SmartCompany50 rank: 20
Revenue: $4.9 million
Growth: 61%
Founders: Mike Giuffrida, 37, Will Spensley
Based: Melbourne
Employees: 40
Industry: Information technology
Website: www.nga.net
In 1997, Mike Giuffrida (pictured) and Will Spensley saw the gross inefficiencies in the recruitment industry. Processing candidate applications was difficult so his company came up with a software solution, accessable over the internet, to remove administration pains and offer candidates a better user experience.
Although SAAS (software as a service) is now commonplace, NGA has been doing it for 10 years and has built a reputation for reducing costs of recruitment for organisations. NGA uses Google Search “e-recruitment software” SEO and currently receives between 10 to 15 inquiries a week from the site.
It hasn’t always been smooth sailing. In 2000 the company was too optimistic about how ready the market was to take on the new approach to recruitment and new sales were not converting as anticipated. Web businesses were not flavour of the month given the tech crash, so the company had to downsize rapidly.
In 2002 the company, after demand from a client for new product features, embarked on an aggressive product development plan but overpromised on functionality and a full reset of client expectations needed to be managed.
“We learnt it was far better to underpromise and overdeliver,” says Giuffrida.
The company is expanding globally with its latest product available in most languages, but the major focus is still on Australia and New Zealand.
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