Chris Whitbread (Davanti Consulting)
Salesforce partner Davanti Consulting has expanded into Australia and opened two offices located in Melbourne and Sydney.
Established in 2007, Davanti has offices in Auckland and Wellington and claims to be the largest independently owned Salesforce consulting partner in New Zealand.
It offers advisory, implementation and managed service solutions across the Salesforce product stack in financial services, manufacturing, retail, government and the utilities sector.
According to Australia country manager Chris Whitbread, Salesforce has been actively working with Davanti to bring its capabilities into the Australian market.
"Davanti believes that the timing is now right. The Salesforce market is expected to grow rapidly in the next few years and there has been an increasing need for partners to provide industry tailored solutions within specific sectors," Whitbread told ARN.
"Davanti has had over 12 years in the New Zealand market building industry solutions that can readily be applied to the needs of the Australian market promoting the adoption and ongoing support of the Salesforce platform."
Davanti is a Salesforce Platinum Consulting Partner, which means it is able to deliver Salesforce’s "largest and most complex implementations" in New Zealand.
This is not the first time Davanti set up shop in Australia. The company was present in the country for some time until 2013 when the business was divested to the Customer Experience Company (CEC), with Davanti now starting a fresh play in Australia.
Strategy in Australia
With more than 140 professionals in New Zealand, Davanti has hired 10 people in Australia to begin the expansion and has high expectations about how it will progress. Davanti expects to grow the Australian business to more than 60 people in the next three years.
"Davanti will bring its full New Zealand service offering of industry tailored advisory, implementation and managed services to the Australian market," Whitbread told ARN.
"The go to market strategy will be to expand the business consulting capability of the Melbourne and Sydney teams by utilising our industry experience and solutions and leveraging New Zealand capabilities where appropriate."
The Salesforce partner will grow the vendor's ecosystem through cross-training industry experts into Salesforce and providing a number of graduates opportunities across both Melbourne and Sydney.
Although Davanti will face a highly-competitive landscape, its founders believe the market is under-served by partners where it can add value.
"Davanti acknowledges that the Australian market is competitive, however we are clear on our value proposition which will attract a number of customers," Whitbread said.
It expects to achieve a number of foundation clients to prove its reputation and educate the market about its ways of engaging in the short term.
"In the long term Davanti will become the partner of choice for customers wanting to create exceptional customer experiences in Davanti’s chosen industry verticals," Whitbread explained.
"And more importantly, Davanti believes that people want to work for an organisation that provides them with a sense of ownership, a strong sense of team, and a place where they can continue to develop their skills and do really interesting work. Davanti’s ways of working are critical in building such a culture."
