ZircoDATA writes a new beginning
Dennis Barnedt, a major figure in the global records and information management industry, has founded, acquired, managed and developed leading companies in the sector across the United States and Europe. He founded Access Information Management Inc. in 2004, now the largest privately-held records and information management company in the US and second largest in the world.
For the past nine years Barnedt has been based in Ireland initiating a string of acquisitions that has made his OASIS Group the fastest growing records and information management company in Europe. Now he is turning his attention to Australia and the APAC region as Executive Chairman of the ZircoDATA Group, a totally new entity created from the acquisition of the Australian operations of Iron Mountain.
Ahead of his planned relocation to Melbourne, Barnedt sat down with IDM to discuss his present and future plans.
IDM: Firstly, why the name ZircoDATA, where does that come from?
DB: We wanted to find something that was dynamic and unique. Also we always felt that we wanted the term Data instead of archive, instead of file, instead of box. And so we tried to find a very unique name for a search engine, but also something we can brand, that we felt people could understand quickly and remember. And that’s how we came up with it. We hired a local Melbourne company to assist us with this process.
IDM: Why turn to Australia and the APAC region now, what are the opportunities?
DB: Well it was a unique opportunity with Iron Mountain. Firstly, because it was already very well run, and also it was a larger size, it’s difficult to move into a new market with a small size acquisition. Australia is a mature market in the records management space, but there’s still a need for quality players that can provide the full suite of services within the lifecycle of information management. The bottom line is we analysed the current client base and decided that there are surrounding areas of information and data that are not being met. Only a handful of clients actually understood that, or utilised that. So there was an opportunity to not only grow outside of the current client base, but also to expand significantly with the current client base.
IDM: What is the main area of business for ZircoDATA, is it still hard copy records?
DB: Yes. We’re known predominantly as a hard copy records management company now, and the majority of our current revenues actually come from this service line. We’ll continue to expand on that service line, but also look to additional services that we can offer. It’s our estimate that most of our clients don’t even know all these services, and we’re looking to add to their knowledge to assist them with their work flow of information. There are also opportunities with disposal, and of course we do quite a bit of that already although it is not one of our major revenue lines at this stage. In the Data Protection space, we went from having a significant revenue base to zero, and so we’re re-building that (Iron Mountain was able to retain its existing data storage clients as part of the requirements from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission). On the digitisation side, we all know it’s happening, and we’re part of that. Having the client base helps us, because we have a market that is open to new and emerging technology solutions.
IDM: Is hard copy storage market still growing? Will it plateau?
DB: The hard copy market still grows, and there’ll be continued growth for the foreseeable future. I’ve operated in multiple countries, and none of them so far have had a negative growth in hard copy. The annual growth has reduced over time, but it actually picked up this time last year for us in Europe. And if you read Iron Mountain’s most recent public report, their last quarter picked up also. What’s changing, albeit slowly, is the way our customers produce, or manage their information. That’s why we’ll introduce them to smarter ways to manage their existing and future needs for information.
IDM: ZircoDATA has about 30% of the market in Australia, do you expect that share to grow?
DB: We expect it to grow. We believe that we can grow out organically, and through acquisitions. We aim to continue to be the preferred supplier to our current and valued customers, but we think that we’ll be looked at as a new, maybe fresh addition to the community. People need to understand who we are, and right now we’re working on training and implementing the ZircoDATA way.
IDM: Is the drive to Digital Transformation of business processes having an effect?
DB: It’s part of our business already. It’s something we embrace as we grow, and we inform clients of our capabilities to help them with this. It is definitely a service line we want to be more active in. But we have a reputation for developing very strong relationships with our customers, and we think this will allow us to partner with them as these needs evolve. We are very open and actively looking for acquisitions that are not hard copy based, that we can add to the suite of services for our clients.
IDM: Freightways acquired Iron Mountain New Zealand in October 2011. Do you have plans for the New Zealand Market for ZircoDATA?
DB: I actually knew about that deal back in 2011, and there’s a great example of where we didn’t feel it was a large enough acquisition for us to move in to the market by itself. Without going into the specifics at this stage, we are looking at several countries in the region in which we’d like to expand but Melbourne would remain the headquarters for ZircoDATA.
We already have a very good structure and very good service offerings here that we could leverage to expand into the other countries.
IDM: What kind of businesses you are looking to acquire?
DB: I don’t say we won’t look at hard copy, because they blend in well with us, and give us sometimes a new location, and sometimes a client base that we can offer additional services to. But outside of that we would look at data restoration and recovery services, different workflow systems, EDRMS. And something that hasn’t been done here at this company, but we’re talking about it now, is the adjacent physical storage offerings, because we do have quite an infrastructure for core samples, art, research materials, things like that.
IDM: As you expand your footprint internationally, what are the key areas that you see driving growth in information and records management?
DB: Well it’s increased compliance issues, and governance issues that are sometimes specific to an industry, or even a whole government. And I’m getting up to speed with some of those here in Australia right now. Information is truly becoming an asset to businesses, whether recognise it or not. Slowly but surely, they are seeing the value of this asset, and they need help managing that. They need help identifying it, maintaining their tracking net through the whole lifecycle process.
IDM: Finally, The Oasis Group in Europe earlier this year became a sponsor of Cricket Ireland. Most Americans have difficulty understanding the game, let alone develop an affection for it. Does this mean you would rather be watching a Test Match over World Series Baseball?
DB: Well quite honestly, I’m not a baseball fan, so that’s not a fair question for either sport. I’m a big fan of 20/20 or the T20s and I went to the World Cup last March in India which I really enjoyed. I am planning on looking in on it here locally, as I settle in.