SurePact - Assuring project success

SurePact is a software venture founded in 2017 by Megan Avard that provides a single solution risk management platform for the delivery of project, contract and grant management information to their clients. SurePact’s software supports project managers to identify, mitigate and manage risks for projects, which could be wide-ranging in scope.

Megan Avard is not a typical tech-entrepreneur. In fact, her family expressed their surprise at her starting SurePact three years ago, as she’s not the most tech-savvy in her household. But Megan was not deterred. With over 25 years of project and contract management experience, Megan was unable to find one software platform that integrated project, risk and contract management to deliver infrastructure projects and support Council processes. She resigned from a senior executive management position, incorporated the name SurePact, and completed the 12-week program Startup Onramp to develop her startup.

SurePact grew from a one-person startup in 2017 to an eight-person team in 2020, providing value to its local government and corporate clients. SurePact was positioned for their scale-up phase when the COVID-19 restrictions were imposed.

COVID impacts

When the COVID-19 crisis hit, most of SurePact’s clients went into disaster management mode. Infrastructure and construction projects ground to a halt, as organisations’ leaders were coming to terms with the crisis and deciding on the appropriate steps to take. Megan was concerned for her staff, her business and her clients. She knew the impact would be severe.

As the CEO Megan prepared to take no salary. She had frank conversations with her staff about the potential impact of the pandemic and proactively encouraged them to be ready to claim JobSeeker if needed. SurePact’s team was well-prepared to work remotely using platforms such as Microsoft Teams. Megan maintained a focus on building SurePact’s culture, keeping up team spirit and morale with regular team meetings during lock down that included light-hearted activities.

Megan was concerned for her staff, her business and her clients. She knew the impact would be severe.

Response

Megan implemented regular meetings with her Advisory Board and Leadership Team to discuss strategic options. She sought advice from her accountant regarding the government stimulus packages. This process helped Megan to ‘hunt’ for a solution to stabilise SurePact and save the business.

SurePact’s customer focus had the team responding with empathy to their clients’ situations, enquiring if they and their families were alright. SurePact works with some remote communities, so Megan was aware of the extra risks some of these communities faced.

Despite COVID-related challenges, SurePact continued its business development journey. Some of the highlights during the few months to September 2020 include:

A new service: SurePact launched its new Grant Management Module on 30 March, 2020, as part of an integrated suite of modules to support local governments to save time, increase transparency, and support governance and compliance.
Geographical growth and expansion: In July 2020, SurePact launched their software in Western Australia and western Queensland, onboarding two new councils.
Collaboration with other companies to provide an ecosystem of value for their clients: “We want to offer an integrated, one-stop solution,” says Megan. To this end SurePact was invited to be a global Microsoft partner in June. This partnership provides benefits to SurePact’s clients as it ensures greater device and software integration. Additionally, the partnership will support SurePact to realise their growth ambitions.
Partnering with Next World Enterprises to offer their clients safety training using virtual reality. The virtual reality training enables individual workers to train for workplace health and safety in an authentic setting in which participants experience what it is like to work at heights, in confined spaces or use chainsaws¹. As such, it is safe from workplace and COVID risks.

Future

SurePact will continue their growth plans as their software solutions are designed to meet customer needs and requirements. While their current primary focus is local government, the software is repeatable to other industry sectors, such as construction and mining, as well as the non-profit sector.

1 Involve staff: “It’s important to listen to staff, to hear their concerns and suggestions and take care to respond appropriately”.

2 Leadership is sorely needed during times of crisis: Great leaders lead by example and present a confident, empathetic face to the outside world, even though they may be uncertain within themselves. Such demonstrated strength helps employees to set aside their anxieties and move forward.

3 Empathy involves taking care of others: This principle relates to staff and clients. It’s important to have an awareness that staff and clients may need to take time off to take care of themselves or their families, or those close to them.

4 Support others in the community: SurePact supports smaller businesses in the Moreton Bay and Brisbane communities. By recognising the excellent service of local businesses, their values of acknowledging and appreciating others shines through.

5 Accept change and use positively: “Working remotely and using technology to do this has been a big shock to many, but it has contributed to people’s acceptance of change and helped many staff to upskill.”

6 Learn from these experiences: “The younger generation can learn resilience from this pandemic, while the more mature leaders can draw on their strategic learnings and challenges they’ve faced in the past to get through this.”