After more than 30 years serving private and public sector clients in Australia and New Zealand, Optimation has developed a reputation for landing quality digital platforms for organisations large and small.

Central to every Optimation engagement is people: skilled and reliable developers, testers and project delivery specialists available when the client needs them. Specialists with the right skillsets are notoriously rare in New Zealand, however, and Optimation found itself in need of a trusted partner that understood both the IT consulting business and Australasian business culture, and could provide the right people at the right time and on budget. 

Starting in late 2021, Optimation brought in DSS to deliver outsourced IT specialists. The DSS solution was a godsend during the Covid lockdowns that both Australia and New Zealand experienced but, based on DSS’ ability to deliver with seamless professionalism, the relationship has continued to grow since then.

Optimation places DSS resources in client sites, sometimes in a hybrid model alongside client staff, and also deploys them on its own development projects. DSS understands Optimation’s need for flexibility and meets it with a low-friction model that onboards people quickly and allows for an exit in as little as 30 days.

DSS takes end-to-end responsibility for recruitment, payroll and all the other HR functions, including retention. There’s a strong focus on senior developers and QA specialists, which many of Optimation’s clients value and, while engagements are sometimes as short as two weeks, Optimation says long tenures are common and a number of early DSS staff are still in their original placements. The model is cost-effective as well, typically costing about half of local market rates for the same skillset.

Optimation’s Customer Success Lead, Adam Theyers-Hasemore, says the relationship with DSS hinges on confidence in its experience in IT outsourcing and on almost daily contact with the senior DSS team. 

“We’ve been working with DSS for more than two years and the relationship we have with them is extremely professional. I can’t speak highly enough of them,” reports Theyers-Hasemore.

“I would absolutely recommend DSS to anyone. We’ve got a close relationship and they thoroughly understand what it is that I’m after and what our clients are after. The process that we work through is thorough and we get the right people with the right skillsets to satisfy our clients as well as in our internal projects.”