RDA Group founding directors Ian Cook and Richard Appleton started their IT services firm business from a house in East Perth in 1993, and have since have grown the business into a national concern with a view towards international expansion.
RDA Group founding directors Ian Cook and Richard Appleton started their IT services firm business from a house in East Perth in 1993, and have since have grown the business into a national concern with a view towards international expansion.
Developing an original business concept of providing both IT network infrastructure and business software systems, RDA has carved out a niche in the provision of IT solutions to mid-tier organisations across the country.
After experiencing strong organic growth in WA, the directors recognised an opportunity to expand the business nationally, driven mainly by their WA-based clients seeking IT network solutions for their interstate offices.
RDA Group opened its Sydney office in 2002, and an office in Melbourne soon after, offering just one part of their core business to organisations in those two cities.
General manager Sean D’Souza said the strong relationships established by the company with their Perth-based clients enabled the company to expand nationally.
“It really was a testament to relationships built up with clients since 1993,” he said.
In July 2006, the company was approached by IT giants IBM and Microsoft to assist in the roll-out of their business systems package into medium to large corporations.
The strengthening of these strategic alliances formed the corner-stone of RDA’s expansion strategy.
“We identified an opportunity to really strategically solidify our place as a national organisation is to take both streams of the business – which had been successful in Perth – across to Sydney and Melbourne,” Mr D’Souza said.
The challenge of expanding the business efficiently was met by the formulation of a comprehensive strategic business plan, which incorporated forecasting, a plan and strategy for the national roll-out of RDA’s two core business streams.
Mr D’Souza said developing the business plan was a three-stage process involving reflection on the history of the company, outlining the primary goals of expansion and the long-term vision, and the involvement of third-party assistance from the newly appointed non-executive directors.
“With the management team we’ve got, we were able to sit down and allocate parts of the strategy to the different people, and everyone brought in their ideas and research,” Mr Cook said.
“The non-executive directors helped us hone our business plan, and get it right.”
The directors also considered private equity backing to fund their expansion, but instead opted to invest their own money, as well as profits from the existing business.
Mr Appleton said the private equity option was abandoned because the directors believed it would have resulted in a large portion of the company being handed over to the equity partner.
“We knew the value of our business, so we weren’t prepared to give it away,” he said.
Since executing its strategy in January this year, the company has expanded both its Sydney and Melbourne operations, with the Sydney office relocating to a building almost twice the size of its original home, and the Melbourne office looking to relocate due to its burgeoning workforce.
The directors attribute a large part of their success to the east coast management team, some of whom were relocated from the Perth office to set up the interstate operations from scratch.
“We can’t be there every day. We have three managers on the east and three here. We’ve all worked together for a long time, and they really understand where we want to go,” Mr Appleton said.
At the end of this month, the company is due to have its first national strategy meeting update, reviewing its performance and assessing its strategies.
The directors are currently assessing Canberra and Adelaide for their next interstate office, with those cities currently being serviced out of the Sydney and Melbourne offices.
The company is also eyeing an international office, most likely in Asia, with a view to open its first overseas office within five years.
