How growing with rhipe empowered NZ startup Optimus Systems to support 2020 digital transformation
“If there’s any projects out of our scope or something we haven't done before, we know that rhipe can build out that solution or understand that technology, so we can send smart quotes and make promises we can keep.”
Marek Drummond, Managing Director, Optimus Systems
Optimus Systems is: in the GROWTH ZONE |
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You've made the most of the cloud revolution to build out your offerings and your customer base. It’s time to keep up the momentum with a focus on profitability and partnerships that extends into the new decade.
The rhipe GrowthMap measures your progress on your growth journey to see if you're in the zone, chasing growth, at a crossroads or starting up.
Take the 2-minute Growth Maturity Assessment to find your spot on the rhipe GrowthMap.
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The challenge
Support to grow.
Auckland-based Optimus Systems first started supporting SMBs in New Zealand led by making tech services accessible and soothing immediate tech pain points. Their services evolved quickly to meet the demand for customised solutions using products and services from Microsoft's Cloud portfolio.
But they needed support to chase profitable growth from a partner with deep industry expertise, operational support structure, and the tech smarts to support a new type of Reseller.
Marek Drummond, Managing Director, says Optimus Systems were determined to continue providing cloud services to NZ SMB businesses who thought the price of professional IT Services was out of reach,
“We wanted to keep working with Microsoft solutions, but we needed confidence that change would be supported by a straightforward new structure,” says Marek.
They needed more than the tech specs to be right.
It was critical to find an NZ based MS CSP provider that could:
- access scalable resources that were packageable and repeatable
- respond quickly to service issues
- take an aggressive development approach for urgent end-customer demand
“We needed to have someone we could talk to, so that if there’s a problem it’s just handled. It was important to have some sort of connection with the people that we were dealing with, to get better results when we needed them.”
“We talked to a lot of people about continuing to sell profitably in this new way, but every vendor was offering the same thing.”
We talked to a lot of people about continuing to sell cloud solutions profitably, but every vendor was offering the same thing. 
- Marek Drummond, Managing Director, Optimus Systems.
The solution
A partner invested in your growth.
From the start, rhipe tailored packages to suit Optimus Systems rather than forcing choice from a list of packages, limits and prices.
“rhipe asked us, ‘What do we need to do to be your partner?’,” says Marek.
"They were flexible, worked with us and had a team that actually cared. We ignored everyone else and jumped in with rhipe.
The wrong Microsoft Partner choice could mean business-ending issues for Optimus Systems; if licenses stopped working, businesses would grind to a halt. Service interruption sends a shiver down the spine of the toughest IT MD.
“At the end of the day, it'd be us holding the can and saying, hey Microsoft and rhipe both say sorry. That doesn't mean anything to our clients, it would be our phones ringing if everything breaks in the back end,” says Marek.
With rhipe staff on-site to be hands on for the technical transition to rhipe cloud services, the integration with the new provider was trouble-free for Optimus Systems and their clients.
“We didn't have any issues, which is a bit of a pleasant surprise.”
The positive experience continued with rhipe’s business coaching approach to supporting their startup Partners to grow.
“We’ve got our finger on the pulse because of rhipe. Their support and training goes beyond sending an email that nobody will read, it’s a proactive and engaging experience,” Marek says.
“Other vendors have a training structure that you can slot into, but we have access to something more bespoke. rhipe ask what we need and create the education piece to support us.”
rhipe asked us, what do we need to do to be your partner?
- Marek Drummond, Managing Director, Optimus Systems.
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Growing with rhipe to support the 2020 cloud migration revolution forced by Covid-19
Many businesses already had a cloud project on the shelf when the 2020 cloud revolution arrived to force remote work options and demand new ways to do business.
Marek says the Optimus Systems partnership with rhipe put them in a position to take advantage of the sudden rush to move projects to the cloud.
"We'd been championing the idea of enterprise cloud products at small business prices for a long, long time. We used vendors out of America to try and get the idea of cloud through to NZ small business and startups." he says.
"Moving businesses away from servers or local-based solutions and into the cloud creates space for people to work and collaborate from anywhere. Conditions in 2020 have given us an opportunity to show businesses the power of this cloud thing."
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The results and the impact
Growth with rhipe.
Since partnering with rhipe, Optimus Systems have seen 20%+ growth in adoption of Microsoft services. But the impact goes beyond the sales result, for Marek it’s the capacity to customise client solutions with confidence in the backend delivery.
“If there’s something we haven't done before, we know rhipe can help us build out that solution or understand the technology. They help us send smart quotes and make promises we can keep.”
“Our IT team trusts rhipe, because it works. There's no noise and no issues from a technical perspective. The support is there, the portals are easy to use, and our team understands exactly what we’re offering or changing.”
For Marek as MD, the education piece has been key to faster internal adoption of technology and empowering staff to implement a wider array of solutions to end-customers.
“Optimus Systems staff understand rhipe resources and the growth that’s possible through the Microsoft Stack,” he says.
“The more educated we are about the services, the better our sales team are at selling, up-selling and cross-selling the solutions our customers need — we’d have a narrow perspective if we weren't educated by rhipe.”
“We’ve been able to pick up new clients that have had bad experiences with inappropriate licensing and implementation — we do a better job because we’re supported by rhipe.”
Optimus Systems is digging in to grow with rhipe for the long haul. The 2020 jump to the cloud has done more than boost MS CSP signups; as businesses move to the cloud, there’s more scope to progress to power apps like Power BI or Flow.
“We’ve got over the first block of getting businesses into the cloud, now we need to show them how to use that data intelligently,” Marek says.
“We’re tapping rhipe to help our team get across extending our offering to clients. They’re a key partner to broadening over services and taking customers on the journey to leverage the cloud. How do we get people using Teams better? How can we extend SharePoint? How can we make this system even better?”
For the Optimus Systems team, it’s exciting to support customers to make better use of business technology and data.
“We’re not pulling teeth to try and get them into an environment where we can then do stuff, that’s cool. It’s exciting where we can take them from there."
Our IT team trusts rhipe, because it works. There's no noise and no technical issues. The support is there, the portals are easy to use, and our team understands what we’re offering.
- Marek Drummond, Managing Director, Optimus Systems.
Ready to grow with rhipe?Take the 2-minute Growth Maturity Assessment to find your spot on the rhipe GrowthMap and claim your $20 JB Hi-Fi eCard offer*. *Terms and conditions apply. The offer is for One JB Hi-Fi eCard valued at $20 NZD to be sent to Growth Maturity Assessment participant via registered email address after completion of the Growth Maturity Assessment. Any incomplete assessments will not be eligible for the offer. eCard is not transferable or redeemable for cash. eCard redeemable by net new Partners only, currently not transacting under rhipe MS CSP Program. This offer is valid between 30 November 2020 and 31 January 2021. Available to New Zealand only. Limit of One JB Hi-Fi eCard valued at $20 NZD per organization. rhipe reserves the right to vary or amend the terms and may suspend or cancel this promotion at any time.
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