IT consultancy firm operating for 21 years collapses into voluntary administration

Adelaide’s largest independent IT consultancy firm has gone into voluntary administration.

Intec Group has been operating for 21 years and has provided information technology services to government agencies and private businesses.

Ferrier Hodgson was called in to manage the firm on September 28, with Tim Mableson and Martin Lewis appointed as administrators.

The first meeting of creditors was held on Friday last week.

The firm, which had approximately 30 employees at the time of the administration, will continue to trade while the administrators undertake an urgent assessment of the company’s existing contracts.

However, in the interim the administrators may undertake some restructuring of Intec Group’s operations.

A second meeting of creditors is due to be held on Tuesday, November 3.

Intec Group’s clients include the South Australian government, BHP Billiton, ACH Group and O’Connors, according to the company’s website.

Ferrier Hodgson is seeking urgent offers for the purchase of Intec Group’s business and assets.

In particular, the administrator is looking to reassign the IT consultancy’s multi-year software contract with the South Australian government.

Intec Group also operates GemLab, a series of innovation workshops for local businesses and Ferrier Hodgson is seeking urgent offers for this arm of the business.

Mableson, partner at Ferrier Hodgson, told SmartCompany this morning the IT sector is a highly competitive one.

“Over the course of it starting the business had acquired an excellent and highly skilled workforce, which is expensive to maintain in a competitive market,” Mableson says.

“At the date of our appointment, a significant number of the workers were long-serving, which restricted the company’s ability to essentially reduce its overheads. It’s strength turned into its weakness in some ways.”

Mableson says there has been “significant interest” in Intec Group and its assets.

“Consequently, we’ve extended the period of time for offers by one week to the 16^th of October,” he says.