Who we are

Big enough to have real process. Small enough that one person answers.

ACME IT Solutions Pty Ltd is an Australian IT professional services firm, founded in 2014 and privately held. Around 38 people: consultants, engineers, delivery managers and a service desk, working out of Sydney with a small Melbourne presence.

A bright open-plan office with people working

The size is a deliberate choice

There is a gap in the Australian market between the big four — who will sell you a partner and deliver you a graduate — and the two-person shop that cannot cover a P1 at 3am. We sit in it on purpose.

At 38 people we are big enough to run four capability areas properly, carry a 24×7 roster, and survive somebody resigning mid-project. We are small enough that the consultant who came to your first meeting is the one doing the work, and that our Managing Director knows the name of every client.

We have turned down growth that would have broken that. It is not modesty — it is the only thing that makes the service model work.

How we got here

Twelve years, in the order they happened

Nothing here was a strategy. Each step was a client asking for the next thing and us deciding whether we could do it properly.

2014

Founded in Sydney

Three consultants and a server-migration practice. The first year was entirely subcontract work for larger firms.

2016

First direct retainer

A logistics client asked us to stay on after a project. We had no service desk, so we built one — badly at first, and rebuilt it in 2017.

2018

Melbourne presence

Two engineers, opened to serve existing clients with southern sites rather than to chase a new market.

2020

Everything moved at once

Eighteen months of remote-work enablement compressed into six weeks. We took on more than we should have and said so afterwards.

2022

Assurance practice

Formalised as a separate area with its own lead, specifically so that assessment work could stay independent of delivery.

2024

24×7 cover

A genuine follow-the-roster arrangement rather than an on-call phone, after a P1 in 2023 that we handled slowly and honestly reported.

2026

Where we are now

Thirty-eight people, eight sector clients, four capability areas, and roughly 30% of revenue on long-term retainers.

The people

Who you will actually deal with

No separate sales function. Everyone below carries client work as well as their title.

Owen Bradley

Managing Director

Grace Whitlam

Delivery Director

Erin Novak

Engagement Manager

Hank Ito

Principal Consultant · Assurance

Mia Sandoval

Service Delivery Manager

Finn Quaid

Finance & Commercial

Invented people at an invented company — see the notice in the footer.

Commercials

How we engage, and what we charge

Four models, published rather than negotiated case by case. The rate is the same whichever one you pick; what changes is who carries the risk of the scope being wrong.

Model	Best for	Who carries scope risk	Basis
Fixed price	Discovery, assessments, well-understood migrations	Us	One agreed figure, milestones
Time & materials	Exploratory work, team augmentation, undocumented legacy	You, capped	$195/hr ex GST, not-to-exceed ceiling
Retainer	Ongoing operations, reserved capacity, continuity	Shared	Monthly fee, named team, SLA
Hour bank (EaaS)	Variable demand, budget certainty without a fixed scope	Shared	Prepaid block, 5–18% discount

Price an hour bank When each one fits

Principles

What we will not do

A values list that only contains virtues is not a values list. These are the specific things we turn down, and each one has cost us money at least once.

We will not assess you and then sell you the fix

If we run your Essential Eight or ISO readiness assessment, the remediation goes to market. Scoring a client badly is worth nothing if the scoring is what generates the pipeline.

We will not bid work we cannot staff

If the people named in the proposal are not available for the dates in the proposal, we do not submit it. Winning on a resourcing plan that requires a hire we have not made is how projects fail in month three.

We will not hold your documentation hostage

Runbooks, diagrams, asset registers and credentials are yours throughout, in open formats. Exit assistance is in the standard agreement, not a clause you have to fight for once the relationship has soured.

We will not claim a footprint we do not have

Two offices, Sydney and Melbourne. If you need four-hour on-site response in Kalgoorlie we will tell you to keep a local provider, and we will manage them for you rather than pretending.

Come and talk to the people who will do the work

There is no qualification call and no discovery questionnaire to fill in first. One conversation, an hour, with somebody who can actually answer.

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