David Freyer (Arxxus)
Arxxus Technology Partners has collapsed after 10 years in operation as DXC Technology offers a lifeline to the remaining technical and support staff.
The Salesforce gold partner and funding recipient has called in the administrators in a move that will impact roughly 40 staff members in Australia and 100 at its Indian subsidiary.
The decision follows the departure of its short-lived chief executive officer Kim Stewart-Smith in November, who had joined Arxxus from Ernst and Young in January last year.
After her exit, co-founder and former managing director David Freyer resumed his leadership role, but appointed administrators Hall Chadwick on 22 January after a month of discussions. That same day, staff were told the news of the company's situation, according to papers filed with ASIC.
Established in 2009, as an exclusively Salesforce customer relationship management (CRM) specialist, Arxxus claimed to have worked with more than 500 customers globally during its decade of operations.
In 2012, Arxxus became the first company in Asia Pacific to receive funding from Salesforce, which Freyer claimed at the time would go towards expanding its business globally.
However, sources familiar with the matter revealed to ARN that Arxxus had struggled to win new business since early last year, leading to Salesforce stepping in with an extra injection of funding, understood to be worth around $2 million.
It also announced the opening a new office in Brisbane led by ex-Tquila's Jacqui Woods, but this is understood to have remained a one-person outpost since its launch.
During last year, the Sydney-based company is understood to have undergone one wave of staff redundancies, followed by a rapid hiring spree.
The decision to call in the administrators has led to redundancies for Arxxus’ non-technical staff. DXC confirmed it has offered technical and support positions with its Salesforce practice, which was formed with the acquisition of System Partners in late 2018.
"This will further strengthen our Salesforce capability which is a strategic practice for DXC. We also look forward to the opportunity to work with Arxxus customers," a DXC spokesperson said.
While ARN has not received confirmation that Arxxus has ceased operations, at the time of writing its Australian office number appears to have been switched off.
Meanwhile, for the 100-person team in Pune, India, the future remains uncertain. Although some have suggested DXC Technology may take over the business, no decisions have been made as of yet. DXC Technology already has an overseas Salesforce team in the Philippines.
Freyer was unavailable for comment.
