When any unexpected emergency happens, how will your business stay operational? The Government is working hard to support local businesses. While there are a lot of great consultants available that are worth their price (worth their weight in gold when you see some of the stats below), check out the free resources first to make sure you’re clued up and ready for BCP action: business.govt To be successful, companies need to keep an up-to-date IT infrastructure. In today’s competitive environment, even businesses with less than 15 employees can hire IT consultants...that specialize in providing enterprise-level support to small companies.  ( disaster planning ) - More on this at the end of this article Quick stats:  “An hour of downtime costs $8,000 for a small company, $74,000 for a medium company, and $700,000 for a large enterprise.” ( Datto ) “40-90% of small businesses never reopen following major disruption” according to bks partners 160,000 estimated...

New Zealand honey is world renowned and well regarded for a reason. Kiwi country has a clean and green image, rich and diverse flora, and magical Mānuka which all contribute to a roughly $5 billion industry (and growing). Beyond the honey, propolis and wax are a team of fuzzy friends who also work for our farmers pollinating crops. The busy creatures have become part of the global ecosystem- whether we like it or not- and contribute to our environment in a more nuanced way than most other forms of ‘livestock’ (debate topic: honey VS methane). Whether you are 'for' or 'against' honeybees in New Zealand, their popularity is on the rise publicly as well as commercially, with hive numbers roughly doubling in the last decade: https://afb.org.nz/beekeeping-in-nz/ The Hobbyists: According to Apiculture New Zealand (APINZ) as of 2017 there was an estimated 5800 hobbyist beekeepers (10 hives or less) out of a total 8000 registered beekeepers – over 70%! The contri...

Businesses are going digital - do you have the software tools you need to stay competitive? In the age of technology, more teams are seeing the value in a digital approach to work. Whether it’s 24/7 access to your information, business intelligence that drives decision making, or workflow and process automation to reduce admin efforts. Along our journey of bringing bespoke digital solutions to companies and teams, we have seen what works, what doesn’t, and what will only work in the short term. If your business is niche, or doesn't operate like your competitors... Carefully consider why. Differentiation is a major indicator for success, and helps you compete in a busy market- don’t give that up!  Leaders need to carefully consider how much their business will have to change for an out of-the-box solution, as well as ask some important questions: What about support? Is support affordable? What if I want to change things or add new features? Are there any additio...

Apply, approve, visualise, and manage all employee leave easily using Engin.  Company Cook Costello is a multidisciplinary engineering company with over 40 years of market standing. Cook Costello have offices based in Auckland, Christchurch, Wellington & Whangarei.  Challenge Cook Costello required a means to manage their staff's leave across all their offices, to ensure leave was appropriately managed and their business was sufficiently staffed to serve their clients. Cook Costello's payroll staff also needed to be able to monitor paid and unpaid leave taken by staff members. Solution Engin built a customised Form, Workflow, Reports and Schedules to address Cook Costello's issue of managing annual leave. Forms Cook Costello's employees utilise a Leave Request form to submit Leave Request Applications. HR managers can review the application and either approve or decline the request. Workflow Once a leave application has been submitted, the HR manager...

Going paperless is a burgeoning trend in offices throughout the world.  Going paperless offers a number of advantages, from cost and time-saving, to improving processes and customer service.  Here are a few of the top reasons why we believe going paperless with Engin will improve your business...  You will immediately start saving One of the greatest advantages of a paperless office is its cost effectiveness. Although a single sheet of paper seems cheap, your paper costs will add up quickly. The average office worker uses over 10,000 pieces of paper per year. In addition, maintaining paper records requires additional expenses, including storage space and even additional employees. In a paperless office, the documents that you create don't cost any more than the electricity that you used to produce them. You won't lose documents Even with the most organized of filing systems, it is still easy for paper documents to get mixed up, lost or even accidentally dest...

Tired of not knowing where staff are, who is in or out, or who is available for calls or drop-ins? In no more than a few clicks, all staff can update their whereabouts using Engin's In/Out Board.  Determine how much or how little information you want to know about your staff’s whereabouts, from precise details about the location of a site visit, or simply if they are in or out of the office.  View an overview of all staff’s whereabouts across the company, or isolate groups of employees based on their base office or sector, allowing you to easily manage company, division or office workloads and availability.  How can an In/Out Board help my business?  Manage staff whereabouts easily, efficiently and transparently. Staff can update their status seamlessly from their PC, smartphone or tablet.  Updates are instantly visible to staff across the company.  Colour-code entries to highlight who is in or out. Allows administrative staff to f...