Datacom plots attack on TechOne, Civica

Services company Datacom’s CEO is so confident in the company’s new “Datascape” platform for local governments that he believes it will quickly threaten established players Civica and TechnologyOne.

“There are loads of local government organisations under-served by products invented a long time ago, Group CEO Greg Davidson told iTnews.

“When I look at the level of interest we have, and what the landscape looks like, I think the issue we will have to manage is handling interest rather than quality of product,” Davidson predicted. The CEO added his belief that the API-enabled SaaS Datascape platform, and its modern footings, will quickly see off rivals.

Datacom worked on Datascape for three years before winning its first success in Manjimup, Western Australia, in late 2018. The company has since won at least half a dozen other local government deals.

Datacom has prepared for that demand by expanding its Perth office. Some new hires in the enlarged facility will work on Datascape deals. Others will take on work the company won under the Western Australian government’s GovNext-ICT programme. Much of that work concerns networking, so Datacom will make the enlarged office a centre of excellence for networking.

It’s not just the GovNext deal fuelling that ambition: Davidson believes that Western Australian businesses have become acutely aware they’re dependent on links to data centres in the eastern states.

Citing analyst research that said CIOs see network refreshes as a top priority to enable digital transformation, and noting that each major cloud has its own unique software-defined networks, Davidson predicted corporate demand for networking services will grow in coming months and years.

The CEO also said the expanded office will see new hires. Davidson wouldn’t nominate how many people he plans to hire, but offered rough guidance by saying the company has added 50 staff since 2017. Some of those hires will come from TAFE and University students Datacom has offered work experience placements.

“We want to offer an on-ramp to tech careers with Datacom,” Davidson said.