1. Rebranded and
Reborn with the Cloud
Australia Microsoft Partner Dilignet rebrands to better
service its customers as they move into the cloud.
People tend to not want change. However, change is
inevitable and most of the people who survive long term
are those who embrace change. The same principle can be
applied to business where the urgency and momentum to
change is paramount in order to stay ahead of competitors
and better serve customers. Take technology as an example.
Successful companies don't upgrade out of boredom. They
do so to address a specific need and that need is to survive
long term.
Starting as a “go-to” partner
in the datacenter
Dilignet, an award-winning Microsoft Partner and IT
company, helps corporate, enterprise, and government
companies in Australia modernize and transform their IT
environments with the latest generation cloud technologies.
Founded in 2008, Dilignet prides itself on the time they take
to understand each customer’s journey so that it can
produce high-value and relevant solutions based on a need.
That level of commitment has helped them build a stellar
reputation in the Australian market.
“Suddenly Microsoft’s
enterprise cloud solutions
became a dominant service
that we saw represent the next
evolution of our business.”
Peter Lillywhite, CEO
“We used to be known as the go-to guys for Microsoft
System Center,” says Peter Lillywhite, CEO at Dilignet. “That
25employees
2008
Headquarters: Australia
Moved to Cloud: 2014
Offerings:
Cloud Infrastructure
Core Infrastructure
Desktop and Devices
Identity Management
Data Management
Service Management

2. helped us pick up a lot of peripheral projects such as
virtualization and desktop deployments.” From the
beginning, the Melbourne-based company of 25 assisted
customers implement Microsoft on-premises technologies
for organizations. Over the next few years, Dilignet evolved
its business that incorporated several new on-premises
Microsoft technologies. The story could have ended there if
Dilignet did not embrace change. But just as Microsoft
introduced its cloud services, Dilignet adapted its business
model to align with the change.
Initially, the Australian market reacted rather cautiously
towards Microsoft cloud services in large part because the
regions’ datacenters were located outside of Australia.
When Microsoft opened datacenters in Australia, a new
story of full cloud service emerged--an idea that Dilignet
excitedly rallied behind, “Suddenly their enterprise mobility
and operations management suite became a dominant
cloud service that we saw representing the next evolution
for our System Center,” says Lillywhite.
Commitment to the cloud
Over the course of the next year, the company rebranded
itself around the cloud visions and the consumption of
cloud services. That meant a new logo design and the new
tagline: Step into the cloud. “We became a cloud-first
thinker and organization,’ says Lillywhite. “It reassures our
cloud customers and positioned us to grow on the back of
Microsoft cloud services.”
That doesn’t mean the company didn’t encounter growing
pains. Because cloud sales cater to a different audience,
Dilignet had to learn how to open conversations with CIOs
and business decision makers instead of the IT department.
“The conversation became more business
driven rather than technology driven.
That makes understanding a customer
far more critical. You have to be able to
listen rather than just pitch a solution.”
Peter Royal, Sales and Marketing Manager
Cloud-
first
Thinker
2014

3. Making organizational changes
to adapt to a cloud world
To change, Dilignet took a two-prong approach. First it
hired more cloud-savvy people. These new resources
helped grow the company’s skill set within the business.
They also led a development plan in which they buddied
up with on-premises consultants to cross-skill and up-skill
aligning to cloud services.
“We had to change the way
that we run finances and
budgets at Dilignet. As
customers went from a Capex
to Opex model, we had to build
a subscription model approach and
change the way we forecast the business.”
Regina Melamed, Finance and Operations Director
To that end, Melamed also changed the company’s
recruiting strategy. “We used to predominantly hire for
technical skill, but now we hire for a positive attitude and
train for skill,” said Melamed. “If someone has the right
attitude, levels of commitment, and drive, they’re a lot
easier to teach.”
New business models, new
revenue streams, tremendous
growth
The fruit from the company’s labor has paid off. In the last
six months, the company has seen a huge growth in
revenue.
“Our sales forecast is the strongest it’s ever
been. We’re re-growing the business.”
- Peter Lillywhite, CEO
Lillywhite expects cloud revenue to soon exceed 70
percent of the company’s bottom line. “We are also
past 6 months
realized a surge
in revenue
Key Learnings:
• Leveraged Microsoft
relationship for
customers and services
• Reskilled and rehired for
a positive attitude
• Opened sales dialogue
with LOB people to
better understand each
customer’s journey
• Discovered new
upsell/cross-sell
opportunities
• Shifted from project to
services to scalable
support services and
packaged deals

4. aggressively changing the mix of projects and managed
services revenue. "We go much deeper with customers.
We're harvesting new business on the back of what we've
done, it makes for a more effective sale engine," says Royal.
How has this transformation changed the company’s
business perspective?
“One of the dramatic changes we’re seeing is the ability to
attach annuity streams to our cloud projects,” says
Lillywhite. “With the consumption of cloud services and the
skill shortage in the market, we’re consistently being asked
to manage and support the cloud environment
post-enablement.”
“Without Microsoft, we wouldn’t be in
business. They’ve re-energized their business
and ours by passing along a lot of positive
branding that has served us well.”
- Peter Lillywhite, CEO
The company has found demand for more packaged deals,
where it can easily scale. Recently Dilignet released an EMS
as a service offering, where it productized four main
offerings from five major deployments with enterprise
customers. “We brought all those learning and turned them
into a repeatable engagement,” said Lillywhite.
As many of its customers haven’t fully embraced the cloud
yet, Lillywhite thinks there are a lot more opportunities out
there and thanks the Microsoft cloud services for that.
cloud
revenue
projection
of bottom
line
Embraced
Azure in 2014
70%
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www.Dilignet.com