Sanico Software

A great reflective post on design by one of my team members Bryan Susanto. He's a recent graduate from the University of Melbourne in CompSci, Mathematics, and UI/UX (the perfect combo for us).

In the last 6 months he has already worked on countless client projects that we have all around Australia and the world. He's dedicated, clever, resourceful, and an amazing human being. Check out his post below, it's worth a read:

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Back in year 10, I wanted to create a website for someone as I found web development to be enjoyable with its low barrier to entry, instant results in the browser, and the fact that it’s sharable through just a link in the browser. So I gathered a list of things I would need to learn to do so, which can be divided into two categories:

1. Technical skills: Frontend (HTML, CSS, and JS) and backend (at the time, PHP and MySQL)

2. Design skills: Graphic design and User Interface (UI) design.

So with that, I started looking for resources online to study it, which mainly came in the form of multiple-hour long YouTube tutorials, a long YouTube tutorial playlist, or a Udemy course I got. Thank you, by the way, to all those who released YouTube courses for free and continue doing so, especially freeCodeCamp and the Net Ninja; you all have been a crucial part of starting my journey into web development and programming in general.

Although I got stuck in “tutorial hell” for some time, I was eventually able to prevail to create that website for someone, despite having unmaintainable spaghetti code as it was the first time I created a website of that scale. I was able to get out of it by just forcing myself to start working on the project after going through (and sometimes following along) the tutorials, and to refer back to my notes or search online when I got stuck. Truly I learnt the most through struggling to make a full-blown website.

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Read the full post here:

Design is not like math nor computer science Back in year 10, I wanted to create a website for someone as I found web development to be enjoyable with its low barrier to entry, instant results in the browser, and the fact that it’s sharable through just a link in the browser. So I gathered a list of things I would need to learn to do so, whi...

From Germany to America, from Perth to Melbourne, people keep asking me how we land software contracts with companies all around the world. My answer: Because we are that F****** good.

Let me explain.

A long time ago I read a fantastic book called “So Good They Can’t Ignore You” by Cal Newport. As obvious within the title of the book, it discusses the premise that when one focuses on skills and ability then other people, whether businesses or clients, will find it hard to ignore them.

Let me give an example, I ask 1000 local league soccer players to line up shoulder to shoulder. I turn to my friend Matt and ask him to pick one player to captain his team. Before he picks I ask one more player to join the line, Cristiano Ronaldo, one of the best players in modern era soccer.

Who will my friend pick out of the 1001 players? One of the best players known to mankind, or 1 of the 1000 average local league players?

Cristiano Ronaldo. Full stop.

Who the heck is Sanico?

They say you can’t sell a secret, and I agree. But how do you build a reputation for yourself with a remote company founded in Adelaide? How do you build a reputation for yourself not only in your local neighbourhood but the whole online world?

Number 1: We show our face EVERYWHERE online to build authenticity.

We post our face on,
- our profile picture on Instagram,
- our LinkedIn,
- the top of our website,
- on our Google Search Profile,
- our YouTube intro video,
- on a bus ad in Adelaide.

Number 2: We share the work we perform for our clients which demonstrates our expertise.

We wrote about...

Read the full post on our blog.

How We Land Software Contracts Internationally From Germany to America, from Perth to Melbourne, people keep asking me how we land software contracts with companies all around the world. My answer: Because we are that F****** good. Let me explain. A long time ago I read a fantastic book called “So Good They Can’t Ignore You” by Cal Newport...

No one likes a Flaker. You know the type, a person that commits to something 100% and then cancels a touch before the commitment. Or worse, they fail to show up at all and let nobody know.

Yes yes yes, we all know the type. Let me dig in here.

When we built Sanico Software we started with a few inner core principles. Principles we never stated out aloud but instead knew subconsciously. One major one, NEVER EVER FLAKE ON CLIENTS.

Why? Because, as I stated at the start, no one likes a flaker. It works the same in business. When you flake on a client, in particular when you COMMIT to a specific date 100% and fail to follow through you will tarnish your reputation. Like sinking sand, the more you flake, the worse your reputation sinks.

From personal flaking to flaking in business, it all ends the same, in disappointment.

Frequency Matters
“Right right right, Sav I get it, but what if they have a super valid reason?”

Valid reasons exist, for example, the other day an engineer on our team said to me that a family member of theirs passed away. They asked for a day off work and without a second thought I granted it. They asked if I required a certificate to show proof. I scoffed to myself, I required no certificate.

“But Sav, what if they are a flaker and they are lying?”

Ahhhhh let me explain further. This engineer never ever flakes. The total opposite, they show up on time to everything with zero cancellations or excuses. They created a flawless reputation for themselves. Therefore, if they call me and ask for the day off for ANY reason I will grant it happily. Frequency matters.

Let me paint another picture, if my engineer arrived at my desk with a continual flow of cancellations and excuses every month then I will start to lose trust in their authenticity.

I shall illustrate this with a fun little dialog.

Read the full post here on our blog:

Flaking, Flaking, Flaker: Never Flake in Business or Personal Life No one likes a Flaker. You know the type, a person that commits to something 100% and then cancels a touch before the commitment. Or worse, they fail to show up at all and let nobody know. Yes yes yes, we all know the type. Let me dig in here. When we built Sanico Software we started with a few inne...