New tricks for Wired Dog

It's not easy becoming an Apple Reseller. Once upon a time, to open a petrol station in New Zealand, you had to operate successfully as a mechanic on the site for a fixed period first to prove your chops, as it were, and then you got a license to pump gas.

It's not exactly the same with Apple Resellers - not at all - but Wired Dog went through a similar process. The only way to legitimately sell Apple Macs in New Zealand (and it's probably the same everywhere) is as a licensed reseller, and in almost every case they earn their license by fulfilling various criteria to the satisfaction of Apple.

Once the license is granted, dealers in New Zealand, in almost every case, source their Apple-badged products via Renaissance Limited, the Authorised Apple Distributor in New Zealand for a quarter of a century. Renaissance, of course, deals with Apple Inc, which is headquartered in Sydney for our region.

The exception appears to be JB HiFi, which is Australian owned and can source Apple-badged items direct from Apple Inc (Sydney).

Due to the control exercised to ensure the Apple retail experience meets standards, it's not all that often that a new Apple shop opens. But there's a new on one the North Shore of Auckland, the new frontispiece of Wired Dog, the company that started as an 'outsource corporate support team' offering cross-platform support outfit for both Mac and Windows' clients.

English tech-guy Nick Reynolds started Wired Dog with another expat, Canadian Tyler McNamee. Nick is an Apple-certified technician.

They started with a little office on the North Shore and went about servicing Macs and PCs, fixing hardware and sorting out networking and other issues.

After a while, Wired Dog merged with Windows' and PC specialists Complete IT.

When Martin Cotton came on board he immediately started work on getting Wired Dog official Apple Reseller status so WD could also sell new Macs etc to it's Mac friendly clients. Tyler: "We mostly started selling machines to our corporate clients, as Macs have really made inroads into the business environment."

Fast forward: Wired Dog is somewhat larger, with more staff. New full-timers were employed, Martin was selling Macs ... and it became clear that a venue to which people could come to to get their Macs serviced, and at which Macs were also sold along with Apple-related equipment, would be a better proposition.

Now, with more staff and a sound business footing established over several hard-working years, that's what's happened.

The Wired Dog Shop opens Saturday 1st May in Takapuna with the help of investor (and Apple fan) Dennis Jones.

Martin Cotton becomes the store's general manager. Miles, Wired Dog's bench technician, is the Service Manager for the store - he deals with all in-store Apple service.

On the outsourced service side, there's Nick, Morgan and Phil to deal with corporate client service (on site). Wired Dog is also looking to hire an additional person for the store, someone who can do both sales and the service overflow.

Tyler McNamee is there for the other management/admin/strategic planning stuff for both sides of the business.

Wired Dog will not just be selling: there's on-site repair the team can offer set-up and installation, too. Wired Dog prides itself on turning support jobs around in under three days, as long as parts availability is OK.

The first 15 people to buy Macs with Apple Protection Plan at the new Wired Dog Shop get free 8GB iPod touches into the bargain. The new shop has other special offers planned through May.

I visited the Wired Dog team just three days before the official opening. At that point, it was hard to believe the shop would be ready. The floor space was there, the signs were up and there was a rack of Crumpler bags - but that was it.

Nick and Tyler assured me the tables were about to arrive and everything was on track. Fifteen minutes later, sure enough the big display tables were being assembled. It was all proceeding like clockwork, so I expect their opening to be on schedule.

Check out the new shop - it's at 38 Barry's Point Road on Auckland's North Shore.