The Axon Difference

Axon’s reputation has been as a specialist in desktop and network services. Is that an accurate description?

Axon started out specialising in desktop and network procurement and service. But today Axon's services go considerably beyond the desktop to encompass virtually every aspect of a medium to large ICT infrastructure - including implementing and managing the largest enterprise server, storage and database platforms. We combine a strong onsite service capability and a geographical footprint spanning most of the country, with - arguably - the most sophisticated remote service and support capability of any services company operating in the New Zealand market. Add to that a market leading Microsoft capability, with more Microsoft partner excellence awards than any other local vendor.

 

How is Axon different from other IT services companies. Is there actually any real difference in terms of what Axon offers compared to competitors?

Yes I think Axon is very different. Our goal is to deliver "Next Generation ICT Made Easy" for our customers, and by doing so to be "New Zealand's Most Recommended ICT services company". This goal informs everything we do.

"Making ICT Easy" means giving our customers a desktop and network infrastructure that not only delivers cost savings, user satisfaction improvements and the framework and flexibility to support new growth initiatives - but does it in a way which is easy, logical, cost effective and reliable. "Making ICT Easy" means enabling customers to focus on those things which add real value to their business by removing the complexity and distraction of those things that fit in the "just have to be done" category. Our services make it easy for our customers to connect their people, colleagues, suppliers or customers and to make it easy to leverage their information and infrastructure to improve compliance or collaboration among teams. In short, to maximise their existing ICT investment and drive their business forward.

Our aspiration to be "New Zealand's Most Recommended Provider of ICT Managed Services" is fundamental to our culture. We are not driven by growth for the sake of growth - about "being biggest" - but rather about being the one which customers are most comfortable engaging with. We win against our competitors not by being like them, but rather showing all the qualities they'd expect of an agile, responsive, New Zealand-owned organisation. A company where real people answer the phone – and when they do, they're probably in the same city, and are certainly on the same page. It means driving greater business value for customers, not just providing technical solutions. It means having an absolute passion and determination to understand the business of our customers. It means doing what we say and saying what we do. It means earning trust by being worthy of trust. It means always being alert for new opportunities to add value. It means being everything that our multinational competitors are not - accessible, personal, local, agile, fast moving and highly cost-effective.

 

But in terms of the services you offer, how and where are you different?

Well I think a big driver behind our rapid growth – we’re now the largest and fastest growing privately-owned New Zealand IT services company – is both because of the depth and breadth of our services as well as the way those services are delivered.

For example, in 2008 Axon invested heavily in support of its ‘make ICT easy’ strategy. We were the first New Zealand ICT services company to implement the new ITIL compliant BMC ITSM 7 service desk suite, delivering much higher 'first time fix' performance in diagnosing and resolving incidents for customers. We acquired Enterprise Content Management specialist Office Automation Software, giving Axon a leadership capability in Enterprise Content Management. We launched a major redevelopment of our already market leading procurement system – AXONLINE. We opened our new virtual data centre, giving customers access to high-bandwidth, high performance systems at around 30 percent less cost. And we launched our first SaaS services opening up our BMC ITSM 7 service management system to customers wanting to handle their own service management and performance management.

A key part of making ICT easy is the way our services are developed and structured to enable us to be flexible and work the way our customers want us to work. This is easy to say but hard to do. It’s the difference between selling products and services and having a culture as well as a delivery capability which is about working together with the customer to build the best service solution for their individual business. So although Axon has a defined list of services and capabilities, the way we put these to work for each customer is very different, according to their needs.

 

How do you see Axon’s services evolving?

We can see that our evolution is headed towards an engagement model where customers have an infrastructure that has ‘dial tone resilience’ and which is paid for as it is consumed. Along the way, customers will place less and less value on solving problems and more and more value on preventing problems. Our services must change to reflect what customers value. In time, our traditional infrastructure project business will increasingly be delivered under an outcome based service level model where infrastructure is extended and refreshed as part of an overall set monthly fee. Our traditional services require a clinical but intense focus on operational excellence that enforces consistent processes and where appropriate uses innovative technologies. But we have an active culture of challenging traditional service delivery processes and wherever possible eliminating or rationalising unnecessary service components. This sees us continually exploring new ways to package existing services, as well as adding innovative new services. The impact will be to fundamentally change the traditional engagement model between IT service providers and their customers. The underlying concept is that customers will pay a clearly defined monthly fee for delivery of outcomes. The customer will be interested in the outcomes, but much less interested in determining the type and nature and scope of individual technology components. A key part of our value add will be to free customers to focus on those aspects of their business that truly add competitive advantage, secure in the knowledge that the infrastructure dial tone is being managed and maintained in a best practice fashion.

 

What new or emerging technologies or trends do you see as important?

Virtualisation is important, Convergence is happening. We are driving expansion into management and delivery of voice and mobile solutions as part of a single integrated IT architecture. Increased commoditisation of traditional services provides the compelling motivation to concentrate on achieving even higher efficiencies and operational excellence in our service delivery. As infrastructure hardware and software becomes increasingly standardised customers will place less value on technology that merely works, and much higher value on technology which works to achieve specific business outcomes. As discussed, we can expect to change our contracting model to reflect this, contracting to deliver business outcomes rather than achieving operational service levels. ITIL alignment provides an industry standard model by which the services in all these areas can both be defined and subsequently delivered.

 

You mentioned strong growth, particularly over the last two years. Can you expand on that?

On one level, it’s a case of ‘nothing succeeds like success’. We have a blue chip customer base. We have strong revenue growth and a strong balance sheet. We have a stable and experienced team of people from the bottom to the top of the organisation. We have a strong culture which fits well with New Zealand companies and organisations in our target market. We have a stable and supportive Board and ownership structure. We have a strong and broad network of vendor relationships. We have strong market momentum. Today, larger companies and organisations see Axon as large enough and capable enough to handle their business, while still being small enough that we haven’t lost our agility. It’s a question of being ‘right-sized’ for the New Zealand market. Looking ahead, we are strongly positioned to benefit from a major technology shift as larger customers look to drive greater efficiencies through centralising their networks, increasing capacity, implementing convergence, and improving productivity and security through new hardware, middleware and line of business applications.

 

Are you confident this growth will continue. What do you see as your major challenges going forward?

Where there are opportunities, there are threats. We can expect the competitive landscape to change. While new technology and new ways of buying, implementing and servicing technology open up opportunities, they also require us to change our business. New ways of doing business involve risk and uncertainty. Our major challenge is being fast enough and agile enough to evolve as technology evolves, and continuing to help customers reduce cost, improve infrastructure reliability, and focus more and more of our combined resources on driving business forward, rather than maintaining the status quo.