Just over six months after going it alone and starting afresh, Nuago is finding its place in the cloudy world of the Australian technology industry.
Built by five former Datacom workers, the born-in-the-cloud provider was created in July 2016 with the simple remit of filling a gaping hole within the South Australian market.
“We believe the best technical minds and solutions should be available to all organisations regardless of size,” Nuago co-founder and director of sales, Connor O’Rourke, said.
“For us, it starts with the ‘why’. It’s not about starting with a product, but rather starting with what the customer is trying to achieve.”
From there, the Nuago approach shines through, ensuring the appropriate technologies and services are mapped out in advance for the customer.
“It’s about starting with the right platform for the right workload,” he explained. “Why are you trying to achieve a particular outcome as a business? We want to deliver an outcome as opposed to a hardware project.”
Despite its young age, O’Rourke and the team have built the business from the inside out, with all co-founders - including Brendon O’Rourke, Mick O’Rourke, Craig Howarth and Ben Scholefield - drawing on different skills and expertise.
“We all have different experiences from different backgrounds,” O’Rourke said. “The majority of us have come from traditional managed service players or legacy IT shops and in those places, you tend to have two separate areas - you have professional services and you have managed services.
“Starting Nuago, we have taken the approach of equal delivery of both.”
With a select group of tier-one vendors on board, Nuago works closely with Dell EMC, VMware and Microsoft, providing core services around cloud, solution consultancy and delivery, networking and security, as well as hardware and software procurement.
Since inception, the team has double in size, with ten employees now tasked with meeting the needs of 23 customers, won across a range of sectors and industries.
Specifically, the company works closely with local accounting and wealth management firm, Perks Accountants, alongside education customers in Trinity College and Xavier College.
Through targeting the mid-market in South Australia, O’Rourke said Nuago essentially fills "the consultancy gap” in the state, recognising the value in focusing on an untapped area of potential.
“Most businesses are targeting the larger end of town such as the South Australian government,” O’Rourke observed.
“But we spotted a lack of consultancy capabilities within the mid-market space and realised there’s a role in helping businesses transform.
“We see a place for helping organisations move IT from being a line item on the profit and loss sheet to being a real enabler for the business.”
In assessing the local landscape, O’Rourke said South Australia is made up of small to medium businesses, with plans now in place to “provide more than just services”.
“We want to offer a business that is actually in line with the needs of South Australian organisations,” he said.
From a growth perspective, O’Rourke said as the business scales, it remains critical to ensure Nuago maintains its “culture and quality” in the years ahead.
“Our new staff are here to fulfil the work we have already won, so we’re not necessarily investing ahead of the curve,” he said. “It’s actually in line with need from the market.
“We have capacity for 45 to 50 people and we certainly plan on achieving this.”
With entrepreneurial spirit running through the veins of the Nuago team, the company was created merely 12 weeks after the first conversation.
But in recognising a pocket of opportunity in South Australia, O’Rourke acknowledged that in some way shape or form “it’s been brewing in different capacities for longer than that”.
FOUNDED - 2016
HEADCOUNT - 10
KEY TECH - Cloud, networking, security, mobility
KEY VENDORS - Dell EMC, VMware and Microsoft
KEY CUSTOMERS - Perks Accountants, Trinity College, Xavier College
This article originally appeared in the December issue of ARN magazine - to subscribe, please click here
