Category: About Us

Photos of our new facilities after they’ve been completed and furnished and we’ve moved in.

10 years ago we built our premises at 41 Sudbury St. We were so excited about the move.

One of our valued customers needed our assistance They needed to ship an iSeries 520 server from their South African office to their office in Sydney, so they engaged our expertise to arrange this. Computer Merchants were very happy to oblige since we ship equipment all over the world on a day to day basis. [...]

Q: How many engineers does it take to change a light bulb? A: Well, there are so many aspects that need to be considered when changing a light bulb. We must firstly take into account the amount of light that is required by the light bulb, which of course will depend on the tasks that [...]

Have you ever considered Computer Merchants for your Mainframe? Mainframe vendors are few and far between, and very few of them would have 30 years of experience in dealing with mainframe systems. Since 1979, Computer Merchants has been dealing with large systems. We can help you with many of your mainframe requirements: Our systems come [...]

It’s business as usual here at Computer Merchants during the Christmas period Our office will be staffed as usual during normal work hours to assist with any requirements that you may have. We will be closed on the public holidays though. Thank you for all your support and business this year We look forward to [...]

During the course of your dealings with Computer Merchants, at some stage you will get a phone call from our Logistics Team. You’ll most likely hear from Danielle Middendorp, Katie James or Sandie Archer. Danielle, Katie and Sandie monitor your orders on a daily basis to ensure the efficient progression of each order. At every [...]

Although hardware is a big part of our portfolio, for some time now we have been working towards being a one-stop shop for our customers by expanding our services portfolio. Some of the services we provide that you may not be aware of are: Consultancy on solutions upgrades and consolidations Relocations of data centres with [...]

Whenever we mention Tivoli Software to many of our customers, they immediately think of TSM – Tivoli Storage Manager. It’s a product that is well respected for its features and its ability to manage complex backup and restore environments. But Tivoli is so much more than just management of storage. Tivoli is a suite of [...]

Challenging times Everywhere we go it seems that the news is rather bleak with regard to the global economy. Most of the commentary is reporting on past events (the majority being about losses instead of gains) and very little being able to provide help or insights into the future. Our business relationships are much like [...]

We are pleased to report that we have had continued our growth Last year, Q400 rated us the 213th largest privately owned business in Queensland. The 2008 rankings are out and we have just been notified that we are now the 166th largest privately owned business. We would like to thank our staff, customers and [...]

There is currently a lot of talk about what should be done or what can be done in order to reduce greenhouse and carbon emissions. We aren’t saying that we know exactly how the government is going to act in relation to this issue, however we have some knowledge of what companies are currently doing [...]

While Computer Merchants has been recycling and reusing equipment for its entire history, what about our suppliers? Here’s some information from one of our suppliers on its commitment to reducing the environmental impact of its products and services throughout their lifecycle. In 1992, HP launched its “Design for Environment” (DfE) program Its aim was to reduce [...]

Server Consolidation is the hottest topic in the IT world at this point in time Many businesses are taking the opportunity to reduce costs through consolidating multiple servers into fewer, more powerful systems with server virtualisation, or creating multiple virtual servers on a single physical server. By streamlining the management of your computing environment and [...]

Server Optimization and Integration Services can help you create a cost-effective, scalable, flexible and resilient server infrastructure. This will allow you to support business applications using industry-leading practices based on IBM experience and intellectual capital. These services can help you: Secure a future-state server environment Provide a more flexible and responsive IT infrastructure Improve operational efficiencies and [...]

What’s all this talk of migrating all your Intel servers into one making less zeroes on your monthly power bill and no more chaotic computer rooms with servers and cabling for you to get lost in? Virtualise this, virtualise that! The term has been passed around like a hot potato and many of you may [...]

This month we added another newsletter to our web site from the print archives. This time, we’re revisiting December 2005. Highlights of December 2005 IBM iSeries Technical Update 2005 Hardware Management Consoles – A One Minute Guide IBM Support Line How To Reset The Dedicated Service Tools Password  Buying Hardware From Computer Merchants How We Streamline [...]

Since the relaunch of our web site in December 2007, we’ve been slowly adding our older newsletters. This month, we added our newsletter from July 2006. Even though these articles are 2 years old, there is still quite a lot of information that is just as relevant as ever. Highlights of July 2006 15 Point [...]

We were very excited to find out recently that we have been awarded the System p Business Partner of the Year 2007 award by IBM. The award is based on a number of criteria including: our financial target set by IBM, our growth in System p, as well as how easy we are to work [...]

VMware Certification For Computer Merchants As many of you would know, virtualisation is a very hot topic at the moment! Just recently, five members of the Computer Merchants Sales team attended the VMware Sales Professional (VSP) training course. The course was structured to educate a business partner on how to provide a virtualisation solution based [...]

If there is an alternative available, we’re happy to offer it We always take the time to understand your needs and what you are trying to achieve. We don’t expect you to be the expert in feature codes and part numbers - that’s something we can do for you. Instead, tell us what you want to do, and let [...]

Who do I go to for sourcing hardware in the USA? We are opening a store over there for the first time and it’s a big country, who can I trust? This was the question posed to us at Computer Merchants by a customer looking for a hardware supplier abroad. The answer? Computer Merchants of [...]

I’d like to start by introducing myself. My name’s Sandie and I’ve been working at Computer Merchants for about 1 and a half months now. Last year I graduated from high school, so I’d never even been in an office environment until now! There are a variety of roles and tasks that are expected of [...]

Computer Merchants are now specialized in Cisco SMB (less than 250 users on the network) after our sales staff attended and successfully completed the Select certification course. This allows us to access deeper discounts for a range of Cisco switching, routing and communications equipment. The course involved technical and sales training to help us understand [...]

Here’s a quick summary of services we offer our customers either here at Computer Merchants or onsite. IBM System i has been a great part of our business, but these days we are also seeing lots of BladeCenter services coming through. We have installed IBM System i, System p, System x, BladeCenter, HMC and Sun hardware, [...]

We’ve added a map to our Contact page The map is powered by Google Maps. It allows you to get driving instructions to and from our Head Office. This should help for those of you coming to Interaction at the Gold Coast later this year. You can also view the map with satellite photo overlays. [...]

As we pointed out in our December 2007 newsletter, we trade in HP equipment. Buying and selling HP equipment is becoming an increasingly important part of our product and service offering. That’s because we recognise that businesses today are often using a range of different vendors to supply their IT needs. We’ve developed quite a network of HP [...]

Sure You Back Up Your Data! But how frequently? How much data would you lose in a disaster between backups? How quickly can you recover from a disaster? How long would you be without access to critical applications and data? Double-Take is a disaster recovery solution for the Intel world It captures byte-level changes as [...]

Can you help us with Sun hardware? We are currently looking to replenish stock, stock that has been moving out of the warehouse over the last 6 months. While it’s great that we’ve moved so much Sun stock and managed to keep so many of you happy, we’ve now found that our current stock is low. [...]

Have you seen our website lately? Because Computer Merchants has been Green since 1979! Yes we refurbish used computers, recycle parts and turn the lights off at night. But we go further than that ladies and gentlemen. We are focused on being ‘Green’, continually taking steps in the right direction as we strive to use [...]

Here at Computer Merchants, we’re serious about minimising our impact on the environment. We’ve previously stated that: We will calculate and publish our carbon and water useage per person so that we can publicly work towards improving this and share our progress.  We meant it. Our Water Usage Calculated as the number of litres of water [...]

As a top IBM hardware supplier, we have added to our already strong internal systems to manage and maintain customer hardware maintenance. Many of you have commented on how simple we make the whole process. Some points to note are: We provide reminders 2-3 months out from your maintenance renewal This allows time for you [...]

As many of you would know, Computer Merchants and Interactive have enjoyed a close business relationship for many years. Here’s an update on what our good friends at Interactive are up to… Interactive has signed Bank of Queensland as its 1,000th customer It caps off another great year for the Australian-owned systems availability company and [...]

I feel the need…the neeed for speeeed” “Perhaps it wasn’t quite up to the Maverick and Goose performance from the legendary Top Gun movie but when Jas and Carl attended the recent IBM Top Gun training, they mixed it with the elite of IBM sales professionals throughout Australia and New Zealand. IBM Top Gun gives [...]

Hello from the Computer Merchants Logistics Team! As you will read in the Tech Section of this month’s newsletter, it was our responsibility to organise the shipping of the System i570 to Bank of South Pacific in PNG. Our responsibilities included working closely with production and our on-site engineer Richard to track the progress of [...]

Many of us who have been around a while will know that partitions in an IT environment are nothing new, particularly in a mainframe environment. However in the past few years the concept of Logical Partitioning has made a resurgence. The benefits to users are many, including: Reduces floor area, reducing real estate usage Ability [...]

Success Story Our engineer Richard recently had the pleasure of travelling to Papua New Guinea to work with the great people from Bank South Pacific at their Port Moresby office. Richard was responsible for the installation and set-up of their new i570 Power 6+ System i, with 2 Frames, 5 LPARs and over 5 TB [...]

We take pride in becoming more sensitive to the environment, now only using biodegradable cleaning products in our warehouse. A few weeks ago though we met a challenge: the disposal of approximately 1,000 redundant CDs. After talking to a number of organisations, we found that their methods have the same end result as just throwing the [...]

Just a quick note to let you know that we are able to source 1-5 year old Lenovo desktops and notebooks, as well as IBM System x servers and related products – complete with warranty! Some of the key benefits of this are: Fast delivery, stock readily available Competitively priced You can buy the exact [...]

A common question asked by our customers is “do we rent equipment?” The answer is YES! We typically come across a demand for rentals in the following situations: 1 – Flexibility We currently have customers that are renting complete machines from us. Success Story One example is a customer whose business was expanding meaning their [...]

Congratulations to Bruce who celebrated 10 years with Computer Merchants in February Bruce started with the company in 1998 to develop the open systems market. Our open systems team now consists of 7 sales specialists, focussing on: IBM System p (RS/6000), IBM System x (x86/Intel), IBM mainframe, as well as Sun and HP products. Both Carl [...]

So many businesses today are running a range of machines across different vendors We have found that many of you, for various reasons, are using a combination of vendors. To be as helpful as we can, we’d like to make sure that we can supply all of the equipment you need regardless of who manufactures [...]

What Superior Customer Service Means to Computer Merchants Word of mouth referral is the most effective form of promotion. It costs nothing and carries a lot of credibility as it is based on personal experience. At Computer Merchants, we believe that satisfied customers not only tend to return to buy again from us, but are also likely to talk positively [...]

Here in the production department of Computer Merchants, the condition of products being distributed to you is of the utmost importance to us. In fact, we guarantee our goods get to you safely, efficiently and on time. We are about to trial “Instapak Quick RT Packaging“, made by Sealed Air, which employs recyclable, cushioned material [...]

Many organisations use technology leasing as a way to conserve capital Technology can be expensive and typically competes for capital funding with other investment or expenditure opportunities. Due to its inherent flexibility, leasing offers innovative ways to acquire IT equipment that can reduce much of the risk and uncertainty in purchasing new technology and increase [...]

Did you know that Computer Merchants can courier equipment anywhere in the world? All Computer Merchants customer service staff are highly skilled and experienced in the procedures and paperwork involved in shipping goods overseas. This means that Computer Merchants is a “one stop shop” and you don’t need to worry about liaising with freight companies [...]

Reliable service We deliver our products and services on time and as requested. Accountability Computer Merchants take full responsibility for providing high quality products and services, and always endeavour to honour our guarantees and warranties. Efficiency We deliver our products and service with minimal hassle to our customers. Assurance At Computer Merchants, we create customer [...]

Cheers to Computer Merchants for being a Finalist at the Recent ARN IT Industry Awards! On September 26, 2007 we attended the first ever ARN IT awards at Doltone House in Sydney’s Jones Bay Wharf. It was a huge event and it was great to hear about some impressive directions for the future of the [...]

Cables – what’s in the box? Having the right cables shipped with your order is an obsession for us. I think we’d all agree it’s the difference between a hassle free customer experience and a headache. That’s why at Computer Merchants, it’s a point of pride that we guarantee your product arrives with the correct [...]

“Delivering great personalized service since 1979, our people, values and systems guarantee you are happy with the end result.” Our Mission Statement was developed by our current Managing Director, David McDade who has always believed that our people come first. With this in mind, it is with much sadness that we are about to see [...]

Yes, you know we rent, sell, buy and lease new and used IBM, Sun, HP, Cisco and other hardware. But we’re also able to help with your Software Technical Support and Programming. Computer Merchants have experienced staff available to help you -  not only with your iSeries modifications and enhancements –  but also in other parts [...]

I am new to the Computer Merchants team Many of you I have not as yet seen. A small introduction I’ve been asked to write So here it is I trust you will like… I grew up in a small town out west A career in sales I liked the best Tourists and locals I [...]

At Computer Merchants, we are committed to ensuring that your installation is completed to your absolute satisfaction We will ensure that we provide every assistance to make sure you’re “completely happy with the end result” as our standard Plain English Sales Conditions state. Our systems have been developed over many years to make sure we avoid [...]

Can you believe the end of the financial year is nearly upon us? We have been very busy at Computer Merchants. Life here has been a buzz of activity with the end of the financial year approaching. Here’s a snapshot of what has been going on: IBM have announced a new range of System i [...]

You may have heard that the Computer Merchants Team have recently welcomed the addition of Prue and Sonya to their System p Team. In fact you may have had the pleasure of speaking to them in person. The two little “rays of sunshine” have been welcomed on board to help you with your needs as the [...]

Christina Manion joined the Customer Service Team in late January. Christina has a Bachelor of Business (International Business) degree at QUT. Her current role as a Customer Service Team member includes, data entry, accounts receivable and payable, filing, photocopying, banking, reception, switchboard and most importantly answering the telephone. You may have heard her already “Welcome [...]

Well what a start to the year! It has been an exciting time for the Production Department here at Computer Merchants. Here’s a little of what has been going on. It started with two i520s in racks for one of our customers. These machines required 3 LPARs each and that was exciting. Then I was off [...]

As an IBM user with an Inventory System, our processes need to track over 5,000 items in our warehouse plus the items on their way to you, our customers. We do this by the use of Bar Codes All of our Applications run on an IBM iSeries. The challenge we had was to interface the [...]

We thought we might tell you a little about today’s Customer Service Team… Kylie Kylie Mills joined our Customer Service team six and a half years ago as our receptionist. After moving from Reception, Kylie took on the Logistics role before moving up to her current role as Accounts. This means Kylie is a backup [...]

If you are about to purchase a new System i server or other IT infrastructure, you might want to consider leasing your purchase through IBM Global Financing (IBM GF). A number of our customers have done this. Why? Here are some of the reasons why you’d consider leasing: You need to purchase new equipment but [...]

June 2006 saw the arrival of Alex Martens, who joined the Customer Service Team in the role of Software Support. Alex comes to us with experience in programming in the RPG language and operations on IBM iSeries machines, having worked for another IBM business partner in Brisbane, and software houses in Sydney, Brisbane and Europe. [...]

We’re on the look out for IBM mainframe equipment… …especially IBM 2074 controllers, IBM 3472 or IBM 3192 terminals. It’s funny how these items now have more value than the processors used to run them! We’re also interested in IBM 3480/3490 and IBM 3590 tape units. Auto loaders are fairly tight on the broker market [...]

Imagine this… you’re sitting at your desk, head down bum up, as usual and in the back of your mind you’re feeling a little peckish. As you turn to look around to see what else has taken up space upon your desk you notice a little white box. You open up this white box, slowly, still [...]

In recent years there has been increasing demand from our customers to receive our purchase and sales agreements via email. You will be familiar with this paperwork from when you have either purchased equipment from us or we have bought your redundant gear. This paperwork is produced from a contract system which runs on our [...]

We at Computer Merchants, especially in the System i team, would like to sincerely thank each and every one of our customers who purchased a new System i 5xx from us. At the recent IBM Business Partner Awards, IBM awarded two very prestigious plaques to Computer Merchants. The first one being “Distributor Business Partner of [...]

Computer Merchants take a lot of pride in showing our Suppliers that they are valued by all of our staff. One way of showing this is how we strive to pay all of our suppliers before their payment terms. Very often this means we are paying for the equipment we sell to you before we [...]

Have you just replaced or upgraded your server? Are you changing platforms? Make sure you offer us computer hardware you no longer require – even if you think it won’t be worth much! We’ll be able to give you a quick answer on what your equipment is worth. We’re in regular contact with thousands of [...]

You can purchase pretty much anything IBM through Computer Merchants. And that includes IBM’s extensive range of Education courses. The courses can be done: in a classroom environment; via a DVL (Digital Video Library) in your own time; or via a course that is specifically tailored to suit your needs. Topics include IBM hardware and [...]

In August we sent out a “Specials email” to a few of you. As much as anything, the purpose of the email was to let you know that there are other products you can purchase from us aside from the midrange, mainframe and storage products we focus on. The products featured in the email included [...]

It was Wednesday morning and a customer in Fiji urgently needed a part that had to be installed that weekend. The part they needed was in our stock but when we checked all of our regular channels, no freight company could guarantee delivery to Fiji by Friday. Success Story About 6 years ago, we used [...]

Brendan comes initially form IT and wholesale distribution of IT products. More recently, Brendan was involved in direct sales and moved on to the sales management of a naitonal office machine supply and service company. He has joined our System i team and looks forward to meeting and helping people from the System i community. [...]

Every 6 months, Computer Merchants have an offsite conference that we like to call “Kick-Off”. This is an excellent time for each of our internal teams to present what we have achieved over the last 6 months, our current goals, and what we are aiming to achieve in the next 6 months. It is a [...]

As you may know from previous newsletters, we can accept credit card payments. In order to do this though, a credit charge surcharge is applicable. We keep this surcharge as low as possible. Paying by Visa, Mastercard or Bankcard, there is a 2% surcharge on the total of your invoice including GST. Paying by American [...]

Have you had the air conditioning serviced lately? What happens if it fails? How will your insurance cover you? Cautionary Tale Recently while talking to a customer, I was told about a situation you never want to be in. The air conditioning system had failed in the IT room and yes, you guessed it, had [...]

Where do you go when your old parts fail? Sit back and have a think of what would happen if a server or tape library, or just a piece of older hardware fails. Success Story Recently a customer contacted Computer Merchants because they had a failed power supply on one of their machines. Within one [...]

Do you currently have Sun hardware you’re no longer using? Is it sitting in the corner and you’re wondering what to do with it? Or are you about to migrate to newer equipment and need to plan for the timely removal of the older hardware? Call us on 1800 777 111! We are always looking [...]

Computer Merchants are always thinking of, and discovering, new and better ways to package and ship our products The way we pack our products is vital to us, to make certain that your equipment arrives to you in the best condition. We understand that lost or broken equipment can lead to costly downtime for you. [...]

Hi! My name is Prue Gibson and I have been working at Computer Merchants for 6 challenging and enjoyable weeks. In this time I have had the opportunity to introduce myself to most of you and I look forward to saying hello to the remainder of you in the near future. Over the last 10 years [...]

At Computer Merchants we are often asked where our second hand equipment comes from and how old it is. These may seem like important questions but the most important question is really “Will I be able to put the equipment under maintenance cover with my maintenance supplier?” This is important because once it is covered [...]

Our Mission Statement Delivering great personalized service since 1979 - our people, values and systems guarantee you are happy with the end result.  Since 1979 You’ve told us that it’s important to you that you feel safe in dealing with a company that is going to be around for a long time. Since 1979 many of [...]

We all know how daunting it feels when we need to upgrade to a bigger box or add a something to your existing hardware. At the moment it’s working OK. You’ve had no problems since last time the power went out, unless of course you’re lucky enough to have a generator… But you can see [...]

Restriction Of Hazardous Substances (RoHS) is the restriction of hazardous substance materials found inelectrical and electronic products. The EU wants to restrict the use of six substances and the restriction will come into the market from 1st July 2006. The 6 hazardous substances: Lead (Pb) Hexavalent chromium (Cr +6) Mercury (Hg) PolyBrominated Biphenyl (PBB) Cadmium (Cd) [...]

Wasn’t it a great catwalk model that was once quoted as saying “I don’t get out of bed for less than $10,000″. It sometimes seems as if this is the case for many IT companies who will bend over backwards if it looks as if a big deal is on the table, but at other [...]

I just received my USED machine - who will unpack it? Over the years, Computer Merchants have worked closely with freight company Hi-Tech Express to ensure that your equipment is handled with the highest care. If you’ve received a machine from us lately, you may have noticed we are using a new kind of carton called a [...]

You might be wondering how filling in our Customer Satisfaction Survey will benefit you now and in the long run. Well, these surveys are a great way to tell us how you really feel about the way Computer Merchants operates. This ensures we provide, and continue to meet and exceed your expectations. What happens to the surveys? Your surveys [...]

You might wonder what a telescopic box is and why it would be of any interest to you. Let us tell you! As you would know it is essential that all equipment is packed well. Poor packing can lead to your equipment being damaged and that can be a nuisance in terms of the extra [...]

When you purchase a second-hand IBM iSeries server from Computer Merchants, you can be confident that you receive it ready to turn on and start loading your data right away. The key steps we take when preparing an iSeries machine for you First of all the disks are initialized. Licensed Internal Codes (LIC’s) are loaded. OS/400 [...]

At Computer Merchants, we take your business seriously The first line of our Plain English Sale Terms and Conditions states: “To guarantee you are happy with the end result.” In practice this means all efforts are focused on ensuring all delivery and installation activities happen in the right order and are performed to your satisfaction. [...]

That’s a question we often get asked here at Computer Merchants. The answer of course depends on: where you are, what you’re after and what we have in stock at the time. There have been many times when we’ve helped a customer get out of a sticky situation. Here’s a recent example involving an Auckland [...]

Many of you are now familiar with the first clause of our standard Plain English Sale Conditions To ENSURE YOU ARE HAPPY with the end result. Judging by the feedback we are receiving from customers who have purchased the new i5 Series machines, this certainly is being met. Here are a few brief customer comments on [...]

Recently, Computer Merchants purchased some equipment from one of our customers. Our customer requested that instead of paying them for the equipment, we donate the money to a charity on their behalf. We donated the funds to Red Cross Australia which was much appreciated, especially at this time of year. A big thank you goes [...]

You might remember us mentioning in previous newsletters that we send out customer satisfaction surveys with our invoices. We really appreciate the time you take to complete the survey and tell us how you rate our goods and services. If you would like to request a copy of the survey please email us. It is [...]

Hello, my name is Paris Proszynski and I have been working in the Customer Service team for 3 months at Computer Merchants. Prior to joining the crew, I had been working for 3 years in Administration, Retail and Hospitality as well as finishing my schooling in Melbourne. I am a social butterfly as I am [...]

Cargo Management Re-engineering Delays Through Customs Many of us have read or heard about the delays Customs have been experiencing lately. There have been numerous media reports on a new clearing process called Cargo Management Re-Engineering (CMR). CMR has been running for the past couple of months, and promises to be a much more streamlined method [...]

Samuels Courier Services (SCS) has been a success because SCS really cares about the service they provide. As it is a small operation, parcels are not passed on from one vehicle to another before eventually arriving at their destinations. In this way SCS are able to provide express services that really are express – delivered [...]

Hi, my name is Wilhelmina Ramakers. I have recently joined the Customer Service team here at Computer Merchants. Prior to joining the team here, I had a casual position at “The Warehouse”, working in customer service and ‘doing time’ behind the registers! I completed grade 12 at Mabel Park High School only two years ago, [...]

I would like to say a big thanks to all the people that I have spoken to since I started here. For the people I have not spoken to, I will be in touch in the very near future. I have come from a software development background, spending 2 years studying at Swinburne TAFE. My [...]

At Computer Merchants, we put a lot of importance on the “value” you obtain when you purchase your equipment through us. Here’s just a few of the points you should think about when determining value and how you go about buying your used equipment: All of the equipment that you purchase from Computer Merchants is [...]

As you know, we like to keep in regular contact with you throughout the year. Often our calls are to see if you may be interested in a certain product that we know would be of use in your particular situation. We try to keep an updated record of your equipment base so that we can make [...]