Words of wisdom for channel longevity

Nola brought that heavy research focus with him and made it an essential part of DiData’s outlook.

“It’s very much that long-term approach [of] investing heavily for the future, but also investing before the market cycle actually hits. We spend a fair bit of time researching where the market is going to move and investing before potentially we can actually make a dollar. That gives us an advantage when the market does move and we can take a competitive first mover position.”

Nola lists the technologies that DiData saw coming and got in early: routers (“when most of the industry didn’t believe you could do it”), video-conferencing (12 years ago), Cisco (since 1990), Checkpoint (mid-1990s) and Netscape (DiData was the exclusive distributor of Mosaic, before it was renamed).

Two-and-a-half years ago, Didata took half a dozen of its best engineers out of the field to really specialise in Unified Communications and convergence, despite knowing there wouldn’t be any return for a couple of years.

“Now Unified Communications is a very hot topic, and I believe we have taken a very strong leadership position based on the investment we made three years ago,” said Nola.

So how does DiData do its research? Nola admits that it takes commitment.

Investing before the curve “takes a lot of foresight, it takes a lot of cash, but it also takes a lot of belief that you can execute once the market does move. I think you really have to be a student of the industry.”

It also means listening to the people who know best; your staff and your customers.

Nola said companies with a more rigid hierarchy often dismiss people lower in the chain, leading to wasted opportunities. Nola insists on a very flat hierarchy within DiData, where decisions are pushed as far down as possible. Engineers in particular are encouraged to share ideas with management, whose role is to synthesise the best into new solutions for clients.

“Our best ideas do come from guys who play with this stuff in their personal time, who do a lot of reading and research – it’s almost free R&D.”

Client feedback is also important, especially as they are the testing ground for new ideas.

Which raises the fourth point: choose your clients well and work the accounts hard. It’s better to establish good, long-term relationships with repeat business than to chase every person who walks in the door. The unorthodox method definitely works: not one client in DiData’s top 40 accounts has changed in the past 10 years.

Instead of building a client list metres long, the integrator has extended its reach deeper within each client and grown alongside them – a different way of doing business to the rest of the market, said Nola.

“It’s not about trying to do business with every single client, it just doesn’t work that way and that’s a very expensive exercise. You have to pick your horses and ride them pretty hard. That’s served us very, very well.”

The fifth dictum is much like the first. Once you have good staff, hang onto them. In an industry already facing skills shortages, and a profession which is seeing enrolment in IT-related tertiary courses fall by as much as 15 percent, holding onto good talent is only going to get harder.

DiData has in place formalised career development and mentor programs, as well as two induction processes – one for the company, and one for the job itself. DiData has a “passport program” for new recruits where they receive stamps for completing modules, some of which are hands-on, but mostly are online courses developed in-house.

DiData has received recognition externally (it was voted one of the best employers in Australia last year) and internally; 40 percent of staff have been with the company for more than five years.

Nola said an important element in staff satisfaction is a “very good” corporate social responsibility program and involvement in charities. Another is that flat hierarchical structure with its diffused responsibility and decision-making.

“Although we’ve been around for 20 years, it still feels like a family company,” said Nola. High staff retention “saves money, [but] that’s the by-product. I think the benefit is the consistency you can deliver internally as well as to your client. It’s always great to have the same people there and not deal with a fresh face every six months. I think that is why clients tend to stick with us.”

Nola said the full effect of the skills shortage won’t be seen for a while yet – a concern as projects are already being forced to move from one city to another. Nola notes a recent ATO project that relocated from Canberra to Melbourne due to the lack of IT professionals.
Fixing the shortage is the responsibility of the whole IT industry, as well as government, said Nola. “We have a risk of not being able to service the demand at a local level, which puts pressure on innovation and pressure on costs. In the shorter term, that’s probably the biggest issue for me.”