OneTeam IT marks five years of merger & wider roots

OneTeam IT has marked five years since the merger of Team Computing and Sundata formed the business. The anniversary also points to a broader history that stretches back more than four decades.

The Sydney-based IT services group was created in July 2021 after plans to combine the two businesses were delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic. The merger brought together two Australian technology firms that had operated through successive shifts in corporate computing, from mainframes and personal computers to cloud services, cybersecurity and artificial intelligence.

OneTeam IT employs about 60 specialists and operates from offices in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. It works with organisations across Australia in managed services, cybersecurity, IBM Power Systems, software development and IT modernisation.

Customer demand has widened over time as organisations seek support across infrastructure, software, cloud and security, alongside advice from suppliers with long-standing knowledge of their operations. The merger of Team Computing and Sundata was intended to meet those broader requirements with a larger national footprint.

Peter Sanderson, Managing Director of Team Computing and later OneTeam, recalled the uncertainty around completing the deal during the pandemic.

"We knew it could be a risk merging during COVID, but the cultures of the two businesses were so positive and well aligned that we pressed the button in 2021 with a real sense of confidence," said Peter Sanderson, Managing Director of Team Computing and later OneTeam.

The group traces its roots to the earlier histories of Team Computing and Sundata, which together span much of the development of Australia's commercial IT sector. It linked that story to decades of business technology change, including fourth-generation programming languages, the Y2K transition, the dot-com period, and later moves into cloud computing and cybersecurity.

Long relationships

A recurring theme in the company's account of its development is continuity among staff and customers. Founder and Director Kon Kakanis said those relationships mattered more than age alone.

"We've preserved long-term relationships with staff and customers through enormous industry change," said Kon Kakanis, Founder and Director of OneTeam IT.

"That continuity is something special," he said.

Kakanis also referred to the role Sundata staff played during the Brisbane floods in 2011, when teams worked with customers to recover systems and restore technology in affected offices. He presented the episode as an example of the company's approach during disruption as well as routine technology transitions.

"It was one of those moments that really showed who we were," he said.

"You had to be there."

Next phase

Artificial intelligence now represents the latest major shift facing the company's customers. At the same time, organisations still depend on secure and reliable core systems as they test and deploy newer tools.

That balance between newer technologies and established infrastructure has become a common issue for mid-market and larger organisations, particularly those running older critical systems while also investing in automation, analytics and AI-led projects. For providers such as OneTeam IT, this creates demand both for maintaining existing environments and for guiding clients through upgrades and integration work.

Chief Executive Officer Robert Sherry said the company judged its performance by whether it remained useful to customers as their needs changed.

"Forty years isn't just a measure of longevity, it's a measure of relevance," said Robert Sherry, Chief Executive Officer of OneTeam IT.

"Technology and customer challenges will continue to evolve, and our role is to help organisations navigate that complexity with practical expertise, trusted advice and solutions that deliver real business outcomes. That's the foundation we're continuing to build on for the future," he said.

The anniversary comes as many Australian technology services firms try to position themselves around AI while continuing to manage demand for cybersecurity, cloud migration and support for business-critical platforms. OneTeam IT's message is that its current structure is built on long-standing customer relationships and experience that predates the merger, rather than on a newly created market position alone.

Its account of the past five years also serves as a statement about scale and identity in a fragmented IT services market. By linking the merger to a longer operating history, the company presents itself as both a relatively recent combined entity and a business with roots that predate several major waves of enterprise computing change.