Company profile: Data#3’s people focus

Despite having had 30 years in the IT services business, with more than 10 of those publicly listed, John Grant, managing director of Data#3, says he is very cautious about projecting a personal view of the company, instead preferring to focus on its people.

Grant says most of its senior personnel have been at Data#3 for 10 years or more. Self-evident perhaps of a close-knit working environment?
“It may sound cliché, but having the right people in place in a business is a major aspect of what makes a business remarkable. Yes I think we certainly have an attractive working environment where people have a real desire to come to work.”

This he says, is evidenced by the company’s annual survey which this year claimed that 93 percent of staff would recommend Data#3 as an employer of choice.

“However, we can all say people are our greatest asset but this is just a part of it,” said Grant. “The fact that we keep on winning contracts makes it pretty clear that we are doing something right.”

With offices in Brisbane, Canberra, Gladstone, Melbourne, Rockhampton and Sydney, the company aims to provide a broad software solutions, technology design and IT equipment service to a wide ranging set of industries including banking and finance, mining, tourism, leisure, legal, healthcare, manufacturing, distribution, government and utilities.

It is within the government sector that Data#3 has had one of its most notable contracts of late, with a successful ‘green’ tender for the provision of IT equipment and associated services for the Queensland Government. Partnering with both HP and Toshiba, Grant says the company is expecting to receive a ‘fair chunk’ of the $100m value of the contract in a deal set to save the Government $20 million over the next 12 months. Data#3 will be providing energy-efficient lifecycle solutions centred on desktop, laptop and server products for an initial three years.

“The Government’s decision is significant and innovative as it is the first time a services company such as us has been selected in this sort of panel arrangement,” said Grant.

“Our customer solution lifecycle approach is integral to our offer and ensures the products purchased are right for the task, that the total cost to agencies is the lowest, that the process is the most effective, and that allows the innovative options we have proposed for ongoing operation of agency infrastructure are leveraged to the fullest.”

Grant remains adamant that continually innovating within technology solutions is crucial to keeping up the pace on the important issue of technology with a green stance. “Customers often tell us that it is our attitude to innovation and the way we craft our software and methodologies that sets us apart from the competition and this is especially important from an environmental point of view.

“Unfortunately the technology sector as a whole has been quite slow to pick up on the issue and we have only just begun to see environmentally friendly technologies to emerge over the past few years.

“As it stands, most corporates are only interested in valuing their business against a green agenda if they can firstly incorporate cost efficiency. We are lucky to be in a position to be able to instigate this with the Queensland Government contract but overall, governments are the ones that must lead this agenda if it is to really work.”

Grant also points to the streamlining of its business partners over the past few years as one of the rationales behind its success. (The past few years have posted record results for Data#3. Revenue this year was up 19 percent, profit up 26 percent and dividends up 29 percent.)

“At one point about four years ago, we had a real multiplicity of vendors that we worked with – I think maybe 20 or 25. As time went on, we realised that this was far too many to be able to deal with, considering the rapid evolving of technology that we were seeing at the time (and continue to see). Things were getting too complex and we found we were signing practically every reseller agreement that was coming across our desk!

“Eventually we decided to cut the number down significantly and now we just deal with HP, IBM, Microsoft and Cisco. This allows us greater freedom to concentrate heavily in development and acquire the appropriate certification and infrastructure to support these vendors’ products.”

But it is not just in the obvious areas of technology that Grant says the company is investing (as well as the newer ones, namely in the virtualisation arena). He claims distributor and vendor partners have also spurred the company into making positive moves into supply chain technology areas. To this end, Data#3 has recently become a member of HP’s strategic Asia Pacific Operations Counsel which is aimed at improving the business process for the reseller community. Providing a leadership role to the counsel, Grant said, allows the company to advise HP partner staff to better automate their functions around supply chain functionality and pricing.

But whilst the technologies and solutions are crucially important to the smooth flow of business, Grant maintains that is over the whole lifecycle of technology that he is keen to monitor things. “I am interested in the “Technology Adoption Trend” of customers,” he said, “and how we should be moving across this trend, not just at its beginning, but across its whole life span.”

With a five-phase approach – the past two being outsourcing for the client and then IT purely as a service, respectively – Grant said that whilst investing in services is crucial, they are just a part of the mix, with the technology product crucial to what it is built around.

“I am not a buyer into the idea of services being the be-all and end-all of things; services in the most part, only stem from good vendor IT products. It is easy to lose sight of that.”

What it is not so easy to lose sight of, continues Grant, is the ongoing skills shortage within the industry. “We are seeing a real wave of shortage unfortunately across a wide IT skills set and not enough is being done about it. This has been precipitated by both government and industry not moving quickly enough on the issue, of course, and I think this will probably continue for at least another five years.”

From Data#3’s own point of view, Grant said the company is lucky enough to have its own in-house recruitment division which can position the company better than most, in being able to handle a large proportion of its staffing requests. However, he admits that at the end of the day, the problem boils down to pure supply and demand. “Yes, sometimes we do just have to ride the extra salary costs involved in hiring the right people or training them up ourselves. That’s just what it takes if we want to stay out there.”

With a company vision statement that strives to be “an exceptional company – one that unites to enable our customers’ success through technology; inspires our people to do their best everyday; and rewards investors’ confidence and support,” where does Grant expect that the company’s directions are now headed?

Whilst continually keeping a beady eye out for suitable company partnerships or acquisitions, he said he will always stay cautious in this respect. “I don’t want to be too tight-lipped on the subject but I know how easy it can be to go out, all guns blazing, looking for ways of collaborating with people.

“Unfortunately I know of many examples in this game, where the differing cultures between companies has caused things to fall apart quite spectacularly. This is something we like to tread a careful line with.”

Grant points to the “pretty messy” failed joint venture back in 2003 with listed firm Powerlan (QLD).

Data #3 had entered a joint venture partnership with the technology provider to service the Queensland Government in collaboration with HP and Microsoft. Unfortunately, shortly into the deal, things went sour and Powerlan went into receivership, leaving Data#3 liable for several million dollars worth of debt. Grant says he battled the case for a good couple of months and contrary to legal advice, declined to see the case go through the courts. “I decided to back both the receivers and my intuition by coming to a settlement and getting the contracts signed over to us.

“It was one of those situations where you know it is a risk but you have to go with your gut instincts. In that instance, I was glad I did.”

He says he is also glad about his company’s attitude to honesty in the face of adversity. Asked what mistakes Data#3 has made and Grant is upfront. “Every day we make mistakes – it is being honest about them and being quick to rectify them that is important. Our saying in this industry, is that there is no story like the truth well told.”