Paulo Mpliokas (Olympus Technology Services)
It’s safe to say many businesses have been severely disrupted in recent months, and Olympus Technology Services believes the best way through these times is with a bit of heart.
Getting to know, and focusing on, the needs of its clients has always been key for the Sydney-headquartered IT solutions and services provider, but tensions are running higher every day.
Exacerbating the situation are pushy and irrelevant sales tactics – they’re annoying to deal with at the best of times, but throw a global pandemic into the mix and this can push things too far, according to director Paulo Mpliokas.
“Customers have always wanted collaborative and engaging skilled technology partners who bring their best to all their interactions. They don’t want to be chased for orders at the end of quarter or upsold on solutions that don’t provide value or meaningful outcomes,” he said.
“We are all in this together and IT teams will have been put under a lot of strain to maintain and enhance systems during the pandemic and don’t need salespeople looking for opportunities to make their targets knocking on their doors.”
As such, the director believes empathetic partners will be the ones who manage to find success post-pandemic.
Getting past the opportunists, the director also thinks that future success will be driven by those who are quick on their feet and able to adapt to the new environment, as well as picking up the pieces from the old one.
“Post-pandemic tech needs for clients will cover a broad spectrum of addressing deferred projects that were put on hold for some time, new projects to enable better workplace and collaboration solutions, to adding in cyber security safeguards,” he said.
“Now more than ever, technology partners will need to be flexible, provide rapid delivery of solutions and practical and ongoing support and advice to customers.”
It may be a long road to get to this point however, as Mpliokas sees customer spending to decline in the short term, and then to remain flat for some time afterwards.
“Revenues for many industries adversely affected by the pandemic and lockdowns just don’t allow for any free spend,” he said.
“Every dollar needs to be targeted and deliver outcomes rapidly to allow businesses to become more efficient or maintain business activities.
“We still expect to grow our business considerably though and so we are investing in more capacity and capability to cater for that growth.”
Olympus’ customers who are spending in the short-term meanwhile are dealing with problems many other businesses are facing – varying health restrictions and the challenge of remote working policies and security.
As a result, the provider is focusing its efforts on customer retention through collaboration, unified communications, mobility and cyber security solutions.
“We’ve identified these priorities and have invested back into our business to be best prepared for the market well find ourselves in during and post-pandemic,” Mpliokas said.
ARN Advance is a centralised editorial resource designed to help partners access forward-looking content as the Australian market attempts to reposition for growth.
