2021 a year in review

For KMT this is the time of the year when we like to do a stocktake and reflect on the past year both personally and professionally.  It is incredible to think that again 2021 was a year once again affected by COVID-19.

Seemingly endless lockdowns, freedom protests, vaccination solutions being rolled out to adults and children alike, borders being opened and closed.  As an individual and a business, it is difficult to know what to think or how to respond.  Indeed much like last year, 2021 has been a year like no other.  We have all been overloaded with news, visuals and hype over the COVID pandemic, so for the purpose of our reflection, we will finish that narrative here.

As we closed out the 2020 year, we looked at 2021 with a sense of optimism and whilst it was not without its challenges, we believe we achieved a lot for our clients and our industry.

One of the most gratifying parts of this year for our team has been the opportunity to work with our clients and help them navigate through the ‘new normal’.  Whilst it has been a learning process for all of us, adapting and adjusting on the fly to remote and hybrid work environments became at the forefront of everyone’s business agenda.

Businesses were forced to focus on how they could continue to operate efficiently and productively and keep their teams motivated and culturally aligned.  It was out of this need and listening to our clients that came to some pretty exciting developments on our end.  Let’s take a look at what we achieved:

Whilst COVID raged on, this didn’t phase Ash Barty as she took out the number 1 place in the Melbourne Open.

Meanwhile, at KMT, we became certified for a Great Place to Work with over 94% of our team saying we were a great place to work.   We also finished our new office refurbishment and launched our Teams Calling Service to enable our clients to be able to seamlessly work between their offices and home.

February saw our housing market soar with Melbourne properties commanding all-time record prices.  We also were locked down for the first time in 2021.

The team at KMT was also reaching new records ranking 9th best MSP in the world by Cloud Tango, ponsored 4 children from the Smith Family and kicked off the first of our Cyber Security Webinars and had a fantastic level of attendance with over 100 Australian Businesses.

Across the USA many states were still in lockdown in March making filming difficult.  With the $400million location incentive, we saw an influx of famous stars visiting Australia with the likes of Melissa McCarthy, Matt Damon, Natalie Portman and more.

Meanwhile, Bradley Kaine was making his own blockbuster by marrying Marketing Manager Carla in early March.  Our staff were welcomed back to work with a KMT Welcome Kit, we even welcomed some of our furry friends.

We became a Blue Diamond partner with Datto.

For the 3rd year in a row, we have been ranked a High Growth Company of Asia Pacific – Financial Times 2021.   On a community giving front, we began the Push-Up Challenge, raising money for mental health.

Our CSAT customer satisfaction score was happily at 95.21% and we reached 35 team members.

Melbournians again were thrust into a 14-day lockdown.  With a renewed sense of COVID fatigue businesses got behind local causes.

We initiated the KMT Graduate Program and employed our first round of IT graduates.

We hosted the Biggest Morning Tea and raised over $1000 for the Cancer Council.

Proudly supporting diversity and inclusion, the world celebrated Pride Month and so did we.

A big month for Community Giving, we raised $1120 for mental health and completed 32,012 pushups for the Pushup Challenge and sponsored the Seacon Team with the CEO Sleep Out initiative raising over $29,000.

On the awards front we were ranked #59 globally and #2 best MSP in Melbourne by MSP501 Channel Futures.

With restrictions easing, we launched the first of our Elevate & Celebrate luncheons hosted at the swanky Matildas restaurant in South Yarra.  Shouting our clients a privately hosted lunch whilst providing a fantastic opportunity for them to catch up and network with like-minded businesses and learn about the latest in technology trends.

Our teams were able to catch up and celebrate making the most of the freedom we once again felt.

Well that was for half of the month anyway – until we were locked down again for another 2 weeks in the last half of July.

And when we thought things may get a little better… On August 5th Melbournians were locked down for what was meant to be 5 days and ended up being 83 long days… forever known as Lockdown 6.

Luckily for KMT some good things still happened with us being voted the 11th Greatest Place to work in Australia.

We also donated over 6000 meals to Foodbank for hungry Victorians.

Victoria is hit by 7, yes 7 earthquakes with tremors felt as far as NSW and Tasmania.

We celebrated the grandfinal between the Dees and Doggies.

From a KMT perspective, we onboarded a bunch of new clients and celebrated National IT Day.

Melbourne celebrated as we came out of the final lockdown of 2021.  Now known as the most locked-down city in the world!

Kaine Mathrick Tech had reason to celebrate, not only did we start to make our way back into the office.  Our teams were excited to catch up and reconnect in person and our clients were busily doing the same.

We were also nominated finalist in 3 awards for ARN – Partner Mid Market, Collaboration and Personal Marketing Excellence.

Crowds gather to rally against pandemic laws and the Melbourne Cup goes ahead with 10,000 racegoers finally attending a public gathering.

Meanwhile, Kaine Mathrick Tech continued its growth spurt reaching over 50 team members and over 110 clients in November.

And… KMT was featured in its very first podcast.

With Australian businesses winding down for Christmas, we are humbled with all we have achieved in 2021 with our clients and for our teams.  Whilst many challenges have presented themselves during the year with teams in and out of offices, testing the very fabric of businesses patience and productivity, we are so grateful for our staff and our clients.

December, we travelled to Sydney for the ARN Innovation Awards and hosted our annual Christmas Party.  A time we will cherish being able to celebrate in person.

From all of us at Kaine Mathrick Tech, we would like to take the opportunity to thank our customers, partners and staff for your support this year. We have done a lot of consolidation, preparation and planning this year on how to add further value to our customers in 2022.

I am an optimist. I always believe tomorrow will be better than today, and 2022 will be a better year for everyone. But it doesn’t come by chance, it comes by design. And we will continue to be here to help all our clients build a brighter future ahead.

On behalf of Scott & Bradley and the entire Kaine Mathrick Tech team, we wish you all the best this holiday season and every good thing to come in the year ahead.