Nilesh Makwana (Illuminance Solutions)
Perth-based managed services provider (MSP) Illuminance Solutions branched out from the not-for-profit (NFP) sector nearly a year ago into the mining sector and struck gold in the process.
Speaking to ARN, Illuminance CEO Nilesh Makwana said that when the MSP started out, its decision to stick with NFPs was his desire to take “good money”.
“They say you become what you eat,” he said.
“You want to have a business, where the money comes from your core purpose of social impact. So, we wanted to hire a multicultural team, people with disabilities, Indigenous people and we wanted to have a team which focuses on doing good in the society.”
As such, doing good, at first, meant working on projects for and with the NFP, disability and aged care sectors, as well as Indigenous organisations, some of which include disability NFP Civic Disability Services and blind and vision impaired service provider the Royal Society for the Blind in 2021.
“It was a constant decision to just not entertain any of the other organisations,” Makwana added.
In fact, Illuminance's work with NFPs led to it winning Microsoft's global Partner for Social Impact award in 2019.
However, being a Perth-based business meant there was no escaping the resources business. In fact, the WA government claimed in April 2022 that the resources sector achieved record sales of $230 billion in the year prior – a 30 per cent increase, of $53 billion.
Makwana said that he had recently realised how pervasive mining is in driving the way of life in WA and with all the money coming in, some of it then finds it way into “the greater work in society in many ways”, such as public facilities.
“The perception and the mindset changes. You can't say, 'No, it's all bad.' You want to work in the sector and you want to join them and possibly being with them, you can actually enhance your good work out in society.
“So, we wanted to do more for multicultural recruitment and we want to do more for Indigenous recruitment and working with the mining sector opens up more opportunity for growth and then using that money to expand into the areas which you want to [work in].”
Out of the mining companies Illuminance has picked up work with, Mineral Resources Limited is one that which Makwana said has had many projects coming online, one of which being a deployment of Microsoft Dynamics under a long-term partnership.
“That's going really well as well, so I would say that we have a good year ahead of us,” he added.
Makwana also said Mineral Resources were looking for a partner that held similar values, as he claimed the mining company’s environmental, social and governance (ESG) policy was being done “the right way”.
To get the tender however, they had to compete against a larger organisation that, while he didn’t refer to a business name, was a “quite known Microsoft partner at a national … and global level”.
It’s not only mining that Illuminance is looking to diversify into, with Makwana saying that “this is just the start of our diversification journey”. Next on the cards is entering into the government sector at all levels on the cards for the next two to three years.
“For that you require a long sales cycle and you need investment into patience ... and you need a proper tender team and you need ISO [certification].
“We are on the journey, but we don't want to focus on government as yet for another two years at least while we are building our reputation in the private sector, specifically the mining resource sector,” he added.
