Credit: Datacom
Cloud and platforms, cyber security and the modernisation of systems are just some of the areas of growth and opportunity seen by Datacom as it works to help its customers navigate a pandemic-hit market and plot their pathways out of it.
“As the market adjusts to hybrid working, remote connectivity and online presence, we’re experiencing heightened demand in our cloud and platforms business,” Datacom Australia managing director Alexandra Coates said.
“Customers are looking to determine what mix of cloud solutions will best help them address their business needs securely, and unlock the value of applications like Salesforce, Dynamics 365 and Pega,” she added.
At the same time, Coates noted that the company is also seeing rapidly growing demand for the modernisation of systems and, as ever, the move to the cloud will help continue to transform Datacom’s customers across Australia and New Zealand in both public and commercial sectors.
While Coates heads up the New Zealand-headquartered IT service provider’s Australian business, her observations are true for the company’s operations on both sides of the Tasman.
Indeed, Datacom’s trans-Tasman cyber security practice also continues to grow, as security incidents increase and organisations take steps to better prepare themselves for the evolving cybersecurity landscape.
According to Coates, this growth comes amid a global shortage of trained cyber security experts, a factor contributing to the company’s partnership earlier this year with Auckland-based Unitec Institute of Technology, which aims to fill the security skills gap by offering a one-year vocational diploma in cybersecurity.
It is claimed that this partnership represents the first New Zealand-based pre-degree cybersecurity qualification.
Meanwhile, Datacom Payroll has also expanded its global footprint, with the business segment focused on growth in Australia and a view to replicating the success it has seen in New Zealand, where it processes more than 15 per cent of the national payroll each week.
“In aggregate the payroll data is also proving to be an economic barometer of the impact from COVID-19, wage subsidies and the increasing levels of unemployment,” Coates said.
A new reality
Founded as Computer Bureau Ltd in Christchurch, New Zealand, in 1965, Datacom has grown to employ 6,500 people working across Australia, New Zealand, Asia, Europe and the Americas, delivering industry-leading capabilities and services.
Today, according to Coates, the new reality of the global pandemic has resulted in organisations bringing forward key digital projects — a key trend in the business landscape in Australia, New Zealand and further afield that has kept partners with the right mix of products and services busy, despite a slowdown in spend.
“As an example, [the UK’s] TSB Bank deployed a major project in two weeks, something that in usual circumstances would have taken months,” Coates said. “Datacom re-platformed TSB’s ageing customer service hub to enable its customers to contact the bank directly online rather than rely on in-branch, face-to-face communication.
“We’re seeing more volumes of smaller projects that can be executed at pace to make meaningful, immediate change within organisations,” she added.
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