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October 1, 2026
The contract was supposed to make everything better. A bigger customer, more revenue, another step forward for a growing business.
Instead, it became a lesson in leadership that Jon Evans still carries.
“We won a very big contract but it was painful all the way through.”
The problem was the distance between winning the work and what it demanded of the company delivering it.
“You try to land the biggest contract out there and think it’ll make everything perfect,” Evans continued. “But those things can become very painful if they don’t align with what you’re about as a business.”
As Founder and Non-Executive Director of Enablis – a Sydney-based managed security services provider (MSSP) – Jon speaks with authority on the value of sound judgement.
This is now a 20-year-old business. One that has mastered the art of strong and sustainable growth.
“Today, our position has changed,” Evans added. “Instead, we ask: ‘Do we really want to win this? Should we be bidding for this?’ That’s the difference between good business versus just business.”
It is a distinction earned through experience.
Across two decades, Enablis has watched the economics of networking change, invested early in cyber security, narrowed its vendor portfolio and handed the leadership reins to a trusted pair of hands in Stuart Couchman as CEO.
The business has continued to evolve. But so has its understanding of the growth worth pursuing.
Evans started building the business armed with an advantage that many founders spend years trying to establish: a substantial customer.
Having worked for Verizon and Optus in Australia – following the start of his career in the UK – Evans was offered the opportunity to set up the Australian operation of Azzurri, a UK-based managed service provider (MSP).
A global contract with STA Travel required local support for an extensive network across Australia and New Zealand. For Evans, the invitation arrived when corporate telecommunications was beginning to lose its appeal.
“When I was working in telco, I was over being a corporate number in a business,” he recalled.
“I probably just had it in me because when someone said, ‘would you set up the Australian business?’ my hand was up in the air straight away.
“But having that anchor client was important. I don’t know how you could grow an MSP from zero without a client to leverage off. It would almost be impossible.”
The local entity was officially born in 2006 with a customer spanning approximately 120 sites, supported by Citrix server infrastructure in the UK and demanding network latency requirements.
“They were a perfect anchor tenant for us,” Evans explained.
“From day one, we had that type of client: someone who needed a high response and had complex networking requirements. That allowed us to build the DNA of our business.”
Following a change of ownership in the UK, Evans purchased the Australian shareholding with Simon Rogan – Chairman of Enablis – as an investor. Growth followed the characteristics of the original customer: distributed organisations with complex networks and a need for more responsive support.
“We grew the business organically,” Evans shared.
“We typically went after customers that had a lot of sites. We used to call them HDOs: highly distributed organisations. They had a lot of sites and complexity. They’d reached a point where, from a carrier perspective, they weren’t getting the service and support they wanted.”
The fledgling start-up selected connectivity according to commercial and technical requirements, then took responsibility for supporting it through a managed service. Building the company was largely an exercise in learning while doing.
“Obviously, you learn on the job,” Evans acknowledged.
“There were challenges along the way but they were all things that you overcome. I never learned through reading books because I was too busy doing the work. You just learn along the way and I wouldn’t say it was perfect by any means, but it was lots of fun.”
Reaching $10 million in revenue remains a memorable point on the journey for Evans. The team had grown to roughly 15, while retaining much of the informality and energy of its beginnings.
“You’re wearing multiple hats, working hard and playing hard, winning and having success,” he recalled.
“When you get to around $10 million and perhaps more than 15 staff, you start seeing that you need more rigour and structure around things. Depending on your personality, that probably was less my forte. In those early years, it was loads of fun. You shoot from the hip a bit.”
Larger customers brought greater expectations, and the services specialist needed to become more disciplined in how it met them.
“You get bigger, you get bigger clients, and you get more requirements and demands placed on you,” Evans noted. “You need to be more professional. You have to tighten the ship up a little.”
That painful major contract with a seemingly ‘marquee client’ exposed how quickly a commercial win could affect the organisation behind it.
Couchman – appointed CEO of Enablis in April 2022 – recalled the need for accelerated recruitment to meet the delivery requirements. It departed from the more organic hiring that had helped establish a team with long tenure.
“We needed people because we had all this work to do but quite a few didn’t stay,” Couchman said.
“We found one or two diamonds, but I’d say around one in four is still with us. Outside of that instance, everyone has been super sticky. Maybe that was too much of a rush to get people because of the influx of work from the project.”
For Evans, the lesson was to look harder at the fit between the customer, the contract and the business taking responsibility for it.
“With hindsight, you really want to align what you’re about and your value to the marketplace and your customers in the right way,” he said.
That assessment includes the effect on people already inside the company.
“It’s not just about growth,” Evans advised.
“You’ve got to look after everything, particularly your people. If you have really good people and a really strong team, you can ride the bumps because the team pulls together.”
Accelerated growth also expanded the technology portfolio. A growing Enablis accumulated multiple vendors across different categories, increasing the range of opportunities it could pursue but stretching the expertise required to deliver them.
“We probably took on too much,” Couchman acknowledged. “At one point, we had three vendors in every category, and that dilutes how good operations can be.”
Reducing the portfolio became one of the most consequential decisions in the company’s development.
“Maybe four or five years ago, we cut the portfolio right down,” he said. “That’s the best thing we’ve done. Technology has changed, but having one or two vendors in each line versus five is critical – otherwise you become very mediocre at delivery. You stretch everyone.”
The focus is now anchored on Cisco and Palo Alto Networks.
Couchman described Cisco Meraki as more prevalent among mid-market and not-for-profit customers, with Palo Alto Networks featuring more heavily in enterprise environments such as banks and health funds.
Concentrating expertise has strengthened both delivery and the relationships supporting it.
“With the people we work with, we know them right up to CEO level,” Couchman said.
“I prefer working that way. It’s actually a partnership, rather than lip service. Our focus has been good because we’ve become really good at delivering their products. Their sales teams know we’re a safe pair of hands, so you build a very good cycle.”
That choice limits some commercial opportunities, however.
“It does keep us in a smaller bubble,” Couchman accepted. “You have to say no to quite a few deals if they don’t fit, but that’s the cost of the decision.”
This approach also creates greater consistency across customer environments, allowing the team to deepen its experience rather than repeatedly support unfamiliar combinations of technology.
“Most of our customers have almost all got the same solution now, which helps us operationally,” Couchman said. “They don’t care whether it’s blue, red or green. As long as it works and keeps them secure. That’s the key consideration for customers.”
The networking market forced a more fundamental adjustment, however.
Connectivity had generated a substantial share of early revenue. Falling prices progressively changed the value of that business, even if the customers and their requirements remained.
“Our business had a lot of bandwidth revenue in the early days,” Evans said.
“A 100 Mbps circuit could be $10,000 a month. There’s been disruption through that technology change which means you can’t sit still. You have to continue to progress your proposition.”
Couchman saw the effect on the revenue mix.
“Previously, the vast majority of our revenue would have been networks: reselling them, monthly revenue, very similar,” he recalled.
“Now, if it’s 40%, that would be a lot. We haven’t necessarily changed, and the customer base hasn’t shifted. That’s just the value of it. We saw it coming for three years through the NBN. Equally, there wasn’t much you could do about it. You had to go somewhere else.”
Naturally, cyber security became an increasingly substantial part of the strategic response.
“We weren’t really doing cyber; we were doing bits and pieces,” he said. “Now that’s the bigger chunk of the business.”
Some investments preceded the market’s readiness to buy, however. Developing capability early created an opportunity, but also required patience.
“We jumped on a few of those cloud-based security technologies early and invested,” Couchman said. “As Jon said, we might have been a bit too early, but that’s now put us in a fantastic position.”
The company’s identity changed too. In 2015, it formerly adopted the Enablis name, separating from the UK association in the process.
“For a while, it was a great brand to help us have a presence and grow,” Evans added. “Then it became time to go and find our own identity.”
Through those changes, the underlying customer need remained familiar. Organisations that once required help with complex networks now face legacy infrastructure transformation, cyber security and governance requirements.
“They have enterprise complexity, but they don’t have an enterprise team to fix it – or they have other priorities,” Evans explained. “That’s our value.”
The convergence of networking and cyber security has brought Enablis’ capabilities closer together with SASE (secure access service edge) acting as a bridging point between the two.
That combination also defines where the business chooses to compete.
“We don’t try to bid just for networks anymore because it’s a pretty thin layer you’re adding on top,” Couchman highlighted. “The value is in both networking and security.”
A narrowly defined cyber governance engagement is not its core proposition either. Enablis works in the space where the environment, its connectivity and its security must function together.
Customer procurement has not always caught up with that convergence, however.
“Some tenders are still not outcome-driven,” Couchman observed.
The distinction matters because a specification can describe products without adequately explaining the problem they are expected to solve. For customers with limited internal expertise, establishing that problem – and the capabilities needed to address it – is part of the work.
AI is making those conversations more urgent.
“Our piece is really just securing it,” Couchman said.
“That’s driving cyber further. If you can’t see everything going on, you can write whatever AI policy you want, but you won’t be able to enforce it.”
Yet in some organisations, even the policy is missing.
“What we’ve found is that there are all these tools and vendors, but customers don’t have a policy,” Couchman continued. “You’re trying to implement AI, but what are the rules?”
Enablis has brought in support for AI governance, particularly for mid-tier customers that lack the advisory resources available to larger enterprises. Establishing those decisions gives the technical work a clearer purpose.
“At least then, if we deploy the tools to control it, we can translate that and make it happen,” Couchman explained. “Otherwise, a business buys a tool and doesn’t really do anything with it.”
Couchman recalled a long-standing not-for-profit customer that had progressed an AI application before addressing governance and cyber security. A senior executive paused the initiative and sought help before launch.
“He pulled the handbrake and asked: ‘Can you recommend anyone to come and help us after the fact? To actually take care of this before we launch it?’” Couchman shared.
“At least they pulled the handbrake at the right time. That’s where most of the market is today: very excited about using AI but no structure.”
In this case, the application had advanced further than the organisation’s preparation to operate it. The enthusiasm was there; the decisions about oversight and protection still needed to be made.
“Businesses are busy talking about AI but they haven’t even patched things yet,” Couchman said. “We’re providing businesses with a mature way to walk through AI adoption.”
Helping customers establish that progression has become a source of personal satisfaction, particularly among not-for-profit organisations with substantial workforces and small IT teams.
“They genuinely need help,” Couchman added.
“There’s a good impact you can have. They’ve got a lot of staff but very small IT teams. It’s been quite fulfilling to help them.”
Often, those teams have strong experience in applications, Microsoft environments and user support, but limited specialist networking and cyber security capability. Responsibility for deciding what to do can fall to a CFO seeking guidance.
“What we normally find is a CFO who doesn’t have anyone in the business who really knows about cyber and just needs help,” Couchman said.
The internal team must then explain why foundational investment deserves attention alongside more visible business projects.
“Half the problem with those IT teams is the ability to write even a simple business case for a CFO or CEO that makes sense,” Couchman highlighted.
“Otherwise, it’s just: ‘Another vendor wants another licence. What do you actually do for me?’ That is why helping articulate that case is part of the service. We have to help IT teams communicate upstream.”
Couchman expects the growing complexity of customer environments to increase demand for managed services. Buying and implementing technology leaves organisations with an ongoing requirement to operate it effectively.
“Before, it was implementing the technology and doing the basics to keep the lights on: patching and all that stuff,” he said. “The managed service now is so much closer to the business.”
Providing that support also requires decisions about which capabilities to build internally. For example, Enablis has deliberately chosen to use external security operations centres (SOCs) rather than establish its own.
“You have to have massive scale, in my view, to do that well, if you’re actually going to give the customer peace of mind,” Couchman said.
Elsewhere, years of internal investment have created capabilities that would be difficult to reproduce quickly.
“Even though we were tiny at one point, we still had enterprise-grade tools,” Couchman shared.
“We probably spent way too much money on ServiceNow, looking back at it. It’s a great platform now, but you can’t just turn that on today and expect it to work.”
Potential expansion into Queensland and Victoria will test how readily the company can replicate its approach beyond its primary New South Wales base. It already delivers across Australia and New Zealand, but Couchman sees local relationships as essential to developing those markets.
“To sell a big deal, you’ve got to be there for the relationships,” he said.
“Our immediate priority is to strengthen the model before extending it. It’s about doubling down on what we’re doing here first. Then it’s easier to replicate once you’ve nailed it.”
Two decades of delivery have included moments when customers needed more than reassurance about capability. Couchman remembered an incident on a Saturday, followed by a meeting in which he and Evans faced the customer’s entire executive team on the Monday.
“We’ve always been very accountable,” he said.
“Once we deal with it, we move on quickly. But we’ve got to deal with it. Things lingering is just not a good way to operate, for anybody involved.”
Evans described a similar approach to difficult situations involving vendors: work through the problem together and take responsibility for reaching an outcome.
“Own it and take accountability for it,” he recommended. “Particularly with vendors, if you get into sticky situations, you work together collaboratively to get the right outcome for everyone, rather than going into a blame game.”
That conduct has helped sustain relationships through changes in technology, economics and leadership.
“Our long-standing relationships are all about trust – very much based on long-term trust,” Evans affirmed.
“The whole business is like that: the staff, customers and a lot of the partners. It’s a pretty even keel. Sometimes you’re always looking forward, but you do have to look back a little bit and reflect. At how good those long-held relationships are.”
Couchman’s deep understanding of the technology landscape and customer base has developed over 15 years inside the business.
Before moving to Australia in 2011, he worked as an engineer in the original UK operation, followed by three years in procurement consulting. He brought technical experience alongside a familiarity with structure and contracts.
“I originally came in with a technical background, in a sort of CTO role, and worked hand-in-hand with Jon,” Couchman said.
“I was sitting one step behind Jon and gradually took on more and more responsibility. But it wasn’t an overnight thing. As we grew, someone had to drive the engine, and Jon was the face of it. We worked really well in that capacity.”
For Evans, stepping back was made easier by knowing who would take over.
“I was very blessed that Stu was very trusted and knew the business inside out,” he said.
“If you brought someone in and hoped they’d be good, but you didn’t know them, that would be a very different story. Stu knows the business very, very well. He was doing a lot of it before I was really handing over.”
The tenure of the wider team also provided added continuity.
“The leadership changed, but ultimately the team knows what it’s doing,” Couchman said. “We don’t have to micromanage people. The engine keeps moving.”
But perhaps it’s that engineering background that remains most evident in how he approaches customers.
“I can’t stand in front of a customer and tell them something without having the skill set behind me,” Couchman acknowledged. “That probably holds us back from a sales point of view, but it keeps our reputation strong.”
Perhaps that is the clearest lesson of all: sound judgement compounds.
After 20 years, that has been the company constant – knowing what to change, what to pursue and what never to compromise.
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