The IT industry is growing at a tremendous pace. But while gearing towards this pace, companies often forget how important it is to maintain client relations, build trust, and most importantly, keep pushing for the following significant change, innovation.
As many companies offer different services, how do clients establish a sense of trust and reliability? Especially in today’s extreme competition, every company aspires to gain the top spot. In this hustle, where do clients find their solutions, their problem-solvers who don’t just think of them as revenue, but as something more, as a partner?
Z Ware is a software company specialising in IT Services and Consulting, specifically: web technologies, digital design, user experience, full-stack engineering, knowledge sharing, collaboration, business process optimisation, mobility solutions and custom software development. In addition, they also specialise in integration and middleware technology, business process/workflow modelling, and analytics. So whether you require a complete end-to-end solution or just looking for a little patchwork, Z Ware is here for you.
Unraveling the software mystery – Z Ware
With Z Ware’s base of operations in Melbourne and teams available in most major capital cities in Australia, Z Ware can service a wide range of client needs and locations.
They design, build and create bespoke, custom, one-of-a-kind software platforms. They aim to develop based on their partner’s needs. So if they have a problem to solve, some magic to create, or need extra resourcing and support for their in-house development team, Z Ware and its team are their people.
They are a highly motivated, passionate team dedicated to ensuring their partners are geared up with the best solution for their business. They also offer training and education.
Realising early on the value of building trusted and transparent partnerships, Z Ware delivered outcomes that surpassed expectations. Fast forward 11 years, they are now a team of dedicated people working across Australia.
Initial challenges faced by the company
The first challenge that awaited Z Ware was getting a name in the market. They had to establish themselves in an industry that was (and still is) rich with small to medium businesses offering the services they do. But Z Ware’s service fleet is ever-evolving, continually expanding. Also, they work in a positively growing industry, so there is plenty of work to do.
Z Ware and its team didn’t try to grow too quickly. Instead, they worked out what they wanted to be known for, what their expertise were, and which could genuinely benefit their partners, and they honed in on that and focused on making a name for themselves, one step at a time.
The tech industry can see a business like Z Ware thrive and prosper, and it can also be cruel and see small enterprises get swallowed up by the big players.
They have built their business on delivering quality, not on trying to win every tender or bank lots of small jobs or quick turnaround projects. These attributes have gone a long way towards Z Ware’s success. The team has spent time fostering trusted relationships with a few partners rather than churning out quick wins with one-off partners who want or need a solution yesterday and are willing to throw money at something to get it out the door.
As a result of this approach, they have partners for life. They have trusted relationships. They gain business through word of mouth. They are engaged when new partners have tried other software businesses for their solutions only to run over time and budget. They have delivered quality solutions and instilled their faith in software developers who can also be reliable partners.
Today, Z Ware is known for being trustworthy, approachable, reliable, and effective in everything they do. And this kind of reputation takes time. It’s a slow burn, but the team and leadership feel proud of their approach and what they have achieved, and believe this is just the beginning!
“Be Water, My Friend. Empty your mind. Be formless, shapeless, like water. You put water into a cup; it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle; it becomes the bottle. You put it into a teapot; it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow, or it can crash. Be water, my friend.” – Bruce Lee.
Factors that pushed Z Ware to excel, establishing their long-standing success
While engaging with large-scale government projects, the team found they had a real specialty in identifying and delivering solutions for complex problems. The business was five years young when they embarked on a venture into Government projects. They were engaged for a 6-month term for one resource, and here they are six years later, with half of their business committed full-time in various Australian Government-led projects.
Z Ware does not have clients; they have partners. From the beginning, they established an open and trusted collaborative relationship with anyone who engaged with them. They share knowledge openly with their partners and broader communities. They work with their team members to ensure that they have the best experience, are always upskilling, and most importantly, have fun.
Their mission is to put their passion into what they do. Instead of taking shortcuts, they take each action with deliberate, thought-out planning and focus on getting the job done. They are genuine and avoid complex language, buzz words, and marketing spins. They see themselves as a team helping other teams, so being friendly and sincere comes naturally.
Also, they are not afraid of failure. “If we fail, we want to fail fast and learn from it. So we take our learnings from previous and current engagements and apply them to future engagements so that we can refine and boost our offering,” – Team of Z Ware.
The suite of services offered by Z Ware
Z Ware offers professional IT Services & Consulting. Whether trusted to entirely deliver their partner’s vision for their product/solution, or simply supplementing their internal teams with Z Ware team members, they aim to help establish best practices and drive delivery.
Z Ware provides services by four distinct channels, which allow them to tailor the engagement experience for that segment:
- Development – IT services and consulting for corporate and SME partners.
Providing tailored software development and consulting services, Z Ware’s team of highly dedicated, creative, and motivated individuals provide the best possible outcome for their partners’ requirements. - Government – IT services, consulting, and labour-hire for Government agencies and organisations.
Government departments require highly tailored solutions, trusted support, modernisation, best practices, and sustainable development models. Z Ware have the experience and expertise to support a wide range of government projects, including short- and long-term skilled resourcing.
- Training – IT training and collaboration for any partner plus community meetups, hackathons, and conferences.
Collaboration and knowledge sharing are crucial to the success of the tech industry, whether it is the introduction of a new technology stack or a simple refresher on the latest best practices. Therefore, they are committed to providing training programs tailored specifically to meet the needs of their partners.
- Services – Logistics, backfill, and helpdesk support.
Z Ware provides Australian-based logistics and backfill support services. They can offer a range of support including helpdesk, device lifecycle management (encompassing integration, procurement, provisioning, and disposal), tailored logistics, and specialised overflow backfill support.
They are engaging an exciting, innovative marketing segment with its foundation set in various Microsoft and Azure technologies in education. Whilst we cannot delve into too many details at this point, it will unlock new opportunities and a new chapter in Z Ware’s story.
Leadership at Z Ware
The leadership at Z Ware is more of an inspiration than a personality exhibiting authentic leadership and expertise. Dr Phillip Zada, Founder and Managing Director of Z Ware, has showcased how one can achieve anything if one strives hard and doesn’t give up. Leadership is not defined by qualities, attributes, or domain expertise; but being someone who others look up to and want to follow.
Dr. Phillip Zada is the Founder & Managing Director of Z Ware.
Phillip Zada started his tech career as a self-taught software developer while working as a sales representative, trying to improve customer experience.
From there, he moved into a software developer role, soon driving the company’s solutions and transformation. He then moved on and started Z Ware in 2011 out of his garage. His motivation to start something on his own came from working in the industry and witnessing customers being treated as commodities by software and IT consultants.
Phillip knew that with his work ethic and philosophy around ‘why I do what I do’, he could create change, albeit small, in the industry. “And I pride myself on this, to this day. Z Ware is built on trust and demonstrated through trusted partnerships. We don’t have clients; we have partners”, Phillip adds.
Since then, he has been engaged in a full spectrum of small to large projects (some of the biggest in the southern hemisphere), allowing him to contribute, lead, direct, architect, and guide projects and their teams to deliver remarkable results.
Phillip has accomplished and been awarded many honours and achievements throughout his career. These include:
- Being able to complete his PhD (Innovation) whilst working full-time with Z Ware
- Being able to work with a range of skilled team members and partners
- Being able to do what he loves – innovate, educate, collaborate and code
“One important recognition I need to mention – since 2011, when Z Ware began, my wife Anna has been there every step of the way. She has helped with the day-to-day running of the company, taken a greater share of the family duties, and solely run Z Ware’s Services channel since it was established, allowing me to focus on developing our service offering. Z Ware and I wouldn’t have been able to do any of this without her”, Phillip adds.
Phillip’s views on constant vigilance. Is it a need or a strategy?
Both. Phillip believes its best to be vigilant as an entrepreneur and roll with the punches, but also have long-term strategies to drive direction and realise when you have reached a set goal.
Phillip’s take on the rat race in the market. How does he cope with it?
There is plenty of work to go around, so Phillip and the Z Ware team actively seek to work with other businesses to meet the partners’ needs if they don’t have the appropriate skill set internally to meet requirements.
Z Ware has a long history of working collaboratively with other companies where they each bring skills to the table to deliver a superior outcome for their partners.
