possibility of acquiring other local web development businesses, the primary focus was to attract key staff.

Ms Frangs said the fact the company was no longer involved in a good-natured marketing war with Pretzel Logic was testament to the speed at which the industry was evolving in WA.

“We don’t see them as our main competitor because we’ve diverged into different spaces,” Ms Frangs said.

“Both companies have grown enormously. We’ve moved from a web development focus towards providing an end-to-end solution, so we now see Sydney based companies – and even international companies – as our key competitors.

“The new phase for the whole of the Australian IT industry has shifted from one of competitiveness to one of forming alliances.”

The Perth IT industry was abuzz last year when Pretzel Logic parked a mobile billboard outside M+M’s offices as part of a tongue-in-cheek recruitment drive.

“Both companies are fairly staffed up at the moment so I doubt there will be any more of these incidents!” Ms Frangs said.