STAFF retention and customer service are key concerns for Western Australian web developers as the economy recovers and businesses reinvest in IT.
STAFF retention and customer service are key concerns for Western Australian web developers as the economy recovers and businesses reinvest in IT.
The sector returned mixed results during the past year, with several outfits completely restructuring their business to launch into 2010.
Amid these developments is a growing division between web developers servicing the big end of town and those focused on the small to medium enterprise sector.
According to WA Business News’ ‘2010 Book of Lists’ for web developers, Fujitsu Australia and Ajilon retained the top two positions with 140 and 95 web developers respectively.
Both companies added developers (Fujitsu with 10 and Ajilon 20) but Ajilon WA general manager Chris Benthien said his company’s growth in web development (currently about 30 per cent of Ajilon’s work) was at the expense of other firms around town.
“The number of government contracts that came to market, and we were fortunately successful in winning those contracts like WA Police and Department of the Attorney General, so we’ve been successful in dislodging some of those long term players like Fujitsu and CSC, so our growth last year was around us gaining market share (rather) than the market itself growing,” Mr Benthien said.
He said Ajilon, along with CSC Australia and Fujitsu, predominantly worked on larger “back of house” systems often involving adding functionality to organisations’ websites and legacy systems, such as the ability to transact, while those ranked lower on the web developers list focus more on SMEs from a “front of house” marketing point of view.
“The barriers to entry are very low, the trick is to get it past the cottage (industry) level, that’s where it sorts the wheat from the chaff, if you like,” Mr Benthien said.
Ranked ninth on the list is Inglewood-based web design firm Bam Creative, which formally restructured last week to become an employee-owned company.
The company’s founder and managing director, Miles Burke, said the 80 per cent employee shareholding had created a new level of enthusiasm and responsibility to colleagues, suppliers and, most importantly, clients.
Mr Burke secured the deal with parent company Westway Nominees (which bought Bam in 2006 and also owns IT firm, Bekkers) after experiencing difficulties merging Westway’s IT professionals with Bam’s creatives last year.
Some staff moved from Bam to Westway as part of the deal, dropping from 19 to 12 in total.