Enlighten Designs

Great things can come from very humble beginnings. This is true of Enlighten Designs.

Enlighten Designs started almost by accident. Cast your mind back – way back to a simpler time – the year is 1998. Chumbawamba had a number 1 hit, Bill Clinton was denying having “relations” with Monica Lewinski and Damon Kelly (the founder and CEO of Enlighten) was only 21 years old. He was a recent university graduate having completed a psychology degree and he liked playing online games (at this stage Quake II was his favourite) and he had a team of people he played online with.

Damon built a website for himself and his fellow “gamers” but couldn’t afford to pay to have it hosted so, having a keen business mind, he approached a local ISP and offered to make them a website if they would host his for free. The deal was done and soon after they started sending their clients to Damon to have their websites developed. And thus Enlighten was born. At that stage Damon was making websites for around $50.

Initially Enlighten was run from a rusty old caravan out the back of Damon’s family home and the staff was comprised almost entirely of old school friends and mates from uni.

We (Enlighten), very early on, secured some other up-and-coming businesses as clients – namely the Edge and The Rock radio stations at this stage based in Hamilton. In what would eventually become a very sizable series of projects, we developed comprehensive websites for both stations along with the systems to power them - all with huge success. In fact the first month after the release these sites generated more traffic than the previous 8 months. With our first high profile websites under our belt the sky was the limit. Next it was live video streaming events like two strangers and a wedding and the Millennium changeover, many websites, web systems, hosting services, domain services – the list goes on.

One decision made early on that continues to be of huge benefit was the decision to use Microsoft. In 2004 we joined the partner programme and decided to place ourselves firmly behind Microsoft’s applications, platforms and methodologies.

So that in a “nutshell” is the history of Enlighten.

Where are we now?

Enlighten is now a Microsoft shop and have graduated to Gold Partnership status. We have specific competencies from Microsoft for:

• ISV solutions
• Advanced Infrastructure solutions
• Networking solutions

Just two weeks ago we won the Microsoft Partnering Award of the year alongside Axon New Zealand for the work we are doing with Te Wananga o Aotearoa on their 3 year strategic performance data projects. We were also finalists in two other categories, we were finalists last year, and we won the Innovation Award at last years Business Excellence Awards.

We specialise in website development, custom application development (web and windows based), ICT consulting, as well as providing Windows hosting services and NZ Domain services.

Enlighten currently employs 25 fulltime staff and we are constantly growing – and growing fast. We long since moved from the caravan and are now in a high profile premise in the city centre and our client list gets more and more impressive each day:

Just some of our clients are:
• The New Zealand National Party
• CablePrice New Zealand
• Jasons Travel Media
• Te Wananga o Aotearoa
• WINTEC
• New Zealand National Fieldays
• Fonterra
• Gallagher’s
• TrustPower
• Mighty River Power
• Hamilton City Council
• Matamata Piako District Council
• Porter Group
• Axon New Zealand
• And of course the Edge radio station

So what sets Enlighten apart? What makes us different? and ultimately what's allowed us to be so successful?
Since our very beginning we've had the ability to see a gap and go for it! To spot an opportunity, a way of doing things better and knowing how to apply technology - often Microsoft technology to make it happen, not only for ourselves but our clients as well.
A perfect example of this was when we started our New Zealand domains services.

When the New Zealand domain market was deregulated, an exposed XML webservice was made using PEARL. We immediately looked at it and asked why not in .NET? So we sat down and re-wrote the whole SRS in .NET - the first to do so and started a whole new division – Enlighten Domains. From there we applied our technology and process smarts – automating our domains division and creating an almost touchless business unit.

It’s this mindset that keeps us moving forward.

Technology is of course at the core of what we do. We have developed systems and processes to augment those already available in existing solutions including systems for rapid project releases, managing, tracking and resolving bugs and errors, time, task and project management. Plus many more client facing tools, applications and products.

While many companies may be ringing alarm bells about the economic downturn things at Enlighten have never looked rosier. We are working toward our goal of being New Zealand’s leading web solutions provider by 2015. We have clear growth strategies – aiming to reach 30 staff by the end of this year – and double that within 3 years.