Perth start-up wins major Microsoft award, then lobbies them to drop fees


Winning a globally-coveted partner award from tech giant Microsoft is a huge honour for start-ups; recipients happily accept their trophy and expensive champagne, excited at the exposure their business has received.

Most start-ups react this way, but not Perth business software maker Illuminance Solutions.

Microsoft Australia managing director Steven Worrall and Illuminance chief executive Nilesh Makwana.


In June Illuminance beat 3000 other nominees for the partner for social impact award for its AvantCare customer relationship management software developed for not-for-profits to better manage clients in the NDIS era.

Chief executive Nilesh Makwana was honoured but acutely aware of the irony receiving an award for social impact at a ceremony as glamorous as Microsoft's partner awards.


Now he is lobbying Microsoft to show their commitment to social impact by reducing software licensing fees to help not-for-profits provide better services to clients in need.

"This is the first global award ever given by Microsoft to any partner for social impact and we happen to be that company, it was bizarre, crazy, unbelievable news," Mr Makwana said.

"But the not-for-profit sector isn't known for its money, but that’s where technology can have the maximum impact and it can really help providers to survive and deliver services to people in need.

"Our software has a lot more potential to go national but the challenge we have is Microsoft has not-for-profit licensing, but it’s quite expensive."

Mr Makwana said cloud technology was a numbers game.


"You need a scale and user base to make money, but small not-for-profits don’t have a huge client base," he said. "The pricing is a prohibitive factor.

“I said to Microsoft; 'it’s all great, the trophies and everything, but in reality if you really want to make a social impact you have to reduce license price'."

Boardroom karma

Both of Illuminance's co-founders follow unique philosophies that flip traditional management principles on their head.

Mr Makwana subscribes to ‘karmic management’, an ideology that if your business does good by employees, clients and other businesses then it will be returned.

Co-founder Vincent Lam also follows the ‘servant leadership’ philosophy, meaning the main goal for a leader is to serve their employees and clients.

Mr Makwana said these philosophies were in the DNA of the company and were the reason he was pressing Microsoft.

He said Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella exhibited karmic management principals.

“Their CEO has a vision and he wants to do the right thing but at the Australia level or employee level their KPI's are still financially driven KPIs, not social impact driven KPIs," he said.

“I’m really challenging them in saying: ‘hey, the CEO has a great vision, let’s do more’.

“Maybe they might not like me for this but it’s the truth.”

A Microsoft spokeswoman highlighted the US$1 billion donated in cash and services to not-for-profits annually and agreed that tech needed to be more affordable for them.

"It’s the reason why Microsoft launched tech for social impact two years ago to provide technology solutions at affordable prices for the not-for-profit sector," she said.

"Under this program, we provide donations and discounts for some of our cloud solutions."

The spokeswoman said partners such as Illuminance were a key part of the company's strategy.

"It’s through them utilising our tools that we can jointly deliver affordable, scalable solutions to non-profits, both large and small, to drive greater societal impact," she said.

For the good of it

Curtin University management expert Professor Julia Richardson said there was increasing recognition among employers about the value of being a good person and the importance of ethical behaviour.

"Research does show very clearly if staff feel they’re treated well and there is fairness and equity then they will be committed and it’s the same with customers," she said.

"Any commerce degree worth its salt will have an ethics unit or a course on corporate social responsibility.

"I think for some it may well be marketing, it does sell, it’s about your brand image but I’m quite optimistic that an increasing number of organisations understand there is a compelling business case for it."

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