Grant Derepas

Following the merger of my business, G-Force Web Technologies, with West Coast IT I've come on board as their Lead Website Developer. I head up the web development side of the business, building and maintaining custom websites and delivering the same creative digital solutions our clients have come to expect.

I took the plunge in 2011 to start my own business out of a desire to take control of my hours and work life balance. Over the years my business grew to service more than 75 small business clients. In 2024, G-Force Web merged with West Coast IT and I've come on as their Lead Website Developer, continuing the work under a larger banner.

AppPresser is a solution for using WordPress websites as the source material for a native iOS/Android application. A role that began as technical support has grown over the years into me overseeing the consumer product project entirely and leading development direction.

I oversee the technical aspects of Notis; a personalised noticeboard app for university students. This involves everything from the app's development to supporting systems and server administration. The project is currently on hiatus as we reassess strategy and funding options.

After taking a break from professional employment to finish my university degree I found myself with too much time and not enough money and decided to get another job to balance things out. My role at FastHit saw me managing the customer support wing and sourcing new technologies to better serve our customers. Day to day I could also find myself doing anything from server installs/uninstalls in the datacentre to provisioning new software for both internal and customer use.

This was a role that I had previously applied for and when the opportunity reopened I jumped at the chance to work in a datacentre and get some experience in the network/server administration area. At HostAway I did everything from basic level 1 phone/email support to physical upgrades to the datacentre including installing new hardware, optimising cooling and remapping our cross-connect network.

I took a shift into the corporate world for a brief 8 month stint in 2011. Altech are a national computer parts wholesaler and I oversaw over 200 clients in my role. My love for tech made keeping up to date with our extensive (10,000+) product list easy and allowed me to provide in-depth information to my clients.

My first professional experience as a website designer. As the business was small and mostly focused in the IT support sector I was a one man Web Division and as such handled everything from customer contact and pricing through to front and back end development and then into ongoing support.