Nees Hardware & Building Supplies Limited operates three Mitre 10 MEGA stores in Petone, Upper Hutt and Porirua.

The Petone store hosts the retail management and core infrastructure for the businesses.

Building long-lasting and trusting relationships with suppliers is key to business success for the chief executive officer at Nees Hardware & Building Supplies, Cliff Lockyer

His company’s relationship with the founders of IT support provider Intellium Technology is testament to the importance his family-run business puts into finding the right partners.

The two companies started working together 25 years ago. Through this time, Intellium has been a constant support partner, advising on new technologies and infrastructure and most recently acting as the group’s technology officer, while a new staff member is recruited.

“It’s a really broad scope of work that they cover,” he says.

Intellium director Dale Daniels says the Nees group has invested heavily in IT over the years, allowing them to take advantage of new technologies as they’ve become available, such as mobilising their workforce with reliable high-quality WiFi in all of their stores.

“Having built that architecture, we understand all the details: we are able to assess new technologies in relation to their unique business needs and collaborate on training and deployment of systems,” Dale explains.

Cliff believes having a reliable infrastructure is crucial in the ever-changing world of technology. “Everything hangs off technology, from the point of sales system to inwards goods, account payables and receivables, plus daily operations on the shop floor and Intellium helps to manage and support that for us,” Cliff says.

As Nees Hardware & Building Supplies has expanded its business, Intellium has also grown, enabling it to continue to provide the expertise and experience needed to support the Mitre 10 Mega stores. The long-standing relationship with the Nees business also means Intellium understands the importance of considering parent group, Mitre 10 New Zealand, when doing work in the IT space. This enables a constructive working relationship between the three parties.

“There’s a wealth of knowledge that sits behind the team starting at the higher strategic level, and continuing through to the day-to-day operational maintenance level,” he says. “They are really responsive at all levels, so it works really well for us.”

Dale is proud to have built up a high level of trust with his client over the years. “Knowing their business so well means we can provide advice tailored to them,” he says.