House of I.T. credits StrategyX with sustainable growth and ability to scale

Visibility provided by StrategyX leads to increased revenue

Artem Soukhomlinov is the CEO of House of I.T., an Australian owned and managed company based in the Philippines. Founded in 2004, House of I.T. provides professional services across the globe, with major partners in the US, the UK, Australia, and New Zealand. They currently employ 226 people located across Australia, Europe and the Philippines.

House of I.T. has been using StrategyX since 2018 and considers it a crucial tool to help them scale and grow their business. Here’s what Artem had to say when StrategyX caught up with him in September 2021.

What would you consider some of your current goals and challenges as a company?

Scaling. Being able to scale as we grow is the biggest one. Also, ensuring the quality of the service remains as we grow as a company.

What was the thing that made you look for help with your strategy execution?

The main driver was trying to get visibility across all aspects of my business. We had a certain level of reporting but it was hard to pinpoint the value of some of the activity. I wanted visibility and that’s what StrategyX has given me, down to a level of detail I never thought was possible.

When you say visibility, what exactly do you mean by that?

First, I wanted to be able to know what was happening in every important area of the business — everything from employee performance to financial goals, to customer satisfaction, and employee satisfaction. 

The second thing is on par in terms of importance, and that is having the ability to get a commitment for work being done and then having a way to hold staff accountable to that commitment.

Part of the discovery process we went through when we started getting visibility was we found a lot of waste. There were a lot of inefficiencies; there was a lot of effort or work that was being done that was no longer necessary. It was being done because, at some point, someone told someone to do this and this particular task no longer applied. They were doing it because, well, they were told years ago that they needed to do it and didn’t really know why.

There were countless tasks that we discovered were based in effort with no actual outcomes. StrategyX gave us clarity on all kinds of inefficiencies. Now everyone knows the work they’re doing is contributing to an end result that’s meaningful for the business. We moved from measuring effort to measuring outcomes. StrategyX helped us identify how to do that.

Did you change how your ran your business because of this new visibility?

Yes. StrategyX helped us put the structure in place to channel our resources in a way that would actually achieve our goals. It’s put the auditing and the checks and balances in place to draw a direct correlation between our efforts and the outcomes. Regardless of what the effort is, if the outcome is not met, there is a process and a system in place to realign that. So, if we’re not meeting our goals, then actions are created. They’re assigned to people. People are held accountable, and it doesn’t just get swept under the rug. Automating tasks is probably the biggest thing that StrategyX was able to do for us, and it is a mammoth task in itself.

Were you surprised by what StrategyX taught you about your own business?

I’m honestly surprised the business got as far as it did without having that clarity in place. The business wouldn’t be where we are at now without it. I’m just very grateful and thankful that we have been able to implement the platform.

It’s given me the confidence that, not only has it helped clear up some of the scaling issues that we had before, but StrategyX has put us on the right path to fixing problems in a sustainable way, rather than slapping one bandaid over another, which was kind of what was happening beforehand.

How has StrategyX impacted the morale of your employees, having that visibility and the accountability?

We were able to quickly identify three groups of employees and the performance management has been different for each group.

First, StrategyX showed us the employees who were either not willing or not capable of delivering the results we expect. It identified a lot of people that were hiding in the shadows and slipping through the cracks, and it exposed a lot of those problems. So those people left on their own accord relatively quickly.

Secondly, StrategyX helped realign and give staff clarity on how to achieve an outcome. It’s exposed areas where we needed to give extra support or needed to focus on problem areas where people were struggling through no fault of their own. We’ve been able to put the processes and systems in place to support people who needed development. This has been a positive experience for employees.

Third, for everyone else who was producing good results, StrategyX highlighted their ability and talent. It’s allowed us to promote them or give extra responsibilities or extra rewards as a sign of recognition for job performance.

If you look at your business today, what are the key ways you use StrategyX?

We use StrategyX in every part of the business, every day. It’s used in everything from financial reports to making sure that the cleaner follows the maintenance schedule for cleaning various parts of the office to making sure that the aircons get cleaned. The automation of tasks has helped us make sure that we’re on track and that we’re constantly moving towards the goals that we’ve set for our financial performance. StrategyX makes sure everyone is constantly moving in the right direction according to the strategy that we’ve set.

Nothing slips through the cracks now. Nothing. It’s given me confidence that I don’t have to worry. I don’t have sleepless nights because I remembered something that should have been done but never got followed up. The StrategyX platform makes sure everything gets done.

What is the financial impact to your business from using StrategyX. Is there any way you can quantify it?

I know it’s definitely paid for itself many times over. The quality of the work is a lot higher standard and we’re able to meet a lot more of our goals than before and we can sustain our performance.

I guess the easiest way to quantify it is the headcount for the support services – the areas of the business that are not revenue generating. Since implementing StrategyX, we’ve cut our headcount by half.

We’re able to achieve goals that we couldn’t even have dreamed of beforehand. And just by being able to cut that headcount by half, it’s improved the bottom line by a considerable amount. It’s allowed us to do a lot more with the remaining resources than we were doing before by changing our focus from effort to outcome. 

Since implementing StrategyX over the past three years, our revenue has increased by about 20%. Our support services overhead has decreased by around 50%. It’s made a significant impact to our bottom line.

How do you plan to expand the use of StrategyX in the future?

It’s a standard tool for everyone in the company. As new people start, they’re given a StrategyX account as part of their onboarding. It’s the platform we use for reporting. It’s the platform that we now use for tracking employee relations, as in disciplinary actions, as well as being able to provide data for appraisals. So, we’re using it for a lot. It’s the main platform for most of the everyday things that we do in the company. Assignment of work is all done through StrategyX.

Is there anything else that we haven’t talked about that you would like to add?

When we implemented StrategyX, we probably weren’t aware of how much of a change it would be to the business. I can honestly say it was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made for the business.

For anyone considering StrategyX, there’s going to be resistance to change, but for a business owner, just the level of clarity and confidence it gives you, it’s really extraordinary.

HOW YOU CAN EXPERIENCE SUCCESS LIKE ARTEM’S

If you would like to experience sustainable growth, gain complete visibility over your operation, and scale your business, schedule a demo of StrategyX. Our CEO, Brett Quinn, can show you how you can achieve similar success in your business, using StrategyX.