James Walker (Computer One)
Computer One has unveiled plans to hone in on permanent services, with customer demand requiring more than just flexible working solutions.
The Brisbane-headquartered IT services provider has been recently focusing on supporting the mobile strategies of its customers, but James Walker, managing director of Computer One, believes merely focusing on flexible working solutions won’t be enough.
He said if Computer One focuses on just providing flexible working from home services for customers, “there'll be a lot of fatigue around that”.
Instead, he wants to go to providing more permanent services.
“At the moment we've just been getting through it. People are making do, but that won't be enough. They’re going to have to deliver full products and services with a proactive working experience for their team to maximise productivity – that's going to be key," Walker said.
“It's not going to be enough now to suffer through with a substandard home connection or half the access. They've basically suspended those for the time being, thinking, ‘We'll be back at our desks in the next three months,' but we're already sort of there.”
One service that Computer One wants to reinforce – a focus that Computer One had prior to the pandemic – is security.
“We're still ripe for security incidents at the moment, just in the nature and the way in which we're all working worldwide,” he said. “Our customers all agree now that it's relevant — That was a more difficult story to sell two years ago. These days, it’s absolutely critical.
“They're happy to spend on systems at the moment, and to improve productivity as much as they can with mobility, so we'll be there to support them.”
In all of this, the opportunity Walker sees for Computer One is that of simplification, changing businesses over to SaaS platforms, rather than focusing on providing specific customisations, and Walker believes this is where demand is high.
“People have proven that you can have a very disruptive event, and your staff will adapt. There's always been the fear of change or change fatigue within organisations that say, 'We can't do this because it might upset this,’ and I think now is a perfect opportunity to say, 'Look, that doesn't really apply,’” he said.
A glass half-full
Despite all that has happened in 2020, and while he is still concerned, Walker still considers himself to be optimistic. Granted, less optimistic than he felt at the start of July, but he feels like the current situation is “just a delay”.
“We will get through the pandemic. I'm committed to Computer One and its contribution to commerce into the business community generally, that we will come through this period,” he said.
“We will have supported our customers and we'll come through the other side with maintaining full employment and making sure that we're delivering a great service.
“Your team needs optimism too. We've got 32 on staff here. Contractors, they want certainty, and now they're working really, really hard to make sure that we're successful as a business, and they know the little one-percenters that we've got to get right. The commitment's got to be there too, both ways.”
Following the pandemic, Walker said he sees positive times ahead.
“In order for us all to recover, all businesses are going to have to maximise their productivity and to do that they're going to have to invest, and that's where organisations like us come in. I see a lot of opportunity going forward,” he said.
As soon as these customers get over the fear of change and start thriving, Walker added they can find the opportunity to implement some much-needed technology into their systems, as long as they move quickly.
“The opportunity is to prove that, ‘We can do it, we don't need to overthink some of this stuff. We can simplify our platforms, and that we can make those changes,’” he added.
“The need to take the opportunity to improve the security in the organisation, for example, those that were pushing back against various security controls, put them in. There's plenty of business cases out there, and we've proven that people can just adapt.”
ARN Advance is a centralised editorial resource designed to help partners access forward-looking content as the Australian market attempts to reposition for growth.
