Dialog IT adds millions in revenue while flying under the radar

Dialog Group continues to add millions in revenue as one of the country's biggest privately held IT companies, despite flying under the radar.

According to the results lodged with corporate regulator ASIC, the Brisbane-headquartered tech group's largest subsidiary, Dialog IT, saw revenue rise $8.4 million, or 6.4 percent, to $138.2 million for the year to 30 June 2016. Last year the company's revenue rose 12 percent, and Dialog attributed this slower growth to changes in market demand and competition.

The Dialog Group's other businesses include Sydney-based quality assurance and software testing company Access HQ, business insight and data management consultancy Catapult BI, multimedia company Icemedia, data management solutions company Moonwalk and Microsoft Gold partner Lynx IT, which was acquired by Dialog in March 2015.

The group's combined revenues are higher, with the Australian Financial Review reporting that parent company Dialog Group increased revenue by 12 percent to $181 million in 2016, making it one of Australia's biggest privately owned companies.

In 2015 the group's total revenue was up 19 percent, or $162 million according to data provided by market research firm IBIS World.

Dialog Group was established in 1979 and employs more than 1200 staff. It has offices across Australia with offices in Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, Darwin, Hobart, Melbourne, Perth, Sydney and one in Hong Kong.

The Dialog Group is a private owned company and does not have to release a consolidate report to all of its business units, only an annual report for its largest division.

More detailed numbers for the parent company are unavailable, and Dialog refused to comment on its results when contacted by CRN, however, the annual report for its Dialog IT business show that the subsidiary's net profit was up by around $1 million to $13.9 million for 2016.

Dialog IT recently delivered the Queensland Disaster portal, in a project worth $250,000, which enables emergency services across Queensland access to up-to-date emergency information and access to resources, guidelines and policies related to disaster management.

The company also supported more than 20,000 students and teachers in the ACT to switch to Google in one of the vendor's biggest Australian education wins.