Steven Gray is the founder and Managing Director of UtilitiseIT. While working at KPMG, he started thinking about how he could help other organisations That led him to launching the Geelong-based company, west of Melbourne, in 2016.
“While working with large multinationals my focus was always on transformation. The IT teams that I’d worked with had a heavy focus on improving service management and I was one of the first Office 365 customers in the country. When I started UtilitiseIT the focus was on helping organisations move to Windows 10. We’d come up with an innovative and creative way to do that rapidly,” Gray explains.
During a chance meeting at lunch at football match where his beloved Geelong Cats were playing, Gray chatted with the CEO of Bellarine Community Health who shared frustrations with the IT management at the business. The CEO asked Gray what he would do. He liked the answer and immediately hired him.
“Once we had the system in place he asked us to run it,” explains Gray. “That led us into becoming a managed services provider and the business has continued to grow from there. Being recognised in the CRN Fast 50 for our 86% annual growth highlights that our approach works. Our team approach and focus on service has meant that all of our clients have renewed their contracts with us when they have been due.”
One of Gray’s observations through his 30-year career is that it’s not just enterprises that face challenges with disaster recovery, compliance, security and other key functions. But in sectors like community health and Not For Profit (NFP), they face the compounding issue of not having easy access to technical resources or budgets to embark on large-scale corporate technology programs.
UtilitiseIT, like any successful business, does have an eye on revenue and margins. But it seeks to use its success for the benefit of those sectors and the community. By adopting a “We’re in it with you” attitude, Gray says it can help find innovative solutions that assist those resource strapped sectors improve the operation of their technology platforms. Gray leverages his experiences from the corporate world to negotiate with different suppliers to help drive better cost outcomes for NFPs rather than using this as an opportunity to ramp up charges.
“Supporting communities is incredibly important to us. We have walked away from lucrative deals when the values of the potential client don’t align with ours. In the case of one NFP, we donated a full IT build – some $50,000 of services – to help them so they could continue to help their community,” Gray says.
One of the company’s key strengths is in the development of modern workplace systems and practices. With the MSP supporting businesses with between two and 1000 users, Gray says delivering these services ensured the company continued to grow through the pandemic. But, more importantly in Gray’s view, it ensured his clients could transition to remote working smoothly and then return when lockdowns and other restrictions were lifted.
Gray’s focus on community extends to creating pathways for indigenous people to enter technology careers.
“My mother was a member of the Stolen Generation – something I have only recently genuinely understood and acknowledged. I started a second business called Land on Heart to help nurture emerging tech talent, improve cultural understanding, and provide greater awareness of First Nations peoples’ customs and identities.“
Because of that endeavour and other work Gray does through UtilitiseIT, Gray is involved in developing talent through internships for students graduating from Deakin University. Consequently, while the business is growing and delivering services to a growing portfolio of customers, Gray is creating an education organisation. As well as creating a pipeline of talent for UtilitiseIT, it is giving more people new career opportunities.
Gray and UtilitiseIT are the antithesis of the old saying “Nice guys finish last”. In building a successful business, Gray and his team have been able to increase revenues and profits while supporting business sectors that have traditionally struggled to access high quality technology products and services. At the same time, he is helping to nurture the next generation of technology experts, giving opportunities to people who are often unable to access traditional pathways to successful IT careers.
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