There are many digital agencies flooding the market making it difficult for business owners or managers to firstly understand how they can help their business and secondly how to choose the right one.
“There are virtually no barriers to entry and fierce competition can make it difficult to rise above the others,’’ says Rishad Sukhia, one of two founders of digital agency Brightlabs.
“We believe our point of difference is providing not just technology solutions but business outcomes. There is no use having the best technology if it is not activated correctly.’’
Rishad, 30, and Farhad Meher-Homji, 29, have known each other since childhood but it wasn’t until late in their time at university that they decided to join forces.
“We both had a common interest in business and the web and decided there were far too many web companies out there that were offering overwhelmingly average services and solutions,’’ Rishad said.
“We knew we could trust each other implicitly and having worked together previously, were able to work through any problem hence the next logical step was to setup a company offering a different experience to customers.’’
Rishad studied Information Environments at university and Farhad Business and Law. Both had worked together in the university’s marketing department in web services. Both had dabbled in work – Rishad for Boeing in IT and Farhad in marketing for the Australian Medical Association.
Since creating Brightlabs, they have worked for some major brands such as Arrow Energy (now owned by Shell), Dart Energy, Vale Mining, Lexus Queensland, Cancer Council, Treasury Corporation Victoria, Transfield Services, Raine and Horne, Beyondblue and Hawaiian Airlines.
The company had revenue of $1.8 million last year and has posted average annual growth of 38% over the past three years.
Importantly, they are being recognised for their work. They are the only Australian agency to be named among the top 10 website development agencies in the US-based Interactive Media Council’s 2009 Interactive Media Awards.
More than 500 agencies globally submitted 3,500 websites to be judged.
“We are extremely happy to have made the list and I am especially proud that an Australian company was able to make an appearance, particular given the calibre of the competition,” said Farhad.
“Many of our competitors have had massive budgets to play with. Limited budgets of the Australian client base make it challenging to compete on global scale in terms of high tech innovation.’’
Farhad says the web industry is the most dynamic industry in the world. “Technology changes daily and to succeed you have to be able to understand and keep ahead of the trends.
“Many companies think that by adopting every piece of new technology that comes out they will stay ahead of the pack. What you really need to do is understand the technology enough to realise whether it is workable for you and your clients. Just because it’s new doesn’t mean it’s going to work.”
