Smart50 rank: 23
Revenue: $7,662,000
Growth: 53%
Founders: Cameron Wall, 37, Conrad Bates, 36
Head Office: Victoria
Employees: 46
Industry: Information technology
Website: www.c3businesssolutions.com
Like any business, C3 Business Solutions faces a significant problem in finding new, qualified talent, and is often constrained by a limited budget. But co-founder Cameron Wall says there is a simple solution – don't let the good ones slip away.
"Sometimes it is better to go ahead and hire people with exceptional talent even though there may not be an open role, rather than to let them go. Exceptional people make for an exceptional business, and clients will continue to do business when you are providing them with exceptional service."
The company was founded by Wall and Conrad Bates after they identifyied a gap in the market for faster, more flexible and cheaper information management services. The company creates software to help clients access databases quicker and easier.
But like any growing business, C3 Business Solutions faces the dreaded problem of "the cliff" – the limbo between work ending and finding a new client.
"As we are a growing business the cliff is an ever-growing problem," co-founder Cameron Wall says. "As with most businesses, winning new work is far harder than continuing business with current clients."
But Wall has certainly picked a solid industry to start growing, with Gartner Resarch pinning it as one of the biggest priorities for CIOs over the next year.
But there are still some key challenges. Wall says convincing clients to sign over onto a new database is extremely difficult, given some are able to access spreadsheets and databases on their own – "they believe they have the knowledge and expertise to deliver a useable BI solution".
"It's the old adage 'a little bit of knowledge can be dangerous!' This can devalue the experience and expertise of the industry."
Wall says they attempt to combat this by focussing on training up their existing sales teams to keep client delivery on track and target, with the goal of keeping clients over a long period of time.
"This is why our major strategy is to focus on delivering excellent client results that endure. This is also why the majority of our sales team are responsible for aspects of client delivery. Our sales team have impeccable track records of successful client delivery lasting over many years."
The company's team is also spread out geographically, which can impact morale and deteroriate the nature of the "team". As a result, the company puts a large focus on generating ideas from staff. A five-day retreat is run each year with guest speakers, while staff are also encouraged to provide new ideas at a quarterly meeting.
"It is sometimes difficult to build a team environment but we do as much as possible to ensure we keep everyone informed including: annual offsite C3 summit, Twitter, Skype, C3 intranet, quarterly updates, monthly social get togethers, etc."
"The biggest challenge we faced, and continue to face, is the ongoing balance between supply and demand. That is, finding good people who fit our corporate culture as well as securing great clients who see the benefits of working with a niche player."
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