In reflection of the increased levels of innovation across the industry, ARN uncovers the emerging start-ups changing the face of the Australian channel.
Counterparts Technology
FOUNDED — 2015
HEADCOUNT — 11 full-time staff, 18 contractors
KEY TECH — Consulting, advisory and professional services
KEY VENDORS — HP, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Lenovo, Nutanix, Trend Micro, Microsoft and Nimble Storage
KEY CUSTOMERS — Aussie Home Loans, YWCA NSW, Fastway Couriers, Laureate University, PwC, Calvary Healthcare, Macquarie University Hospital and NSW Government agencies
Created three years ago, Counterparts Technology recently went through a transition, refocusing its attention from core procurement services to a range of consulting and advisory offerings.
The Sydney-headquartered IT services company provides consulting advisory, procurement and vendor management, as well as professional and managed services.
According to co-founder and managing director Matt Wynn-Jones, the transition has allowed the company to go “from strength to strength”.
“We are having more business conversations and how technology can support that, rather than the traditional conversations with IT departments about consumption of technology,” Wynn-Jones said.
“That shift allows us to have a broader understanding of business in a technology context, rather than technology for technology’s sake.”
The shift sees Counterparts Technology engage with its end customers far more deeply, right across the business, and not necessarily just within the IT department.
For Wynn-Jones, the transition to become a broader provider of services was prompted by the changing demands within the local market.
“The consulting advisory [offering] allows us to talk with the business and to be able to engage at a strategic level on a transformation journey,” he said. “That could be as easy as mobility solutions for their staff, or maybe an entire re- platforming of their sales platform.
“We spend most of our time with business units in understanding the business and developing a strategy at a direction for us to partner with moving forward. It’s an important first step.”
Endpoint Focus
FOUNDED — 2016
HEADCOUNT — Three
KEY TECH — Endpoint and device management services
KEY VENDORS — Microsoft, Adaptiva, Airlock, Crowdstrike, Thycotic, Flexera and PACE from Infopulse
KEY CUSTOMERS — Australian enterprises
Melbourne IT integrator and managed services provider, Endpoint Focus, came about after its founders saw a need in the local market for endpoint specialty services.
Conceived with a focus on end-user computing and systems management, the company is guided by three fellow partners and consultants — David Stagg, Sam Lewis and Jarrod Vassallo.
“There’s obviously been a big shift to the cloud with businesses migrating to the likes of AWS [Amazon Web Services], Azure and Office 365,” Lewis said.
“A lot of the integrators that are traditionally desktop or endpoint management, are now doing cloud. We saw an opportunity to be a boutique specialised endpoint services company, so that we can still service that market.”
According to Vassallo, the company’s partners come from a Windows engineering background, so they know the Windows endpoint well understand basic Windows management concepts.
Subsequently, the rise of security threats has provided opportunity to discuss endpoint protection.
“A lot of vendors can’t keep up with the pace of malware virus releases,” Lewis said. “Our customers are interested in next-gen solutions that are cloud-based.”
According to Vassallo, the company targets potential clients that use Windows — a decision which no doubt sees the company cast a wide net.
“We’re only 10 months in so we’re not exactly plotting deeply,” he added. “If we look at our clients, we’ve done a lot of work in the media and publishing sector but it’s quite broad.”
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