Created business · IT department as a service · National and international expansion
Reddog Technology
A Brisbane-born IT department as a service business built years ahead of the market, aligning technology support, hardware, software, infrastructure, and customer uptime under one monthly model.
Co-created Reddog Technology with Jason Rudolph in Brisbane in 2004 as an IT department as a service business.
Highlights
- Created Reddog Technology with Jason Rudolph in Brisbane in 2004.
- Developed an IT department as a service model well before managed service language became mainstream.
- Built a flat monthly fee ICT model with unlimited support, owned equipment, infrastructure, and support capability.
- Expanded nationally within 12 months and internationally within 18 months.
- Standardised on Apple equipment before it was fashionable in business technology.
- Moved early on the iPhone when it launched, turning Apple’s consumer breakthrough into an enterprise advantage.
- Developed custom infrastructure across data centres, mail servers, VOIP, firewalls, asset management, and portable internet.
- Sold Reddog Technology in 2015.
The Business Model
Jason Rudolph and I created Reddog Technology in Brisbane in 2004 as an IT department as a service business. That was well ahead of anyone else we have ever found in the world doing the same thing in that way.
The model came from a simple but powerful observation: if an IT provider charges by the hour to fix problems, it makes money when customers lose time. Reddog inverted that incentive by charging a flat monthly fee and providing unlimited support, technology leadership, equipment, infrastructure, and support capability.
This meant Reddog succeeded when customers had reliable technology. Reliability, scalability, low support load, and total cost of ownership became core business design principles, not marketing language.
Apple Before It Was Cool
Reddog used Apple equipment before Apple was the obvious choice for business. At the time, most corporate environments were built around Microsoft Windows and Blackberry. We believed Apple’s rate of innovation, hardware quality, and total cost of ownership would become an advantage.
When the iPhone came out, that bet started to look very different. We moved early, bought heavily into the first iPhones, and were positioned to turn Apple’s consumer technology shift into a business technology advantage for customers.
What Was Built
The company developed its own data centre infrastructure, mail systems, VOIP phone systems, firewalls, network security, portable internet capability, hardware fleet, pricing systems, support systems, and asset management systems.
Because Reddog owned and managed customer technology assets, it needed sophisticated pricing, prediction, support ticketing, and asset management systems. Those systems let the business manage millions of dollars of technology assets while keeping support, cost, reliability, and replacement decisions commercially aligned.
The result was a business with national and international reach, deep experience serving customers with complex operating requirements, and a model that anticipated where outsourced technology departments and managed services would eventually go.