IN the aftermath of the tech wreck key figures from (then) web firm Method established a new venture to assist businesses achieve change through a focus on technology and business systems.
Just over a year on, the aptly named Change Corporation has secured a raft of blue chip clients and a first-year revenue of $2.5 million, which it hopes to double this year.
Beginning life in March 2002 with six staff, the company now employs 25 people across several specialist areas.
In the past year Change Corporation has delivered services to Woodside, Water Corporation, Western Power, Wesfarmers, AngloGold, WA Tourism Commission, TAB and Department of Industry and Resources.
Director Stephen Langsford said the company was created when a number of executives and staff from Method were “at a point when we really saw an opportunity for a business consulting IT delivery group in WA having a place”.
Those senior staff included respected industry figures Geoff Drake-Brockman, Sandra Paskett, John Manson and Cecily O’Neill.
Despite having the option to move interstate and to grow with Method, Mr Langsford said the pioneers of Change Corporation chose to stay in WA and service apparent business needs through the provision of IT services.
“We wanted to maintain a WA focus,” he said.
The WA market was big enough to sustain the growth the company is looking for, according to Mr Langsford.
“In one of the toughest years in IT, to have grown and pushed on is a pretty reasonable indication of our fortitude,” he said.
“We are not fixated by growth for growth’s sake. We have something to offer the marketplace and we have the wherewithal to respond to that and we’ll go about the business of responding.
“I would like to characterise our growth as growth through our clients.”
Mr Langsford said Change Corporation has focused on providing IT solutions for defined business requirements, rather than IT for its own sake.
“We identify where we can assist business and we have gone after that work,” he said.
The business was built on the “long established track record” of Change Corporation’s key management figures, he said, and by partnering IT services with “business smarts”.
“Change’s unique positioning in the marketplace is that we have the calibre of practitioners usually found in big four consulting,” Mr Langsford said.
“This is combined with expert technical delivery people under one roof.
“Change Corporation is about transforming businesses – helping them to work smarter, faster and more profitably through new and practical business processes and technology. We’re comfortable talking about IT in real business terms and taking a forthright position on where and how the technology should be applied, and when it is better left alone.”