Perth-headquartered Microsoft partner Inspired IT has opened a new office in Dunsborough, Western Australia, joining its other offices in Perth and Manila, Philippines.
Inspired IT director Matt Seeds told CRN that the new office, which opened in September, was one of three steps it had taken this year to maintain “unbroken” revenue growth in the face of the skills shortage and rising operating costs.
"We have had between 50-70 percent revenue growth every year since we started the business in 2016…our main goal is maintaining that same level of growth and service,” Seeds said. Inspired IT was 21st in last year's CRN Fast50.
The Dunsborough office follows the Microsoft Office 365 specialist's Manila office opening in February—and hired its first business development manager (BDM) this year, Seeds said.
The client pipeline: networking, product expansion, new BDM
The Dunsborough office has only been “soft launched”, and most of the 20-staff team will remain at the Osborne Park headquarters for the next few months while Seeds and the BDM Luke Wenman grow demand in the Southwest region.
“We're going to build a bit of presence... And then the plan is to hire one to two people down there.”
“A BDM is a big step forward for us and having someone dedicate 100 percent of their time to building relationships and finding the right clients to partner with certainly removes a lot of pressure from me.”
Seeds said customer growth had been “partly through SEO” but mostly through “word-of-mouth, client referral and networking.”
“As a business, we're always going out and chatting to people. And we're getting referrals. So again, it's just sort of converting those opportunities and sort of onboarding them to what they require.”
Seeds also “attend[s] a lot of industry events, and I just try and learn at those events or just meet people and just start building relationships.”
“A lot are local events, and it was great being part of the CRN fast 50. And I’m in an entrepreneurial organisation, which has been quite beneficial too I suppose for personal growth.”
Seeds said that, while there had always been “steady customer demand for a decent 365 deployment specialist”, Inspired IT was also attuned to how that demand was becoming more complex and how to broaden and tailor the company’s offerings.
“A lot of businesses are now further in their journey with 365 —such as Teams, Teams Calling, SharePoint, OneDrive, Intune, DLP to name a few.”
Last year, Inspired IT bolstered its unified communications offerings by forming a deal with Perth-based vendor R-Group International to resell its white-labelled Microsoft Teams solution. The solution provides calling integration to customers without capital investment or the need to hire new specialists.
Seeds said that meeting clients' evolving security and compliance needs was another priority the team kept front and centre.
“Security is certainly becoming a bigger conversation and for us, it's about having a solid baseline of security within our managed service, which I believe we do and then finding the right partners to compliment our services and clients' requirements.”
“Security is a constant threat, and I am seeing a lot more conversations around compliance as a service.”
Manila office helps with skills shortage and rising operating costs
Seeds said that launching the Manila, Philippines-based office in February had helped “deal with the rising salary costs within Australia” and the national tech skills shortage.
“It's an access to a different skill set and a sort of resource, which we haven't had previously or haven't been able to source locally.”
“And also, from I suppose from a cost perspective…a lot of businesses are doing it [recruiting offshore employees to work remotely], and it can sort of help and, and to be honest, it's been great.”
Inspired IT had budgeted to grow by six to eight employees by the end of the year. Seeds said Inspired IT also “used an element of recruitment agencies, LinkedIn, Seek, and apprentices in partnership with Microsoft: giving young people a go."
"We hire on values and we can assist in growing the technical talent which is something I am very passionate about,” he added.
Seeds said that the pressure inflation and the skills shortage put on Inspired IT was only half the concern. He was also concerned by the risk it posed to his clients’ growth.
“With the rising interest rates and inflation. For me, it's certainly a cause of concern. Because like, cash isn't as cheap as it was.”
“Finding, skilled staff, across not just our industry, but every industry is an issue…If our clients aren't able to find skilled staff, then that means it impacts their growth…If our clients grow, it means that we grow as well.”
Seeds said he was supportive of recent initiatives the government had taken to increase the migration of skilled labour.
“I certainly think increasing the migration cap is a good start…Because it [the skills shortage] just impacts everyone; every business.”
In September, the government announced plans to lift the permanent migration program ceiling from 160,000 to 195,000 in 2022-23, allocate $36.1 million of additional funding to accelerating visa processing and expanding international graduates’ working rights.
“In the end of the day, you want people here full time. And it’s certainly a good start to bringing people into Australia. Australia has grown.”
“I went to a partner event recently, and they talked about the skill shortage in our industry, and I think we're gonna be 330k, short by 2026.”
“So something's got to change to get these people in. It's gonna be interesting over the next couple of years.”
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